Firewall

[bobcat]

I've had my cable modem service for about 2 years now and never had a problem....UNTIL NOW. I have always left my machine on 24/7. When one night around Christmas I had a hacker wipe out my root dir and windows dir leaving my machine virtaully a good boat anchor.
Here's my question, can anyone suggest a good Firewall? Right now I'm using Mcafee's prg. And I tried Zone Alarm but did not like how it slowed my computer when I was not on the net and just using other prg's on my machine.
Thanks

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BOBCAT

[twisted]

I use ZAP and like it a lot. I used to use Sygate's Personal Firewall and had no problems with it...very secure. I just prefer ZAP. You can get Sygate for free at:

www.sygate.com/free/spf_download.htm (http://www.sygate.com/free/spf_download.htm)

[keeper]

McAfee is a resource Hog. Try InnoculateIT and ZA combo for more efficiency [both freeware and excellent progs]... Get rid of the McAfee first.

McAfee is using your resourses, not ZA or ZAP.

See the 'How to Remove McAfee..Completly' topic before you try to remove it. Been there.

[Zporttech]

ZoneAlarm Pro here also.........

[JANDOENT]

Zone Alarm doesn't use of too much resources, especially if you get rid of the "mini log"... http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/wink.gif

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Inquiring minds want to know...

[bobcat]

Thank You, where do I find 'How to Remove McAfee..Completly' ??????

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by keeper:
McAfee is a resource Hog. Try InnoculateIT and ZA combo for more efficiency [both freeware and excellent progs]... Get rid of the McAfee first.

McAfee is using your resourses, not ZA or ZAP.

See the 'How to Remove McAfee..Completly' topic before you try to remove it. Been there.</font>



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BOBCAT

[crazyman]

try a router,a little more expensive,but very secure.linksys is around a hundred $.then you're also ready for sharing on other pc's.

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http://a.PostMyPic.com/a.nsf/Z/8aunt1AZCV/$file/8aunt1.gif
Life is a chile pepper...

[Protester]

If you can go for a hardware firewall, Linksys is powerfull and very very easy to set up. If not I would suggest Tiny Personal Firewall over ZA, http://www.tinysoftware.com, it uses even less resources and gives you more control over your ports and unlike ZA you can password it.

[Scoot]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Protester:
If you can go for a hardware firewall, Linksys is powerfull and very very easy to set up. If not I would suggest Tiny Personal Firewall over ZA, http://www.tinysoftware.com, it uses even less resources and gives you more control over your ports and unlike ZA you can password it.</font>


ZAPro can be password protected by going to configure/set password.



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Quest for Knowledge
http://w1.511.telia.com/~u51102888/anims/computer/hackanm.gif

[Storm90]

Yes Zonealarm pro can be passed word protected. But so can Tinyfirewall. I run it.and it has setups for password protection plus it dose not drian on your system resources like ZoneAlarm Pro dose. and it is free. Plus as was mention you have more controll over you ports. I would recomend it over zonealarm. But thats My opinion!

[Marine06]

If you really want to be secure then get a router that can do stateful packet insecting. For software firewalls: first choice would be @guard since it is the best. Second, Conseal PC Firewall is very nice also. It handles many protocols such as arp, lan arp, etc. Monitors both inbound/outbound and very configurable. Tiny's personal firewall still needs work. Buggy and not as configurable as others. MD5 checksum is a plus though.

[Storm90]

Not really Tiny software allows you configure what you want going out and what you want comeing in. This is the newest version. Not the older version which is posted Speedguides Front page. You are thinking of the one you use to have to pay for. Version 20. The Version I have now Is version 21 which is alot better. It is password protected and you can configure lan and arp. i still like it the best when it comes down to bogging system resources. Plus it configures better with my provider then Zonealarm ever did. As far as being buggy . I have not had a problem with it it works fine. Better then zonealarm ever did. I had more problems with the updated version of zonealarm. As far as the firwall@guard you suggested I have never tried It. But maybe some day I will. I had conseal and it did not work well for me gave me some problems. Even after reinstalling windows. But when i get the time I might try Aguard just to see how it works.

[Marine06]

Storm90,
sorry for my neglect but i forgot to mention that @guard has been discontinued for quite some time now. http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/frown.gif

[oldman]

Presently using ZAP and love it. I hope to move up to a Linksys router in the next month or so. Even when I have that up and going I will continue to use ZAP (this will let me know if anything slips through).

Fred

[JANDOENT]

Tiny isn't good on default setting. You have to be able to config it.
ZA will be fine on default. Use Inoculate as your anti virus.

If you are using too many resources or slow connections, you have other proggies slowing you down or too many loading on start up...

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Inquiring minds want to know...

[Storm90]

Tiny is great I have nothing but the regular programs that the computer requires to run and some of them are turned off to. I did not find tiny that hard to figure. I ran a port scan and I am stealth.I ran it at www.sdesign.com (http://www.sdesign.com) . My system resorse start up at 95% now . I run MaCfee Virus scan. I don't keep start up programs on my machine. If they have auto start I disable it. The only ones I don't are firewall and virus scan.With zonealarm I started up at 88% and it would not let my DHCP server Renew My Ip or My lease.That is why I dumped it.

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-24-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-24-2001).]

[Un-known]

Norton Personal Firewall is the best. It was formally @Guard or At Guard software code. However, in an attemp to become a good software company Norton bought it. They used the code and altered it a minor bit and released it a Norton Personal Firewall.

It automaticly makes allowances rules for popular known programs so when it's in interactive learning mode, it won't bother you about your browser or ICQ connecting to the internet. Download it at Norton.com and try it for yourself. You'll love it.

[TheCroc]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Storm90:
Tiny is great I have nothing but the regular programs that the computer requires to run and some of them are turned off to. I did not find tiny that hard to figure. I ran a port scan and I am stealth.I ran it at www.sdesign.com (http://www.sdesign.com) . My system resorse start up at 95% now . I run MaCfee Virus scan. I don't keep start up programs on my machine. If they have auto start I disable it. The only ones I don't are firewall and virus scan.With zonealarm I started up at 88% and it would not let my DHCP server Renew My Ip or My lease.That is why I dumped it.

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-24-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-24-2001).]</font>
http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/smile.gifWhen you were trying to get ZoneAlarm to work did you seek support and guidance from ZoneLabs? If you had do you think you would have received answers to your questions?
There are not too many configurations where ZoneAlarm won't work.
Just out of interest, do you AOL?
There are two very good guides for guidance with installing ZoneAlarm. One is at

ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/stories/main/0,5594,2610364-1,00.html) and the other at PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com/hereshow/article.asp?aid=17587).

[This message has been edited by TheCroc (edited 01-25-2001).]

[JANDOENT]

The FAQ at Zone Alarm's site will answer most questions...

Quite honestly, the only two that I would recommend is Zone Alarm or Tiny, but Tiny can get you in trouble if you don't know how to configure it.

Don't put too much faith in most of the online test sites as they only check about 10 ports. You have 65,000 ports on your puter. You could download Anti Trojan and it will tell you about many more of your open ports than most online scans...

I just don't want anyone to believe a false sense of security and learn the hardway, they were wrong...
I have done a lot of research on these topics and I only pay attention to technical info, not the editor of a magazine that says XXX is best. If you lok at his site I am sure you will find that he is paid to advertise that product and doesn't know squat about any technical aspects....

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Inquiring minds want to know...

[Marine06]

Un-known,
Im sorry but you are completely wrong with thta you are saying. WRQ got rid of it since they didnt believe they had a big enough market to sell it plus they were sick of crackers ripping their software. Second,

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">It automaticly makes allowances rules for popular known programs so when it's in interactive learning mode, it won't bother you about your browser or ICQ connecting to the internet. Download it at Norton.com and try it for yourself. You'll love it.</font>

this is not a good feature to have. A list of programs that bypass your firewall without your permission???? How can one make secure rules and feel safe if a set of programs already can bypass the firewall. A common list of programs which can be infected with a trojan completely bypassing your firewall.

[Forgon]

Actually WRQ did lease the code for @Guard to Symantec. They stated such at www.atguard.com (http://www.atguard.com) when I went there to get the last version they released that supported Windows 2000, Version 3.222. It was that upgrade the version that turned out to actually be a full version. They soon realised this and changed the download but not before I got a hold of it. Of course I do have copies of all versions back to 3.20 which was the one that I purchased. Then for a while the www.atguard.com (http://www.atguard.com) web site pointed to a support site ran by an enthusiast and I can no longer get to it today. If you do not believe me about @Guard then email WRQ about it. Now then they may have leased it to Symantec because of the reasons you stated but thier web site did state emmediately when you hit the main page that they leased the code to Symantec and @Guard would have no further releases.

Also @Guard does not let programs bypass the firewall unless you specifically make a rule allowing it. This same thing can be done with most any software firewall that allows application control along with port control. The only down side to @Guard is that it will not stealth port 139. Other than that it locks it all down and gives you easy step by step wizards on what to allow or deny.

[Marine06]

Forgon,
For port 139, are you sure you unbinded everything you didn't need and disabled file and print sharing? That could be why it wont stealth it. Also, @guard does not already have a file that permits "common applications" unlike NPF. Yes it's sad to see @guard go...

[bobcat]

I want to thank everyone for there replys' BUT @ this time after installing Tiny Firewall on my machine and it coming up with errors and it would not let me on the internet. I removed the prg and still can not get my computer on the internet. And my ISP is not sure why. After talking to Tiny Tech support they told me they do not have support for the firewall prg.
And after removing the NIC card, and reinstalling windows98 then reinstalling the NIC card it still does not work.

If any one out there has any suggestions please feel free to email me @
Rbobcat24@hotmail.com
I am using a friends computer..

Thanks Bobcat

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BOBCAT

[Forgon]

Yep...I never setup file and print sharing and @Guard still did not stealth the port. To be honest I have never used file and print sharing (on my home PCs) since day one of going onto a cable modem. I think I got @Guard day ten of going on the cable modem. Anyway I had a NT Domain and a file server that I kept all my files and printers on. I bound two IP addresses to the same adapter and put the NT Domain on a address range that is not internet routable. When I finally got the Netgear router I was able to go to one IP address for the adapter and have it all sit behind the router on the same network.

[Storm90]

BobCat there is a Key in your reg call Fwarddrv. It is located under HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\ currentcontrol\sevices\vxd.
Once you are in there scroll up and down and you will find it. Then delete it. After that reboot. Then run a repair on your explorer. This should get you back on the web. I found out the hard way when my sons Pc His Explorer mess up. It mess up the firewall to. So I uinstalled the fire wall and fix the Explorer for him and it would not let me on. So I started checking the reg to see what the firewall left behind. and that was the key I found so I deleted it. Then rebooted. He was back on the web then. So then I reinstalled the fire wall for him and set it back up.But sense you do not want to use tiny any more. Thats why I suggested repairing the explorer after you remove this key if it helps. Because for some odd reason if you don't it still thinks the firewall is there. Good Luck hope this works for you.

[Storm90]

The croc, I contacted there support there answers was it was not compatible with my providers upgrade at this time. Yes I did try getting answer before I switch fire walls. Mainly because I did not want to go threw the hassle. So with what they told me. I figure I might as well dump it then go threw restarting the computer every time it was time for the Ip lease to renew. Right now I am using tiny I like it so far. If it turns out that I don't then I am going to try Sysgate I like some of the feature it has. My neighbor used zonealarm to and he use the same provider I do. He had the same problem and he switch to sygate and I check it out and like it to. Zonealarm told him the same thing. I plan on useing tiny for a little more longer. Then switching to sygate. There is not so much in it to configure. But as of now I have been busy with other peoples computers repairing them . That I have not had time to change. No I do not Aol. I use Timewarner Roadrunner which in my area was just update. I just had new lines installed and I knew modem. which is docsis complaint. Plus this certain modem runs off a newer router at the provider In which they just update the frimware to. I had even took the time to call them, They told me the same thing after I talk to a level 3 tec. Zonealarm was not compatible with their new frimware. It would either not let your ip renew or cut you off on a regular basis. I had even tried different settings and still had the same problem. So there forth I had to give it up.

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-27-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Storm90 (edited 01-27-2001).]