xtweaker said:
Wow I'm sorry. First of, it's the first time I see her posts, and I didn't see her name. I replied fast and didn't look. Sorry abotu the gender mismatch, it wasn't intended at all.
It is quite common on newsgroups, forums, and other places where people post to lurk sometime to get to know the way you are to post, who the people kind of are, and who you'd rather not get into a flamewar with. Just a suggestion from someone who has made the same mistake.
Second... It wasn't an attack either. I just know a lot of people just ditch the NEW XP Firewall because they used the OLD version before and that one really did suck. The new version has many new features and is a lot different. It's not nearly the same at all. Just wanted to make sure that whoever ditched it did try all of its features.
Sorry, I was kind of harsh. I do agree that it has become a tad more stable, and better for use, but I think the fact that it does not let you choose outgoing is a bad choice. Lot's of stuff can be installed through outlook's security bugs, and all the other ways it can land on the system. This is where it is good for a home user to have the option to stop certain applications from going on the internet and doing what they do best.
It's true that it doesn't offer outoing filtering, but personally I don't need it at all. I can identify pretty much any program on my system that sends personal information (except spywares, pretty much none unless you leave the option checked on to send survey info). I never get spywares installed, never got a virus and for the rest (if any), I don't really care if it doesn't do any harm. Programs that actually send private information are RARE. It's mostly just anonymous survey data, bug reports or license checks. Anyhow...
You are an exception to the rule. Many home users when taught that they can surf the web without annoyances popping up, will get scared when something pops up from zonealarm, as all their favorite applications are already in zonealarm. So then they call me, and i can help them fix it. Which is better than just having outgoing flowing without limits.
I did try ZoneAlarm several times in the past, tried several versions as well as they released new features and functionallity, so yes I do know what it does and how it works.
My excuses
[qoute]
I've also tried Sygate, Tiny Personal Firewall, and another one called Conseal PC Firewall. I've also had a router for a long time and used the built-in firewall in it. So yes, I do know.[/quote]
Okay. I doubt the router built-in firewall would do anything at all, unless the router itself has services open. As there is no way to force packets to be routed through NAT if they don't exist in the NAT routing table.
For a home network with several PC's that are being used by several people, or in a small corporate environment, I would recommend something more of course, with outgoing port filtering, in order to protect the environment from viruses that spread through the network using security holes (like Gaobot or MBlast), or to prevent PC's from spamming the network if they are infected with spywares or adwares (until they are fixed), but for a simple personal PC, I think that Windows XP Sp2 Firewall is just enough and does a good job without any bells and whistles... unless you're a security freak and are paranoid with any outgoing packet that you didn't explicitly send yourself...
In a corporate enviroment firewalls mostly are a pain in the behind, so most of it is done by stopping certain protocols from being routed between routers. The only ones being routed at the school i work at is the SMB protocol, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP and DOMAIN. This means that any others will be dropped at the edge routers. So if a virus was installed on PC A, in a room with 10 other PC's it would be contained to the one switch PC A is on, which is shared with 4 others. So a max of 5 PC's can be infected. Installing a Firewall would cause problems for other software that we use as well, as teachers have this monitoring applications which also opens up ports, and we have to make exceptions for that all. Firewalling in a corporate enviroment is not a viable option. (Note: Roche, where my dad works, his laptop does not have a firewall).
As for just incoming filtered, I don't believe it is an option for a home user, as i have previously mentioned in my post.
Sorry if I sounded rude or if my previous post sounded like an attack, it wasn't at all. And Sorry Jewelzz for not seeing you're a pretty lady
I was a bit harsh in judging you.