Tell me why I need a firewall.

[.glib]

Tell me why I should bother. I've been on an "always-on" connection with a static IP for nearly 6 years now, using no firewall, and had no problems.

Those of you with firewalls (which seems to be everyone browsing this forum): what have they protected you from other than dozens of those oh-so-dangerous port scans 🙄.

Educate me. I have had no problems, I don't see why I should bother configuring a firewall to protect me from stuff that doesn't happen to me.

I am open to having my mind changed. I used to feel this way about virii, but then I got hit by a couple, and now I'm diligently running AVG (after ditching stupid Norton the Hog), so I'm prepared to eat my words on this one too.

 

[j79zlr]

Wait till you get hacked and then you'll get one. Have a mod give me your IP and I'll give you a reason to install one 🙂 Here's a good read:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/iaabu/centri4/user/scf4ch2.htm

 

[dreamliner77]

Short answer: Because you do.

Not so short answer: There's way too many script kiddies out there now and the RIAA/MPAA is watching.

 

[SPeedY_B]

You don't (opinion, not fact). I'd also like to hear why people say that you do.

 

[.glib]

the RIAA/MPAA is watching.

You have my attention. Care to elaborate a bit?

 

[Teddy]

You don't (opinion, not fact). I'd also like to hear why people say that you do.

I'd agree with that. You don't need one. But it's best to have one. Perhaps you've just been lucky....

 

[SPeedY_B]

I use one, but only because my o/s offers it at the tick of a box, so I see no reason not to.

With regards to the RIAA/MPAA watching, the only thing they're on the look-out for is people downloading pirated music and movies. Don't do anything wrong, and they won't bother you.

 

[LeeJend]

You answered the question yourself.

"I used to feel this way about virii, but then I got hit by a couple, and now I'm diligently running AVG (after ditching stupid Norton the Hog), so I'm prepared to eat my words on this one too."

I've been through this before but I think it got lost in the "data integrity event":

Why do you lock your car? Because you had one stolen?
Why do you lock your house? Because you had all your stuff stolen?

No you lock up possessions to prevent unauthorized access with the potential for malicious activities.

The legal precedents have been set in other areas and are now being applied to computers also.

If a kid steals your car which has been "inadequately protected from theft" you will be liable for any damages the kid causes when he crashes it into a bus full of school children.

If someone walks into your unlocked house and uses your phone to run up big bucks in international phone calls you will be liable for payment of those bills.

Buy someone a gun that they then use in a crime and you get to go to jail as an accomplice.

If someone drops a bot onto your computer that runs a kazaa server with a hundred songs on it you are liable for $150K per song. (There has been some success fighting this one if you can show a bot was present on the system but you will still have to pay the lawyers at $300 an hour and a couple grand a day for court appearances to fight it. You can hit $20k real fast defending yourself legally.)

Why do people in this thread say you don't need a firewall? Because they haven't been hit yet.

Why does everyone say you need anti-virus? Because everyone has probably been hit by a virus by now or seen the antivirus popup that says it just caught a virus.

Firewall? Don't bother. Bad things only happen to other people. Right?

 

[Gary Pandher]

lol...you got me ..i'll use one lolz
nice one LeeJand

 

[.glib]

Well as a quick update, I've started using one, but only for the reason that I tried Sygate, and it doesn't suck an amazing amount of ass like ZoneAlarm did. If it's this easy, I can deal with it.

 

[Adrenalize]

keystroke loggers,script kiddies and any kind of online shopping could be very risky specially with a backdoor trojan on your box. Identity theft is on the rise. need any more reasons?

Also i would use a router and hardware firewall plus a software one.
once u start using them and get used to it it's fairly simple

 

[Bootsy]

you need one...preferably a hardware one at that

 

[rushm001]

1 good reason - Peace of mind.

 

[penguin]

you need one...preferably a hardware one at that

This makes no difference. It is still software running the firewall in the "Hardware" router. The benefit for the hardware is that it does not use resources on the Host PC.

The benefit for the software firewall is that it may be updated more often and is easier to update. If you mess up the update on your hardware firewall it can turn the box into a paper weight. If you mess up on yoru software firewall then you just reinstall that app.

 

[Lesbian]

I think it will become standard with all isp's you have to have one. That's not why you should have one I suppose. Well one of the worst case scenario's is the little sheet's that run d.o.s. from thousands of machines infected with a trojan at major websites, your data can be easily manipulated, deleted, downloaded, removed, personal details, like credit card numbers, phone numbers, e-mail addies, passswords to accounts, passwords to websites you frequent, even worse you might get a nice person (sarcastic) uploading paedophile images and reminders to your HD.

You owe it to not just yourself, but us too, to have a strong well configured firewall.

 

[falconguard]

Those darn stamp collectors , they are tricky... 😀

 

[X-Istence]

If you use Windows, anyone with a static IP needs a firewall, to stop people from exploiting the new exploit that is out.

If you use Linux/BSD and have most ports closed, and keep it up to date, no need to bother.

 

[Mainframeguy]

or get a router?

Well as a quick update, I've started using one, but only for the reason that I tried Sygate, and it doesn't suck an amazing amount of ass like ZoneAlarm did. If it's this easy, I can deal with it.

I was surprised to read this thread and discover no one has mentioned a router - I used to have a firewall and used to get fed up with administering it for all the IPs I needed to allow, about twenty to set up. Then I got a router, and I am always on, I keep my IP unless I cycle the router power (think it's been up for about fifty days at the moment), and I do not need a firewall. Or is someone going to tell me different? 😛

 

[mbx]

Don't forget a decent firewall will alert you to any malicious programs you've downloaded that masquerade as keygen/screensaver/comedy Xmas cartoons.
As soon as you see this program trying to get 'net access, you'll realise something is not quite what it seems.
it could then be downloading a backdoor trojan to get your credit card details,hog your bandwidth as a warez server, or "zombie" your machine for DDoS attacks on servers.

 

[Lee]

Don't forget a decent firewall will alert you to any malicious programs you've downloaded that masquerade as keygen/screensaver/comedy Xmas cartoons.
As soon as you see this program trying to get 'net access, you'll realise something is not quite what it seems.
it could then be downloading a backdoor trojan to get your credit card details,hog your bandwidth as a warez server, or "zombie" your machine for DDoS attacks on servers.

You're making me nervous now. I don't want to have those zombie dreams no more. 😉