What is the best firewall?

[Un4gIvEn1]

Hardware Firewall... even better, not a NAT hardware firewall, but a stateful hardware firewall.

 

[Johnny]

Actually; the best firewall is an unplugged ethernet or phone cord ..

 

[jevb]

Hello,
I'm new to this forum. I found this thread while Googelingforfirewalls. I found this thread very interesting and I was wonderingifanyone is using/has used or has an opion on Prevx ? It seems to metobe pretty good to me, although I don't know much about firewallsorfirewalling.

Thanks

Oh, here's it's link:

http://www.prevx.com/prevxhomefaqs.asp

 

[Kr0m]

From what I've read, this software isn't a firewall. It's software the compliments your currently installed Anti-Virus & Firewall. Kind of like Adaware/Spybot but Pervx claims to do a little more. I'm not going to bother installing it since it 'calls home' about it's usage.

 

[Moonwraith]

Lol thank god for this thread and the other one; I've got to do amini-project on firewalls Review 3 of them and then giveuser's ratings etc

Good ol' OSNN

 

[Harlequin]

of the two choices, hardware and software, both have pro's and cons.....

i've used both, but more software...zonealarm for your personal pc, but if you can scrounge another pc to use as a firewall....install windows and use kerio, or skip windows and use smoothwall (which is free)...which is what i'm using right now and find it to be great....just port forward what you need, the rest is binned !

hardware firewalls are usually the more expensive way to do things, unless you get it built into your router, but then....do you know how effective it is ???

just my thoughts....

J.

 

[Mastershakes]

Actually; the best firewall is an unplugged ethernet or phone cord ..

That's not a firewall It's what to do if you don't know how to protect your PC. I believe the purpose of the thread was to gather opinions on which firewall to use to minimize your risk while online. I'll just assume you were joking.

That being said, as many posts have mentioned in this thread - Hardware router is ideal. I've configured the Windows Firewall to secure my home PC, and I'm behind the hard router as well. Occasionally for diagnostics I'll install Zone Alarm to see what stuff is going out to the net.

hardware firewalls are usually the more expensive way to do things, unless you get it built into your router, but then....do you know how effective it is ???

I really like your spare PC idea.... I tried it with an old P1 way back before I got a Linksys router. Was amusing, used a small Linux shell to manage the internet connection.

To answer your concern: It's 100% effective provided your Router security is not compromised (ie you don't password protect the administration features on it - or put in a weak password) Another good trick is to block WAN requests. Turn it back on when you wish to serve, or host games.

 

[lynchknot]

Latest on Patriot act compliancy: http://www.outpostfirewall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13635&page=1&pp=15

The instructions are communicated via GHP. Microsoft has made this facility available to all firewall manufacturers who comply with the Patriot Act requirements. It is sad to see this one going the way of all the others. But the US market is BIG and very tempting, and the only way in is to comply. Most ZA users have retained 4,5 and disabled its ability to update or have access to the internet. Until proved otherwise, I have done the same with Outpost 2,5.

I moved to Outpost because there was no sign of shady GHP processes, and being Russian I really believed they would have the balls to give the finger to the USA.... sadly it is beginning to seem that they may have given way to economic pressures... they want the US market - a huge market, and the only way in is by complying.

I worked for a FW manufacturer, I know what is going on. My article is correct, and I am sad that Outpost 2,6 has features that have broken the trust I held in it.

 

[dave holbon]

I use Kaspersky’s software firewall which is what I would describe as adequate but in all the PC magazines I’ve read this year they seem to rate BalckIce as the best at actually both stopping intrusions and in describing what is actually going on. I’ve omitted hardware firewalls as being (or used to be) to expensive and difficult to set up correctly for a small group of PC’s (say two to five) sharing the connection. But I suppose it’s best to use a dedicated PC using a secure operating system to act as a gateway if you are on a larger network and it’s cheaper but also not foolproof.

 

[j79zlr]

All I've ever read about BlackIce is constant vulnerabilities found in it. I wouldn't trust it, and definitely wouldn't use it.

 

[LeeJend]

After years of experimenting I've discovered the best firewall is pulling the cable out of your PC.

 

[Xie]

I wouldn't trust any publication that put anything behind Blackice. You might as well install a trojan yourself from what I've heard.

 

[canadian_divx]

personaly i would always go hardware. but that also has a downside. symantec makes a hardware firewall and i would never in my life buy that product.

 

[Son Goku]

Ya know, there was a time I would have mentioned a hardware firewall (also keeping in mind that for many home users this might not be a viable option). Perhaps latter in the summer however, I'll have something to add.

Lets just say that I'm taking a network security class right now, and much of what we're doing would amount to hacking (albeit in the network lab's own comps, switches, etc)... This same teacher, I heard one of the people who manage the lab to kindly refrain from crashing the PIX firewall (Cisco's hardware firewall product) that they have in there. She was like "I know you can do it, but I ended up having to spend hours re-building the thing, after you got done with it"

So after we started messing around some (and first up, after having messed with pachet sniffers and port scanners some) seems to be flooding a network switch with spoofed MAC addresses so it crashes to act like one large hub, constructing mal-formed packets of dif types to see what will happen, etc...) The teacher here is of the opinion that until someone has broken something, they really don't know how to fix it, so hacker 101 seems to be at the top of the list :laugh: I asked her if this is where we get to crash the firewall...

Needless to say, given the exploit list they mentioned, by the time semester's up latter in the summer, I might have a slightly different view...especially if we end up doing some stuff to that poor hardware firewall we have sitting in there

 

[Kr0m]

Has anyone heard or used GoldTach? It has a 'freeware' version software firewall.
http://www.goldtach.com/

 

[VenomXt]

Bump for more input because Zonealarm cant be the best there is

(stabs Zonealarm)

 

[Johnny]

Bump for more input because Zonealarm cant be the best there is

(stabs Zonealarm)

Zone Alarm is more of a pain than a help. If you have a nat router windows firewall is all you need. Unless you are paronoid about outbound traffic and insist on a software firewall, then yes I will say the free version of zone alarm. It don't seem to cause as many problems as the others. And the way it is with all the new features they have in the web browsers and such you don't need any other version of it except the free version ..

 

[VenomXt]

i have the "paid" version. and to be honest all i use it for it Outbound traffic. Anything better for this Alone? Im really not that fond of Zonealarm

 

[kcnychief]

I still think ZoneAlarm is the poo, even the free version

That said, you can try the Windows OneCare Live Beta. I have been using it for months and I'm very impressed so far

But, IMO, you should piggy-back a SW Firewall with a HW solution as well.

 

[Mooz]

personally a hardware firewall is much better than a software firewall ... reasoning that it protects the lan not one pc on it and if you want to protect all pc's you either have to create a gateway protected by software firewall or install firewalls on all pc's or for that matter devices.

take the netscreen 25 hardware firewall its a big corporate beast but its rock solid, they also do a smaller netscreen 5 that is easily affordable and does a fantastic job of managing traffic in either direction as well as the usual vpn end point and web administration features.

mooz