XP firewall anygood?

[Red Arrow]

hmm, 1st post here, cool 😀

Anyway I was just wondering if the XP built-in firewall does its job? Or would I be best sticking to Zone Alarm?

Note that I am using a 56k so I get a new IP everytime I connect plus I am only online for 2 hours at a time before I have to reconect. So the chances of being "inaveded" is low, I think.

 

[djpharm]

If you are just using dial-up and don't leave your machine connected for long periods of time, I don't think you have much to worry about in terms of being invaded, especially with a dynamic IP.

One thing you may want a firewall for, though, is to make sure programs aren't running in the background and sending information out without you knowing. A good example of this is if you go to deviantart.com (great site 🙂 ), they have a little box that pops up and being lazy, I didn't bother to read it and just clicked "I agree." Later that day I keep getting dialogs from my firewall (I use Tiny Personal Firewall www.tinysoftware.com) asking for outgoing permissions. I ended up actually reading what it was that I allowed to be installed, but I don't remember exactly what it was (redswoosh.exe I think) or what it was doing, but I know I didn't want it!

I haven't even tried the built-in firewall in XP, so I couldn't tell you if it does that.

 

[UniSol]

Best sticking with NeoWatch from NEOWORX.COM (recently merged into McAfee) - Very good (best one I have tried (and that is out of many))

Download the full version from here

Install, Reboot, Set Security to "Tight"

Fin

 

[Red Arrow]

Thx guys.

btw does NeoWatch intergrate itself into McAfee Virus Scan 6.1? Just I have that and it has a small section about firewalls installed in the program or something.