"Personal Firewalls" are mostly snake-oil

Sam Spade ^

[Sir Gawain]

ping

[Texaggie79]

NT ALL THE WAY BABY!!!! Point and click your way to DOMINANCE!!!

[Texas_Jarhead]

Alright another Sam Spade user

[2ndMostConservativeBrdMember]

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[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Personal Firewalls" are mostly snake-oil

Not according to Steve R. Gibon of Gibson Research. He swears by ZoneAlarm.

Just because YOU say something, doesn't make it so.

[First_Salute]

Tx.

[Space Wrangler]

I run Win 2K with zonealarm, and I have been pretty happy with it. I'm using the shareware version now, and I believe I'm going to drop the $40 for the pro version. Just like the article says, 99% of the port scans are "legit" attempts from data miners to get cookie info from your system. I have had a few port scans now that I wasn't to sure about. One was an IP address listed as some invstigation firm in Mexico City. That one was kind of wierd. Anyway, I do like to know who is trying to get info from me, and the shareware from zonealarm does it well. I am sure that there are people out there without a clue that are calling administrators complaining about port scans that are, sadly, becoming routine. All in all, I won't connect to the net without my firewall running. Anymore who knows what might happen?

[Constitution Day]

I second that. ZoneAlarm RULES.

[fporretto]

I've been quite happy with ZoneAlarm. I've been running it under both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Professional for about four months, and it's already protected my machines from a variety of crack attacks.

Granted that a firewall appliance that stands alone between your computer and the network cable can be made less intrusive and possibly even more protective, ZoneAlarm appears to do a reasonable job, and so far it hasn't destabilized any of my systems at all.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[Texaggie79]

99% of the port scans are "legit" attempts from data miners to get cookie info from your system.

ZA needs to put this disclaimer on the site before you DL. I get so many emails from friends that are freeking out after they install ZA because of all the IP blocks they are getting. I'm tired of explaining to each one.

Also Zone Alarm is good with NT but only if you use it 100% of the time. I got to where I turned it off every now and then, and it would shut down my internet connection. And I was told the same from many on NT newsgroups.

[Constitution Day]

That's absolutely correct. I freaked out for a while when I first installed it, but was helped by our IT Manager.

[AFreeBird]

Gibson certainly believes ZoneAlarm is MUCH better than BlackIce though...

Yes, I di too because it looks at outgoing trafic as well as incoming. Coupled with my Netgear router, it works well.

[Space Wrangler]

ZA needs to put this disclaimer on the site before you DL.

If the people would click the link zonealarm provides, it is a very thorough and simple explanantion of what the port scans are. Personally, I don't worry about them, because if ZA logged it, then that means the attempt was un-successful. I have had two that piqued my interest as I stated above. The one from the "Investigaciones de y Internacionale" (I'm doing this from memory, so the exact name is probably a little diffrent from this) listed in Mexico city actually sent a little paranoid tremor through me. I can't figure out why a place like that was trying to scan me. Anyway, there's probably nothing to it, and this is probably just a fancy name for a data mining firm, bug I still wonder about it.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

You are wrong. Flat out wrong. Yes, 99% of the software personal firewalls out there are garbage, but ZoneAlarm is simply the best software firewall package there is.
Get a copy and try it out. Or, I invite you to try to gain access to my system any time you want. You will fail.
If I'm wrong, I'll post here and say so.
If you fail, you must do the same.

[Stavka2]

Try BlackIceDefender...very good software and very good reporting system...but I'd use a secondary firewall/sandbox software too, like eSafe. Of course, 18+ pings in a matter of 30 minutes is a bit more then routine traffic.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Oops. I feel I must apologize. I am guilty of responding to your post before reading it entirely.
I am such an avid fan of ZoneAlarm that my hands flew over the keyboard before I read your whole post.
Many of the things you state are correct, but ZA is so far beyond all the other software firewalls out there, that it does offer adequate protection as a stand alone.

[Sir Gawain]

Sam Spade wrote this. Not me. I just posted it. I hope you're addressing that site when you speak.