5 replies to this topic

[TrueSatan]

The winners were Comodo (by a good margin) and Jetico (though the latest Jetico products aren't free) with Zone Alarm soem way behind closely followed by Trend. Kapersky, McAffee and Norton/Symantec firewalls were pretty much worthless and the Windows firewall stopped just about nothing...utterly useless.

http://www.pcworld.i...hp/id;159719021

[Polymath]

Ha I am not surprised Kapersky, McAffee and Norton/Symantec are useless. I've never had one of those on my machine for vey long. I even recommend to people not to use them, they come with more trouble than they are worth. Nine times out of ten they need to be turned off for progammes and sites to work, and thats my usual response to computer help.. And as for windows..well..nothing needs to be said.
Commodo is pretty good. thats the one I usely recommend..I even have it listed on one of my sites as something to use.

[MicroMonkey]

I have never really felt I had much need for a firewall of this kind. I am no expert on firewalls, but what is the main purpose or use of a software firewall and what computing environments do you think they are most suited for? I simply sit behind a router. I suppose I know very little because I have never been attacked by anything (at least that I know of lol) As far as windows firewall, its one of the first things I turn off when I reinstall my pc

[NuMoon]

MicroMonkey, on Dec 24 2007, 09:45 PM, said:

I have never really felt I had much need for a firewall of this kind. I am no expert on firewalls, but what is the main purpose or use of a software firewall and what computing environments do you think they are most suited for? I simply sit behind a router. I suppose I know very little because I have never been attacked by anything (at least that I know of lol) As far as windows firewall, its one of the first things I turn off when I reinstall my pc

OMG! Hope you have changed since then! Sorry I am new here (obviously or I wouldn't be responding to years old posts), but I hope no one else follows the above advice. That kind of attitude is exactly why spammer have networks of thousands of home users PC's to control and use in DOS attacks etc.

If anyone else who is wondering out there if they should have a firewall, YES! Get the best one you can of course, but even a rubbish one is better than none! Well, actually no, that is not true and I agree with the above on Norton (I once watched my machine under attack whilst Norton did f**** all about it). If you want to be safest, get something good, but not too popular, the more popular, the more likely to be consistently attacked (hence Norton being completely useless, that and it being written badly). The point is that I would still have been under attack if I didn't have Norton, and possibly wouldn't have notivced until it was too late (I was alerted as the attack first took out Norton, then I started losing icons and other stuff, but wouldn't have been looking or pulled the plug if Norton hadn't have been obviously disabled).

Best to all,

NuMoon

[Ginzo]

NuMoon, on Aug 14 2009, 01:05 PM, said:

OMG! Hope you have changed since then! Sorry I am new here (obviously or I wouldn't be responding to years old posts), but I hope no one else follows the above advice. That kind of attitude is exactly why spammer have networks of thousands of home users PC's to control and use in DOS attacks etc.

If anyone else who is wondering out there if they should have a firewall, YES! Get the best one you can of course, but even a rubbish one is better than none! Well, actually no, that is not true and I agree with the above on Norton (I once watched my machine under attack whilst Norton did f**** all about it). If you want to be safest, get something good, but not too popular, the more popular, the more likely to be consistently attacked (hence Norton being completely useless, that and it being written badly). The point is that I would still have been under attack if I didn't have Norton, and possibly wouldn't have notivced until it was too late (I was alerted as the attack first took out Norton, then I started losing icons and other stuff, but wouldn't have been looking or pulled the plug if Norton hadn't have been obviously disabled).

Best to all,

NuMoon

There is a lot to be said for users using their own head too.

I am behind a tightly configured router but I wouldn't dream of not having a software solution like comodo for firewall, program control and antivirus even though I've not had any hacking attempts show up on a software firewall log in the last 5 years.

My motto is, Better safe than sorry :)

[Dermot]

The time of PODS and Wardialers and other stuff that effected users is well over.

A hacker wouldn't waste their time trying to brute force a user of a single pc with any type of denial of service attack.

Firewalls only real purpose these days is the bi-directional role and stopping stuff leaving the pc, not getting in so much.