Is SP2 Firewall sufficient?

black94z

I am getting ready to add a harddrive to my system, reformat, and load up SP2. Is the firewall that is included w/ SP2 sufficient with a high speed internet connection? I want to do it right this time with partitions and good security as my system is currently all messed up with only having SP1 and no firewall. I have no experience with firewalls, so be elementary with me please! Thanks!

QCH

I'd say that Windows SP2 Firewall is better than nothing. I'd look into some more robust though. If MS cannot keep people from killing its operating system, that cannot say much or it's other security products.

b0wz

SP-1 does have a firewall, you just have to go find it and enable it, its on the advance tab of your local connections properties window (network settings)

Any Firewall is better then none, but windows firewalls don't block stuff from going out of the firewall, they are not bad at blocking most stuff from getting in, but a trojan, or spyware on your pc, would just fly out of your box with out warning to the outside world.

I use Zone Alarm (it tells me when something new is trying to get in, or out) Its just been what I have had the best luck with, for a software firewall

What ever one you use, just try to use one, don't use multiple firewalls

MediaMan

No hardware or software firewall is truly sufficient. SP2's firewall is better than nothing as previously said.

A firewall will not protect you from those questionable sites that, once you load them, they load in spyware in the form of internet browser apps such as shopping, search engines etc.

Those varmits are really tenacious.

Firewalls mostly protect a computer from unauthorized access to your PC. It would always be good to add a spyware program to your line of defense such as ADAWARE.

Remember that firewalls can be configured to tighten up the line of security even more...all it takes is a bit of reading and configuring to find the balance.

black94z

Thanks guys for your replies. I have gone ahead and purchased Zone Alarm Suite... probably worth every penny if it helps me stay even a little more free from spyware, etc. Looking forward to reformatting and getting everything going good again!! Thanks again!

bothered

I used to have zone alarm, first the free then the pro. It worked ok but the day came when I did a format and reinstall. I put ZA back in and it told me I had an 'invalid key'. I emailed ZA and they told me there is no support after 12 months. I argued with them that I bought their software, I didn't rent it. Their responce? "Buy it again" I will never have anything to do with them again. Fair enough if you only get 12 updates I suppose but to not be able to use it at all sucks.

Dexter

Any firewall, whether hardware or software, will protect you from unsolicited external traffic, whether that is someone deliberatley trying to find an open port on your computer, or the wanna-be hacker kid down the street just fishing for whatever undefended IP addresses he can find.

There are, to my thinking, some main security differences between a hardware and a software firewall. The first would be how they can be bypassed. A software firewall will almost always be susceptible to being disabled by a malicious program run internally on the PC. Many viruses, especially trojans, will terminate the firewall software or disable it from running at all. These viruses and trojans are not usually preventable by the firewall software, as they are not "hack attacks." Instead, they are spread through e-mail, infected floppies, CD's or removable media drives, or downloaded via peer-to-peer file sharing programs. These programs disable the firewall and leave the system wide open to further damage. If they are trojans, they often open a TCP/IP port, activate some remote control function, and broadcast that information back to the trojan's writer, or publish it on private IRC channels for any number of malicious individuals to come along and take control of your PC. Windows XP firewall is susceptible to being disabled by a malicious program, as is Zone Alarm or any other software firewall.

A hardware firewall cannot be disabled by a malicious process. It is removed from the operating system of the computer, so cannot be thusly foiled.

Some people feel that hardware firewalls are too "quiet", and they like having a software firewall alert them when a process or program on their computer is requesting access to the internet. They say it helps them know when they have spyware/adware running on their system, which is something a hardware firewall will not tell them unless they go hunting through the log file of the hardware firewall. However, in my experience, most average users cannot discern between a legitimate process and some malicious processes on their computers. Many Windows or other legitimate processes have odd sounding names, and when they first come up in the software firewall, users often block them. They end up blocking things like Windows Updates, software updates, printer driver updates, etc. Or, they go the exact opposite direction: they get fooled by legitimate sounding names which actually belong to malicious processes, and they grant these processes free access to the internet, thus defeating any protection their firewall software has given them.

Given those considerations, I will recommend a hardware firewall over a software one every time. I do not feel that any software firewall is good enough. Better than nothing, yes, but not as good as a hardware firewall.

Dexter...