Firewall leak tests

aliEnRIK

As hackers can hack through anything and find new and ingenious ways of doing so, I thought it would be interesting to go find any facts on 'holes' in firewalls

First up, Vista firewall isnt too hot ~
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/articles/vista_and_leaktests.html

And heres the rest ~
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

(Shame they didnt include Vistas, as im interested as to where it fits in the grand scheme of things)

Ive tried a few firewalls now.
Sunbelts ~ (Slowed computer down and clearly full of holes)
Comodos ~ very good except it stopped my Lexmark printer from working so that was a nono
Tried the Armor one, it completely froze my Vista whilst running the 'setup wizard' (Probably would have worked without it, but that negates the whole point of using it)
Zonealarm ~ kept stopping firefox from working afetr an hour or 2 (Nothing in the 'logs' either so I was totally baffled by that as everything else worked fine)
Now running PCTOOLS, which so far seems fine and the most responsive (Touch wood.....)

mdbarber

you have far too much free time dude,,,,

aliEnRIK

mdbarber wrote: »

you have far too much free time dude,,,,

Thats what I love about my job so much

[Deleted User]

Really good leaktest for firewalls - http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

And you should try the Shields Up page too - https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Zonealarm (free) + Netgear router + firefox = perfect rating for me on every test

Conor_3

Vistas firewall is just fine. Nearly everyone is behind NAT in the UK anyway so as far as inbound connections go, you could even completely turn off the firewall on your PC and be safe.

DatabaseError

as i want/need to block certain outgoing connections, vistas firewall is not fine for me, though I accept it is for most

aliEnRIK

tonyhague wrote: »

as i want/need to block certain outgoing connections, vistas firewall is not fine for me, though I accept it is for most

Now WHY would you want to do that?

DatabaseError

/cough/ no reason...
can't think of an explanation which wouldn't drop me in it on some level, so...er...because I want to.

On a more serious note, it adds an extra line of defence against spy/adware, and its surprising the amount of software that thinks it has a right to use my internet connection without asking

mdbarber

tonyhague wrote: »

/cough/ no reason...
can't think of an explanation which wouldn't drop me in it on some level, so...er...because I want to.

On a more serious note, it adds an extra line of defence against spy/adware, and its surprising the amount of software that thinks it has a right to use my internet connection without asking

hell yeah lol, but hold on, thats usually MS dll's no?

DatabaseError

mdbarber, I let all the MS stuff through, basically because I have no idea what it's up to, but at the price I paid for vista I hope it's doing something worthwhile, and i like to have all the updates. i block auto updating on other software because I've been burnt before , ie play a game, near the end, update and the old saves are no longer valid, cd/dvd writing software which can be stable in 1 version, a point update may throw it off, disks burnt but flaky at the end, so i choose when to update these apps, usually checking feedback first.
I don't play online, so punkbuster is not given any bandwidth (i will get round to uninstalling it one day). I also don't have an 'unlimited' connection, I have very strict caps, and my usage is measured in both directions, going over my cap costs money, and I'm not prepared to have some software decide to d/load a big patch at the end of my month

[Deleted User]

Has anyone else even noticed that the Vista firewall can be configured to block outgoing connections with rules for per application or a blanket block?