Windows 7 inbuilt firewall?

martin57

Hi folks,


having a few probs on my computer as stated on my other thread,


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4957823


and having a think about windows 7 firewall. I did have comodo but as that may be part of the cause of the problems I am having I have installed a firewall called private firewall instead. I did try zone alarm but had probs with that as well.


1 As regards the windows 7 firewall would you feel comfortable only having it as firewall on your computer along with antivirus and doing things like internet banking with it installed?


2 I understand that windows 7 firewall doesn't prompt you if a program tries to get on the internet, so I'm a little confused about this. If it doesn't recognise the program how does it decide what to allow and what to block? This is actually a feature that I like being prompted.


Thanks for any help.
Martin57

closed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4756748

anti virus software protects against infections

routers protect against intrusion



the vast majority of Windows users use windows firewall.

3rd party software firewalls cause more problems than they solve. - svchost is requesting access to the internet, accept or deny? Not many people have a clue what to say, or what is is doing, so accept, making the concept of outbound notification futile, but if you must:

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/

Your AV switch isn't the best choice, an occasional black screen at boot could be almost anything, backup.

Gillor

+1 for Windows 7/8 Firewall Control which uses Windows own built-in firewall but gives you complete control over inbound and outbound connections to the internet.

A bit of a pain when you first start using it as it asks you set the rules for every single application but you only do this once so that in a short time it becomes less and less intrusive.

martin57

Thanks very much for your help. I really appreciate it.


As regarding windows firewall, say if I had a Trojan on my computer and as they do was requesting access to internet, how does windows firewall handle that, especially if its a new Trojan and has somehow passed the antivirus on computer?


I like the idea of the add on for windows firewall that will do a prompt.


Closed I agree, I really did like avast, (compared to avg that I have now) and even liked comodo firewall (it seemed to detect viruses as well with the cloud detection) but I just hate the black screen on startup so that's why I am troubleshooting.


I also have malwarebytes and superantispyware free edition so I do a scan with all three packages


Thanks
Martin57

closed

of all the trojans found, I suspect an incredibly small percentage are found by a user noticing and having the knowledge to block an outbound protection popup of an exe with a name which could be very similar to a pukka windows file. You have to balance that risk against having extra bloat on the machine.

Gillor

martin57 wrote: »

As regarding windows firewall, say if I had a Trojan on my computer and as they do was requesting access to internet, how does windows firewall handle that, especially if its a new Trojan and has somehow passed the antivirus on computer?

Windows 7 Firewall Control, will throw up a warning if it identifies that an application has not previously been given permission to make external contact and then it is your decision whether to permit or disallow.

Whether Windows 7 Firewall Control, or any other firewall for that matter, flags up every single request for outbound access, there are others better qualified than me to pass comment. However, I threw a load of malware at it this morning and it blocked every single outbound attempt. Hardly scientific I know but probably as valid as many YouTube a/v reviews for what they are worth.

But I am not too bothered whether absolutely everything outbound is blocked by the firewall as I also use Sandboxie locked down with limited internet access rules, together with Zemana Anti-Logger Free so that if a keylogger does try to capture keystrokes it will only see random characters.