Windows firewall....safe enough?

raz_uk

Hi everyone,

Ive come across a few online discussions - a lot of people criticise windows firewall for not giving enough protection. Its got me thinking - im only using windows firewall, is that enough protection or do I need to use another firewall aswell?
Any advice?
cheers

mostly

vista or xp?

raz_uk

Im on XP by the way

mostly

you should have a 3rd party firewall. Do a search on firewalls on this forum you'll get plenty of suggestions.I personally use outpost - http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ its not free.
otherwise Comodo Firewall 3.0.14.276 free
Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6.2808 free
ZoneAlarm Free 7.0.462.0 free

Browntoa

Windows Xp firewall only blocks incoming attacks,if you get an infection on the Pc that send data out then you will not know, one of the firewalls above will warn you if anything new tries to access the internet

The_Gerbil

Everybody will tell you you need an extra firewall but...

I found the Zone Alarm type firewalls so much trouble I stopped using them. Like you I just use XP firewall. I do take the following other precautions though

• I use a Restricted account for day to day stuff, I don't run as admin

• I keep my anti virus up to date (daily)

• I keep XP fully patched using windows update

• I check about weekly that my applications are patched and running latest versions (http://secunia.com/software_inspector/ helps a lot here)

• I run a spyware check monthly

• I use NoScript Firefox plugin

I realise its not the generally accepted advice but it works for me

spud17

For the last few weeks I've been using the free version of Online Armor from

http://www.tallemu.com/downloads.html

It's done well in independent tests

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php#firewalls-ratings

It's been easy to set up and relatively un-intrusive.

gooner045

I use online armour as well and found it so easy and unobtrusive after having a bit of hassle with comodo

spud17

gooner045 wrote: »

I use online armour as well and found it so easy and unobtrusive after having a bit of hassle with comodo

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=606557

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=608551

mattytun

go here >>>>>>>> www.filehippo.com download comodo free firewall .make sure you have a antivirus as well so get AVG free..........only have one firewall & antivirus running on pc though

raz_uk

Blimey - so many choices - seems comodo has a few niggles - could anyone recommend one that has worked well for them without the firewall disrupting the PC's performance?