which firewall?

donnajunkie

donnajunkie wrote: »

in the windows one there is the ability to allow and disable various things but as i dont understand them i am reluctant to change them as i may do more harm than good.

actually it is 360 that has various settings that i dont understand regarding what to allow and what to disable.

DatabaseError

donnajunkie wrote: »

i dont use a router. i am just connected to a virgin media modem.
i am right in thinking a router is for wireless internet arent i?

Nope, you are not, but it is an easy assumption to make. A router is generally there to 'route' internet traffic, allowing a single connection to be shared between several users. Most routers contain a 'hardware' firewall, though, as i understand it (and i may be corrected) even this is software, usually running under a flavour of unix on the router's hardware, but still more secure than a software firewall installed on a PC.
My opinion, FWIW, if i didn't have a decent router, i would use comodo or zone alarm (free) firewall, not windows own, not norton
As i have a decent router, i generally use windows firewall, though i've just decided to give Eset Smart Security a try, and i have found myself blocking a few outbound connections, which windows firewall doesn't do, though this is more to do with my use of the internet than anything else, most people could/would allow the connections

donnajunkie

should i be worried about what happened when i clicked on a link for a thread here in an email notification?

ronben

PROLIANT wrote: »

Based on what technical evidence? The windows firewall is not useless, it does the job, if you want a true firewall go and buy a CISCO PIX or ASA, these are proper firewalls.

As said by another poster

XP firewall has NO outbound protection and the Vista Firewall has it turned off by default.

I shall explain.

Lets say you get port scanned and a port is open and then a transmission is made using your port and then without your knowledge your ports are being used without any notification then your PC is doing things it shouldnt be doing, this is what XP or Vista will do if you have been attacked, having a third party firewall that notifies you of outboundconnections then you can set a firewall to ask/allow/deny this is particularly handy if working over a network and will stop your PC being turned into a bot.

Theres your technical evidence.

Most homes have a router? have you proof.

PROLIANT

ronben wrote: »

As said by another poster

XP firewall has NO outbound protection and the Vista Firewall has it turned off by default.

I shall explain.

Lets say you get port scanned and a port is open and then a transmission is made using your port and then without your knowledge your ports are being used without any notification then your PC is doing things it shouldnt be doing, this is what XP or Vista will do if you have been attacked, having a third party firewall that notifies you of outboundconnections then you can set a firewall to ask/allow/deny this is particularly handy if working over a network and will stop your PC being turned into a bot.

Theres your technical evidence.

Most homes have a router? have you proof.

If you ping an XP PC connected via a modem directly on to the WAN, you will get a time out message, no time to live, if you type in the run command box 'gpedit.msc' and find the firewall policy and look for the ICMP section of the policy, the default windows setting for this disabled which means the XP machine will not respond to ICMP Echo request AKA PING. There are a few more settings in here you may find useful. With regard to my statement that most homes have a router, quote "most" unquote, virgin media now issue a router with modem and BT issue single port voyager ADSL router.

ronben

PROLIANT wrote: »

If you ping an XP PC connected via a modem directly on to the WAN, you will get a time out message, no time to live, if you type in the run command box 'gpedit.msc' and find the firewall policy and look for the ICMP section of the policy, the default windows setting for this disabled which means the XP machine will not respond to ICMP Echo request AKA PING. There are a few more settings in here you may find useful. With regard to my statement that most homes have a router, quote "most" unquote, virgin media now issue a router with modem and BT issue single port voyager ADSL router.

But its just not Virgin and BT who supply a BB connection, I dont know how many homes they supply but you would have to take into account other ISP's, I would of said that more often than not a router isnt supplied as most ISP's are stingy.

And as for Pings, if I ping a website I am asked for my firewall and outbound connection but XP firewall just sits there and does nothing so there you go XP firewall = pretty useless.

DatabaseError

more often than not a router isnt supplied as most ISP's are stingy

my isp doesn't provide a free router, or free connection, it does, however, provide excellent support and service, which is what i pay for

ronben

tonyhague wrote: »

my isp doesn't provide a free router, or free connection, it does, however, provide excellent support and service, which is what i pay for

I can see your not with Virgin, or are you R Branson

donnajunkie

virgin have finally done away with the 25p a minute call charge for broadband support.

C_Ronaldo

I use comodo firewall at the minute, seems to be doing pretty good