Can someone recommend a good firewall?

[WilliamPitt]

Preferably free, but downloadable at least? I've got this fucking Blaster worm and my laptop has been rebooting constantly for a day now. I'm running the .exe to remove it, but I need a firewall. Any suggestions welcome.

:grr:

[QC]

1. Zone Alarm

www.zonelabs.com

Free and very good.

[SeattleDem]

2. that's what we have too

my husband is not a techie but works for tech company, and that's what his coworkers told us to get. The free version seems to be sufficient for our needs, although for a small amount, you can get some upgrades.

[bearfartinthewoods]

23. same here ...the zone rules

[Classical_Liberal]

3. Sygate Personal Firewall

This free version is highly rated and unlike Tiny and Zone Alarms free version, this company gives security updates.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160.html

Tiny Personal Firewall is the one I use. It is a very small download. 1.35 mb

http://tucows.tiscali.dk/preview/195417.html

Maybe you need a new antivirus program?

AVG has a resident shield that protects you online.

http://www.grisoft.com/

They have a free version for personal use.

[demsrule4life]

17. FYI

You can get free security upgrades with the free zone alarm now. I downloaded upgrades couple of hours ago.

[Robin Hood]

4. Sygate

http://www.sygate.com/products/index.htm

[Rick Myers]

5. I'm a big fan of Zone Alarm!

It's NEVER failed me!

[LoneStarLiberal]

6. Zone Alarm or Tiny

Both of these are quite good. These are the choice of most of the people I work around in a computing center. I have all my machines running behind a custom OpenBSD-based firewall but if I weren't a complete nerd and in need of such barriers I would run Tiny.

[a_random_joel]

7. Nothing beats a hardware firewall.

Of course you'll have to pay for it.

ZoneAlarm is a practical alternative.

[DBoon]

12. I'll go with hardware too

Do you have a DSL connection? if so your DSL router could likely be configured to block "nasty" traffic.

I'd block all SMB/NetBIOS traffic in AND out. Ports 135, 137, 138, 139 and for XP also 445. Block the PnP service too I think it is port 5000.

I'd do this on top of using ZoneAlarm.

Not sure if Cable Modems are configurable this way too.

[charlie]

8. Kerio Personal Firewall

is the one I use (free for personal use):

http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

[JohnyCanuck]

9. I've been running the free copy of the kerio firewall

for about 4 or 5 months after I saw it recommended by another DUer. I really like it. I found it easier to configure and setup than the McAfee firewall I had been using previously (which came with the McAfee antivurs software) and after shutting down the McAfee firewall and running Kerio something else interesting I noticed, my PC (Win 98) seemed much more stable, i.e. less locking up and freezes, and consequent need for reboots, cussing, swearing and throwing of objects across the room.

website is www.kerio.com and you can download the free copy of the firewall for personal use from this page: www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

[Kathy in Cambridge]

10. How timely, I'm installing Norton this Afternoon

When I set up my wireless network, Zone Alarm firewall came as a free downloadable 30-day trial. The one thing I didn't like about it was that the True Vector service would shut off and screw up my internet connection.

I have a Norton firewall that I'm installing right now. I'll let you know if it's any good.

That SUCKS about the blaster worm. Stay off those porn sites! ;-)Good luck!

[Warpy]

15. Norton's good

In fact, it's one of the 3 that I use and rotate daily.

My favorite is Black Ice, only because it gives detailed information on tracing the hacker so that I can fink out the really annoying little buggers who are out there hacking all the time. It's got a download/installation protection feature, and it's well worth the money.

A good antivirus program is also essential, along with one of the free anti spyware programs. These will protect your computer against all but the most sophisticated vultures.

[Bake]

33. I use Norton Firewall and it seems pretty good.

I don't know what it fails to catch, if anything, but it does seem to catch a lot of stuff, particularly the back-door trojan horse crap.

Bake

[Mairead]

11. Zone Alarm Pro -- pay the few bucks, it's a very nice product

and seemingly quite solid

[Northwind]

13. Mac OSX

be safe from virii forever!

[myomy]

37. A firewall is built into OS X

.

[Trek234]

14. Get a hardware based solution

and be done with it.

The software firewalls are simply not worth it. Add to the fact they they can be compromised easier than a hardware firewall.

Make sure the hardware solution has SPI and was manufactured/released/revised within the last year. D-link has some decent solutions if you don't want to spend much. The DI-604 comes to mind. We are talking $50 at most.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. It's not a firewall you need...

but you should have one, anyway. Antivirus is more important.

I've been using AVG antivirus for years, and I'm still virus free (so far) There's still a free version of it available. You download it and wait a day until you get a password, then install it.

www.grisoft.com

Just make sure, as with AdAware and Spybot, that you set it to get the updates. AVG is updating their virus databases almost daily now.

(and turn off Active-X in your browser, and with whatever mail client you use, turn off executables and HTML-- that's saved me when something new got through the firewall and AV)

[Pobeka]

43. Both are equally important!

Firewall protects you from someone attacking you via the internet.

Antivirus protects you from software you knowingly downloaded, but need
to know if it contains a virus before you run it.

[mikeysnot]

18. I vote zone alarm

I have the pro version on my work computer which cost 19.95 on sale at Micro Center, but the free version is just as good, here is the link...

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp;jsessionid=152aXzd2PYJIf3suCs5rTD2cn4gd2Jrh2pd1oKRRS21jLKOV9M5n!-1449652827!-1062696904!7551!7552!-218816618!-1062696905!7551!7552?lid=home_zainfo

[corarose]

19. Please post a thread when you find a good one I am going crazy

Something needs to be done to correct this BS on the internet.

We own our computers and we should be able to stop this BS.

[ParanoidPat]

20. Free on-line port and shield testing available at.....

.....Gibson Research Corporation :evilgrin:

Just scroll down to the Shields Up! link about half way down the page to test your system for open ports and information on how to secure them. :)
Lots of good information on computer security available at this site!

Friday, August 8th

Continued Signs of Windows
DCOM/RPC Remote Exploitation

Security experts are warning that the number of scans and exploits for a recently-released Microsoft Windows vulnerability are "rising dramatically" indicating that a worm based on the flaw may be imminent. The vulnerability, which involves a flaw in the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol and affects almost all versions of the Windows operating system, could allow a malicious attacker to execute code remotely. Microsoft issued an advisory and patch for the vulnerability on July 16, 2003, but many users have not yet implemented security measures. According to Gartner vice president of research Richard Stiennon, the number of scans searching for unpatched systems is rising with 3,500 source addresses scanning for the flaw. New exploits with increasingly harmful payloads are also being released. In addition, there have been cyber attacks targeting the vulnerability. Victims to date include academic institutions and Internet service providers (ISPs).

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31296.html

Stanford University is the latest academic institution to be targeted by cyber attackers. The school's network fell victim to a series of serious cyber strikes starting on July 31, 2003 and carrying over into this week. It appears that unidentified hackers were able to break into about 2,000 desktop computers (or 10% of the machines on the campus network). The attack was implemented by exploiting a recent vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system, according to Cedric Bennett, Stanford's director of information security services. The attackers placed "a mysterious bit of computer coding" on each of the infected machines. Infected computers have been disconnected from the university's network, but it could take significant time and money to repair the damage.

Officials at the U.C. Berkeley campus report that between 50 and 100 Windows systems within their network have apparently been taken over remotely through exploitation of the latest Windows DCOM vulnerability. They don't even know how many. Out of necessity and frustration they plan to filter Internet access in an attempt to get the situation under control.

Around the Internet, system administrators report strange "rebooting" of their Windows systems as they are being taken over remotely, and many firewall watchers report a jump in scans for port 135.

[KoKo]

22. Pat, I used this site and my computer checked out as "stealth" Good..

Thanks. I hope it knows all.......I don't want to have false hopes.

[Merlin]

21. I got hit 3 weeks ago with LovGate.

LovGate creates thousands of files on your pc.

Then it corrupts some opsys files, and ravages any anti-virus programs.

Then it leaves some executables on the system which are invoked by the operating system and which totally monopolize the CPU by making incessant calls to unavailable resources.

I got it on both my laptops--both connected to a local network supposedly shielded because I was using a Linksys router for internet connections, and that's supposed to be an effective firewall. But it's not.

Wound up getting McAfee for one and Norton for the other. The one with Norton works fine now. The McAfee one still has problems.

Will, I would suggest going out to Staplesn or OfficeWorks to get a copy of Norton System Works (I think that's the name), that includes both the anti-virus plus a firewall. Downloading can be brutal if you already have a virus. Most of these things will deliberately go after antivirus software.

[ParanoidPat]

26. Here's a suggestion for an infected computer....

.....Trend Micros House Call! :evilgrin:

Go to the Trend Micro Personal page and click on the 'Scan Now' link (same as the 'House Call' link above) and let them do a remote scan of your computer! :)
I've had to resort to it many times in the past to help out friends and customers. They haven't failed me yet! :)
Bookmark their page. They stay current with the state of various exploits and how to remove and safeguard against them.

[TrogL]

24. Get a router

I use Linksys.

Then get a good virus protection package. I use Trend Micro.

Zone Alarm should be your third level of protection, not your first.

Also, keep your ear to the ground by watching a tech website like User Friendly or Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/) and watch for malware alerts.

[CaptainMidnight]

25. Anyone here a MAC expert?

Does Zone Alarm work for Macintosh?

I"m running Jaguar on my G4 Titanium, and using Airport wireless. I'm told using a Mac and OSX is great protection, and that Airport provides a natural firewall.

Then, after I experienced all sortsa email mishegas, hard drive problems and files deleted, I was told that Mac's built in protection is a joke.

Can anyone here help me?

Captain Mik

[Merlin]

27. Never used to love Norton, but works well for our Mac network, too.

Put a Norton Firewall on the internet connection G-3 about a year ago. It stopped all the attacks we were having (system email being taken over by hackers to send spam).

Also use it for pcs, and it's worked better than McAfee.

[ParanoidPat]

28. From the Zone Alarm site....

....it doesn't appear that they support Apple products at this time. :(

System requirements:
Windows 98SE/ME/2000 Pro/XP, 233 MHz Pentium or higher, 10MB of available hard disk space, Internet access. Minimum system RAM: 48MB (98SE/ME), 64MB (2000 Pro), 128MB (XP).

Check back in a little while. :) I'll go ask the Apple Guru's!

On Edit: From what I'm being told setting up the 'built in' firewall in the Apple OS is a little tricky. Check out this page from Low End Mac.com for a cheap application to make setup a little more 'user friendly'.

I suggest you spend some time at Secure Mac.com for more in depth information regarding firewall protection for your system.

There is also this from Association of Apple Computer Users Groups.org

Stronger Firewall Protection for Mac OS X
IPNetSentryX Raises the Bar

Sustainable Softworks has released version 1.0 of IPNetSentryX, an Internet firewall application for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X.
What makes IPNetSentryX so unique is the ability to easily define hierarchial firewall rules. Like most conventional firewall products, including Apple's own built-in Personal Firewall, IPNetSentryX rules can be based on IP addresses, ports and protocols (services). But unlike conventional firewalls, IPNetSentryX also lets users base rules on the content of incoming datagrams (e.g. to detect worms). More importantly, IPNetSentryX easily lets users define which actions to take when rules are met. Such actions can be as simple as blocking an intruder (trigger), alerting you of the intrusion, sending off an email message pertaining to the intrusion, running a designated AppleScript, or any combination of the above. :)
<MORE>

Hope this helps!

[Undemcided]

35. For Apple

Try this link.
Download.com - OS X firewalls

[Nlighten1]

29. Zone Alarm

[karlschneider]

30. Just my 2 cents, used Zone Alarm for a couple years & it works fine, free

updates too. There surely are other good ones.
;-)

[AnnabelLee]

31. I just downloaded ZoneAlarm yesterday

because of the blaster worm. It was super easy, & has been blocking about 20 attempts an hour to access my computer through port 135.

[Bossy Monkey]

34. Whoops! They updated today

so you might want to check for an update already

[AnnabelLee]

42. Thanks for the heads up

:hi:

[LTR]

32. Protect your system

Try Spyware Guard:

www.wilderssecurity.com

Acts as kind of a firewall, but it's not in itself a comprehensive one.

Used in conjunction with one, it prevents browser hijacks.

Also, if you visit any popup-heavy and Active X-heavy sites (eg., ESPN.com), add them to you 'Restricted Sites' under 'Internet Options'. Keep on a heavy security setting. This should keep a good amount of malicious crap partly loaded by advertising popups.

Stay away from strange search engines, foreign-based sites, mp3 sites and porn (unless you use them to test out firewalls and security apps - I have a list of some vicious ones for when I want to take the computer 'off-road'). These types of sites are notorious for creating some havoc.

I also use something called Avant Browser, which is IE-based,. This has an option to block all popups.

Adaware and Spybot are good ways to zap virtually all spyware and bad cookies.

Also, go to 'Windows Update' and get the latest updates. I just did, and the installation process also got rid of a bunch of crap that slowed down my CPU.

Hope this is helpful to all.

[SoCalDem]

36. Okayyyy I downloaded it and unless it's turned off,

I cannot go online :(

What the hell did I do wrong.. these boxes started popping up and I must have clicked something wrong :(

[Classical_Liberal]

40. You downloaded what?

?

[ParanoidPat]

44. When you first load Zone Alarm it disconnects EVERYTHING....

....from the Internet until you give each program permission to access the web. :)
The 'pop up' box lets you know when a program is trying to access the Internet or when someone on the Internet tries to access your computer.
Read the information in the warning pop up window, if you know that the program that is trying to connect is OK, click the 'remember this decision' check box and then click the OK button. That program will be allowed to connect in the future without generating a warning screen.
That is how Zone Alarm writes the 'rules' for your computer. Expect to see those prompt boxes each time one of your programs attempts to connect to the Internet for the first time. If you find programs that attempt to connect and you are not sure if they're safe, do a web search at Google to find out more about that program before allowing the firewall to 'remember this decision'! Your firewall is only as good as the rules you set to allow access!
Have fun! :evilgrin:

[MrPrax]

38. Black ICE of course..not free but one of the best SW based solutions

ATguard is pretty good
with a 'pop-up' killer built in

[Classical_Liberal]

39. Black Ice offers no protection at all from worms.

Please read!
They were warned years ago, and never corrected thet problem.

http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

Eleven Months after the release of our first, simple, but effective and popular (4,178,705 downloads) LeakTest firewall testing utility, BlackICE Defender (BID) continues to "leak" — as defined by LeakTest. But a recent update to BID (version 2.9cai) was hiding this fact from its users by effectively cheating the LeakTest.

Rather than enhancing BlackICE Defender by adding the sort of application-level controls that are available even from many completely free personal firewalls, BID's publisher, NetworkICE, apparently chose to prevent LeakTest's intended operation by adding specific awareness to BID of LeakTest's remote testing IP.

Demonstrate This for Yourself
If you are using the current version of BlackICE Defender as of this writing (version 2.9cai), you can click this button to have your web browser touch the old LeakTest IP address and port:........

http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

[geniph]

41. ANY firewall is better than no firewall

just as any antivirus is better than none. I generally recommend Zone Alarm, as the free version is fairly full-functioned. You might have to temporarily disable it when doing some local functions, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing.

[ParanoidPat]

45. Kick for the night crew!

:evilgrin: Always use a 'Computer Condom'(virus scanner)'cause ya can't put a rubber on a floppy!

:kick:

[mvd]

46. I use ZoneAlarm Pro v. 4.0

And I definitely recommend it to you. Norton's also a good firewall, but it doesn't do quite as well in the outbound tests. Since I have a router, I'm mostly concerned with outbound protection instead of inbound protection. ZoneAlarm free doesn't have expert rules, privacy controls, e-mail attachment protection, automatic network detection, and component control like Zone Alarm Pro does. I tried Outpost v. 2.0, and was unhappy with it. With ad blocking, you can't see pop-ups you want to see unless you configure new settings for that site. And a few "bad" pop-up ads got through - only one with ZoneAlarm. Also, it had a glitch on a stealth test I went to. And I saw a report where Outpost lost functionality after a penetration test. Granted, a major and highly unusual attack was in the test, but it's a flaw. They say they're working on it, but I don't trust them to do everything they say they do. There are not that many separate plug-ins for Outpost yet. And they offer no refunds. Outpost only seems trumped up by Agnitum themselves.

Kerio and Tiny have a definite learning curve, but they're good. I don't know much about McAfee - I think it's solid, but I doubt they are as good as Norton and ZoneAlarm.

I keep hearing that ZoneAlarm is the hardest to hack into. Lots of people have reported crashes with ZoneAlarm, but I only had one - it was related to privacy settings and I knew how to prevent it in the future.

[mvd]

48. I did pay for Outpost, though, and am giving it some time

I'm running it now with pop-up blocking off and a free popup-blocker installed. That way, you can surf the internet more easily. I really wanted the firewall to have the pop-up stopper I use because of the price, but I'll see if the features grow on me and if Agnitum makes improvements. I'm certainly not uninstalling ZoneAlarm, because I'm wary of Agnitum. Besides what I said, they abandoned Outpost 1.0. If you go to the Agnitum site and like it, I can say the security generally seems fine, even with the pre-configured rules. But I still recommend ZoneAlarm if you are just now choosing.

[Terwilliger]

47. I use ZoneAlarm

[Throckmorton]

49. Two layers of 5/8" S Board sheetrock,

over a layer of 1/2 inch plywood. Supported by 6 inch studs, with the pockets filled with fiberglass. With a layer of 1/2 sheetrock on the opposite side. Should give you 1 hour barrier, according to NEI. Just make sure there are no holes in the barrier for outlets and such.