Do you install a 3rd party firewall?

[theevilsharpie]

One note though: when I discussed prompts, I wasn't thinking only of the Firewall prompts - I know that much is dependent on a few factors (you described more than I was familiar with in that regard, btw), but also UAC prompts - before a program can even alter anything in the firewall, it has to be granted access for installation anyhow.

You would think you'd need at least elevated access, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've had to disable a few firewall rules added by games I've installed from Steam, and I never received a UAC prompt in those instances.

This much I'm a little dusty with, but can malware and whatnot slip through all of that and go straight into altering Firewall rules, without *any* interaction from the user?

Drive-by downloads from malicious Flash or Java applets are an obvious vector of attack.

 

[Zorander]

I used Zonealarm a few years back but had to uninstall it due to a crashing conflict with the system. Since then, I've made do with the built-in router firewall and Windows firewall. It's worked out great so far (not that I'd be aware of anyone having broken through rite)

 

[lothar]

On Windows 7, Windows Firewall is enough.
On Windows XP however, I installed COMODO firewall.

 

[UberNeuman]

Windows 7 firewall works well with Windows7FirewallControl (free version). It's an extra control panel that works like some other firewalls that popup when a process tries to connect to the network or internet, then you can allow/deny to create a whitelist and blacklist.

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

This is what I use as well.... it's a good program to use with the Win 7 firewall....

 

[Chaotic42]

I built an OpenBSD firewall. PF for the win.

 

[billyb0b]

I run kaspersky

 

[jhansman]

Belt & suspenders = MSSE & Malwarebytes. In two years, not one nastie has gotten through, and more than a few have tried.

 

[tweakboy]

IF you use windows firewall your very limited. Of course you use a third party..

Im using Windows7Firewall , free easy small firewall app.. that gets PASSED @ gibson shields up all green and stealth. Windows firewall cant make them all green and stealth,, so I fail the shields up test ,,,,,,, As soon as I put firewall up and turned windows firewall off ,, now gibson gives passed,, and all green stealth.

Its free and its lean,, easy app ... tweakboy recommends 5 / 5 stars.

 

[Nothinman]

I built an OpenBSD firewall. PF for the win.

PF is nice, but I'd rather no deal with OpenBSD for just that one feature. And it's a pretty heavy-handed solution for most people.

IF you use windows firewall your very limited. Of course you use a third party..

Im using Windows7Firewall , free easy small firewall app.. that gets PASSED @ gibson shields up all green and stealth. Windows firewall cant make them all green and stealth,, so I fail the shields up test ,,,,,,, As soon as I put firewall up and turned windows firewall off ,, now gibson gives passed,, and all green stealth.

Its free and its lean,, easy app ... tweakboy recommends 5 / 5 stars.

You're, not your.

Gibson is a tool and making things "stealth" has virtually 0 security benefit.

 

[tweakboy]

PF is nice, but I'd rather no deal with OpenBSD for just that one feature. And it's a pretty heavy-handed solution for most people.



You're, not your.

Gibson is a tool and making things "stealth" has virtually 0 security benefit.

Your kidding me ? Those are your ports, and some are left open and attacker can see your comp and that there is a computer there. If your Stealth your not even seen on the internet,, I mean someone can get your IP but it shows there is no computer at that IP address... Your showing your computer to public and you have open port holes... hmm :twisted:

 

[Chaotic42]

PF is nice, but I'd rather no deal with OpenBSD for just that one feature. And it's a pretty heavy-handed solution for most people.

Well, it was also for fun and to check out OpenBSD. Still, it works pretty well.

 

[Nothinman]

Your kidding me ? Those are your ports, and some are left open and attacker can see your comp and that there is a computer there. If your Stealth your not even seen on the internet,, I mean someone can get your IP but it shows there is no computer at that IP address... Your showing your computer to public and you have open port holes... hmm :twisted:

No, not kidding at all because I understand how TCP/IP and security work. Firewalls have been dropping pings for years now so no worthwhile attack relies on it. And if you have just 1 port open I know you're there, so having the rest be stealth becomes pointless. And if your router/firewall is doing it's job, no packets are making it into your PC unless you configure it that way. If you're not trying to open a port up to the Internet, just don't do that then.

Well, it was also for fun and to check out OpenBSD. Still, it works pretty well.

True, it's a decent system and PF is really nice. But I'm just too used to the convenience of Debian with regards to packages.

 

[mirandu04]

for me it is enough; that and the combination of a good antivirus is enough

 

[Chaotic42]

True, it's a decent system and PF is really nice. But I'm just too used to the convenience of Debian with regards to packages.

Yep. I miss it on every other OS, especially Windows. Maybe with their app store for Windows 8, they'll have free and paid repositories accessible by command line....:whiste::ninja:

 

[Nothinman]

Yep. I miss it on every other OS, especially Windows. Maybe with their app store for Windows 8, they'll have free and paid repositories accessible by command line....:whiste::ninja:

I would think there would be some PowerShell support for interacting with the store and packages installed from it, but it'll probably be as user-hostile as the rest of PowerShell and no one will use it.

 

[gammaray]

i installed zone alarm

 

[lxskllr]

ZoneAlarm always gave me flaky performance. When it worked, it worked great, but I'd regularly get updates that broke it. I switched to Sygate, and while I didn't like it quite as well, it was solid as a rock. When I went to broadband, I just used the Windows firewall.

 

[AE-Ruffy]

i used a network\hardware based firewall.

currently smoothwall on a old machine. Going to run pfsense soon.

 

[silvan4now]

i installed zone alarm

also tried it a long time ago but...NO

 

[gammaray]

also tried it a long time ago but...NO

why not?