How is Windows Firewall in Windows 7 now?

[PowerRanger]

So, anyone opting Windows 7's Windows Firewall over 3rd party software firewalls? My former favorite, Comodo, is not "officially" supported by Windows 7 as of now, so I'm giving Windows Firewall a shot. I've noticed it does not alert me for everything that tries to connect, as did Comodo...

I'd love to hear some comments regarding Win7's WF.

 

[BW86]

I used XP's firewall and now I'm using 7's firewall and I don't have any complaints.

 

[blackangst1]

Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

 

[PowerRanger]

Sounds good so far.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

Well if it still doesn't have two way protection, it's really not nearly as good as a third party solution.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

Well if it still doesn't have two way protection, it's really not nearly as good as a third party solution.

It has 2 way /filtering/ like other apps do. Outbound filtering is better used for for program control than security. If your box is pwned, outbound filtering won't stop anything from getting out.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

Well if it still doesn't have two way protection, it's really not nearly as good as a third party solution.

It and Vista's do. There isnt a feature on any mainstream 3rd party firewall you cant do on 7 or Vista. Including port forwarding, app filtering, port filtering, UDP/TCP filtering, etc.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

Well if it still doesn't have two way protection, it's really not nearly as good as a third party solution.

It has 2 way /filtering/ like other apps do. Outbound filtering is better used for for program control than security. If your box is pwned, outbound filtering won't stop anything from getting out.

Thats true of any firewall though

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ive only played a little with it, but if it is the same as Vistas-its just as good as any 3rd party FW. And IMHO, anything you can do nativley is better.

Well if it still doesn't have two way protection, it's really not nearly as good as a third party solution.

It has 2 way /filtering/ like other apps do. Outbound filtering is better used for for program control than security. If your box is pwned, outbound filtering won't stop anything from getting out.

Thats true of any firewall though

That was my point. You don't use outbound filtering(note my deliberate avoidance of the term security), as a security tool. It's best used for administrative program control.

 

[Lemon law]

Don't get confused here. When you get down to it, any two way firewall is as good as any other in terms of doing just the firewall thing. But what separates the men from the boys is.

1. The quality of the log files easily telling you what traffic is going in and out, and by extension what you what traffic you can easily block.

2. The other non firewall thingies like HIPs and Host files that better firewall offer.

I will take non Microsoft for a million Alex. Because we are all playing jeopardy with computer security.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Don't get confused here. When you get down to it, any two way firewall is as good as any other in terms of doing just the firewall thing. But what separates the men from the boys is.

1. The quality of the log files easily telling you what traffic is going in and out, and by extension what you what traffic you can easily block.

2. The other non firewall thingies like HIPs and Host files that better firewall offer.

I will take non Microsoft for a million Alex. Because we are all playing jeopardy with computer security.

I agree logs are a bit easier to read in say Norton than Windows, but its available. Also you can edit/modify hosts files in W7 Pretty easily.

 

[enkay18]

Hi guys - I recently enabled the block outbound connections settings in windows 7 Firewall. I then added outbound rules for each application that i want to allow internet access to.

Media player and media player network sharing service have predefined outbound and inbound rules in the firewall. So I enabled those rules. However I'm unable to see my media library on other computers or xbox360 even though I've enabled media sharing.

If i turn off the firewall then I can see them fine. So it's definately about some missing outbound rules in the firewall, but I have no idea what extra to enable. All the firewall settings that Microsoft recommends are already enabled in the firewall.

Any ideas ?

 

[blackangst1]

Well I know XBox uses UDP 88 and 3074, and TCP 3074

 

[enkay18]

Yeah those ports are open in the firewall, not sure what's going on.

 

[Meanstreak]

Windows firewall is okay, it always has been. Don?t mistake what it is for something else. It is a helpful component of a defense in depth strategy. My assumption is primarily that we are talking about home networking. If you are connected directly to the outside world and you are just relying on your firewall for protection then you?ve probably got some bigger concerns.

Asking normal users/family members to keep up with outbound rules and inbound rules per box is asking a hell of a lot. Even the most dedicated security practioners will fall into the ?Next, Next, Next? trap when presented like that. Fortification strategies are starting to go down the toilet for big business, but it is still effective for home users. There are so many that don?t have any defense, why not go for the low hanging fruit. All security is, is making yourself less attractive than your neighbor. Get yourself a decent gateway with a good firewall, set your outbound rules there. Save your main PCs resources or better yet, trade those outbound fw rule cycles for some HIPS/File Integrity Management.

For good measure, hopefully you aren?t doing your daily tasks as a local administrator, that is all kinds of bad juju.

 

[Isura]

Windows 7 firewall + hardware firewall is a great combo. The only valuable additional feature in 3rd party firewalls is easier outgoing traffic control. Creating rules in W7F is clunky. But outgoing traffic control is not a security measure so I leave the default setting. I've had nothing but bad experiences with 3rd party firewall. They just bloat your system and add an redundant layer of security. I also find stand alone antivirus runs better than the full security suites available.