How is XP's (SP2) firewall compared to other firewalls?

[BigToque]

I've never used one before and want to know if I should just use XP's firewall or another companies software.

 

[FoBoT]

look at it like "the club" , those steering wheel locks

whether you have a genuine "the club" or a knock off, why would a thief mess with a car with a steering wheel lock , when parked next to it are dozens of cars with no steering wheel lock?

if you run any firewall, you are in good shape compared to all the boxen on the 'net without any protection

$0.02 :money;

 

[RVN]

Good question. I downloaded a beta version a couple months ago and disabled it as ZA has been a champ for me and what I feel comfortable with. My understanding is that the built-in firewall will not "alert" you every time something wants access to the internet but that it is just as stealthy as ZA.

 

[spyordie007]

what this other thread wasnt good enough for you:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=1309941&enterthread=y

 

[NogginBoink]

I personally have a fundamental problem with running firewall software on the machine that the firewall is supposed to protect. There's just too much chicken-and-the-egg problem there.

I would highly advise a hardware firewall. Any of the current cable/dsl routers on the market would provide excellent firewall capability at a modest cost. (Do, of course, turn on Windows firewall as well, but be suspicious of depending on that as your sole protection.)

 

[spyordie007]

the problem with a hardware firewall is it doesnt protect you from on-network attacks. this isnt a big deal on small networks where you have a high level of control but on larger networks it's a lot harder to be sure you can trust every device that's located behind your hardware firewall...

 

[corkyg]

I installed SP2 (RC1 last month - and it has worked perfectly on all of my systems and the XP Firewall works well with ZoneAlarm Pro. Got 'em both active - no probs at all. And a modest hardware firewall exists in my Router. No probs with any of them.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
the problem with a hardware firewall is it doesnt protect you from on-network attacks. this isnt a big deal on small networks where you have a high level of control but on larger networks it's a lot harder to be sure you can trust every device that's located behind your hardware firewall...

Huh?

 

[SearchMaster]

If you are in an office where Vivian Virus plugs her laptop into your network (thus bypassing your external firewall), and you're not running a personal software firewall, you're potentially in trouble.