nVidia Firewall - impressed! - NOT!

[MDesigner]

I'm building a PC for my mom, and of course (those crazy parents) I'm trying to safeguard it as much has possible so she doesn't get into trouble via phishing, viruses, etc.

I was pleased to find out that the latest nForce drivers came with some sort of Firewall software. I figured I'd try it out. Wow.. it easily blows the Windows firewall away. This a full-freaking-blown firewall, with port forwarding, inbound *AND* outbound control on a PER-application basis...and tons more. It's SLICK.

EDIT: Scroll down for updated opinion This program was cool for about 4 hrs.

 

[JackMDS]

Until recently the NVIDIA firewall was a ?Dud? that every one stayed away from.

Are you claiming that Now it works well?

May be, please come back after few weeks of usage and update us.

:sun:

 

[blemoine]

very impressive. i see that it is ICSA Labs Certified. i know certain Posters (spidey07) swear by ICSA Labs Certifications. good job

 

[MDesigner]

Seems to work well so far. Looks/feels like a commercial product that would've cost $40-$50. Has a nice little animated popup window that warns you when there's an incoming connection to a port, OR an application is trying to connect out to the net (which is cool). Very configurable.. lots of options. Very awesome.

 

[spikespiegal]

(1) The Nvidia Firewall is a problem child, and at some point you will have a problem with it. Likely you'll disable something critical, like a Micrsoft security module that will leave you more vulnerable.

(2) Relying on firewalls,thinking they will defend you from Spyware/Virus's is like expecting the a radar detector / fuzz buster to protect you from a head on collision. I suggest you read up on the number of people who have software firewalls of better quality, and are still having to wipe their machine from a bad Trojan/Spyware infection.

 

[blemoine]

Seems to work well so far. Looks/feels like a commercial product that would've cost $40-$50. Has a nice little animated popup window that warns you when there's an incoming connection to a port, OR an application is trying to connect out to the net (which is cool). Very configurable.. lots of options. Very awesome.

The 1st question i ask myself when evaluating a firewall is "Am i going to get enough popup warnings?" Because honestly you can never have enough. Its not like you would get an infinite amount of highly dangerous portscans. I personally want to know about every single one so i can react to them.

In all seriousness the windows firewall is not great but it serves its purpose. Its purpose is to make your pc "invisible" on the network and block services that you have not allowed. That is about it. If you want anything more than that then you need to get a different box (ie; Ipcop or Smoothwall) This goes with the idea of layering security. Since this is a home user "Layering Security" may not be necessary. A more effective solution would be to keep the windows firewall, install an Antivirus program and create your mom a users account with "user" rights. that way most adware will not be able to install since the user account she is logged on with doesn't have the rights to install anything. Warnings + very configurable = locked out/angry user. please give this some thought.

 

[MDesigner]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
(1) The Nvidia Firewall is a problem child, and at some point you will have a problem with it. Likely you'll disable something critical, like a Micrsoft security module that will leave you more vulnerable.

(2) Relying on firewalls,thinking they will defend you from Spyware/Virus's is like expecting the a radar detector / fuzz buster to protect you from a head on collision. I suggest you read up on the number of people who have software firewalls of better quality, and are still having to wipe their machine from a bad Trojan/Spyware infection.

I'm an advanced user.. of course I don't expect a firewall to stop trojans/spyware. For trojans/viruses, I use Bitdefender 9. For Spyware, Spybot Search & Destroy is my choice. Anyone have any experience with Microsoft's "Malicious Software Removal" tool? I expect it to be crap, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[stash]

The malicious software removal tool is a tool that is usually only run once at a time. It is updated every Patch Tuesday and posted on Windows/Microsoft/Automatic Updates. You can also manually run it at any time, but again, it is a manual tool, and it does not have any sort of real time scanning or more frequent update capabilities.

For realtime scanning and more frequent updates, check out Windows Defender from Microsoft.

Personally, I can't stand any of these tools (Defender, Bitdefender, Spybot, antivirus, etc), since they are all reactive in nature. I like to be proactive in keeping things off my machines in the first place. If something were to get on my machines, I wouldn't waste time with these tools to try to clean it up, since I would never be able to truly trust the boxes again.

 

[JackMDS]

MDesigner, the nice Interface and the ICSA were there when it was working "Bad".

I have few computers that are base on NVIDIA chipset with AMD CPUs. I like the systems.:thumbsup:

I tried few times the NVIDIA firewall and it simply did not work well (last try about 6 months ago).:thumbsdown:

As for AntiSpyware. Microsoft Defender is ranked as one of the best Antispyware protection by most serious reviewers :thumbsup: (if you are seasoned serious user you should be able to distinguish between social fashion of bashing Brands and technological facts).

Here you have a page that shows how to assamble Free, Excellent security suite and save the $40.

Freeware Security suit for Internet Connection Protection.

However by all means, let the NVIDIA suite "Ride" and tell us after few weeks what is the results.

:sun:

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: stash Personally, I can't stand any of these tools (Defender, Bitdefender, Spybot, antivirus, etc), since they are all reactive in nature. I like to be proactive in keeping things off my machines in the first place.

Well this is based on an assumption that the way you are using your computer, your Interests, your Intellectual capacities, and Willing to learn Technological Issues, is shared with most of the people on this planet.

I have Good news for you as far are computing is concerned you are in the top 99%tile (that is percentile Not percent) of the planet population.

So, if you think that all of us would be in business if we perused only people that are at 97% tile and above? You are absolutely Right.

The above is written as a tribute to all the people that their VCR/DVD flushes 12:00 AM Jan. 2000

:sun:

 

[MDesigner]

I didn't need a few weeks to evaluate the nVidia Firewall. It stopped working for some reason.. new applications were able to connect out without permission. I messed with the settings.. couldn't figure it out. I just got done uninstalling it. Oh well!

Thanks for the tip on MS Defender.. I'll grab it! I'm careful with my own computer on what I download, so I don't worry about spyware.. so I haven't used any anti-spyware software in a loong time. Last I used was Spybot S&D, which was good. But if Defender is better, then I'll go for it.

PS, Bitdefender 9 is seriously the best anti-virus software, hands down. I did a comparison a year or so ago of several diff. ones (Panda, McAfee, Norton, etc).. Bitdefender had the best detection rate for virii and trojans.

 

[stash]

Well this is based on an assumption that the way you are using your computer, your Interests, your Intellectual capacities, and Willing to learn Technological Issues, is shared with most of the people on this planet.

It's not based on anything. It is my personal choice to not run these tools, and no where did I say that nobody should use these tools.