XP, blackIce, or ZoneAlarm

[glen]

Is there any reason to use ZoneAlarm over the built in one in XP?

 

[Electric Amish]

I use BlackIce, but I don't use XP, I use 2K. 🙂

amish

 

[Iron Woode]

Zone alarm rules!

Black Ice Defender is just a joke. The worst part is it interferes with disk maintanence.

Check out grc and click on the Leak Test link. I am sure you will find it very illuminating.

 

[SerraYX]

ZoneAlarm was good until a few versions ago; an update slowed my connection to a crawl, and an uninstall made my net connection go dead. Reinstall did the same thing..I had to reformat.

 

[Czar]

Use anything you can except the XP firewall... just dont trust it.. security and microsoft doesnt mix 😛

I personaly prefeer tpf

 

[NetworkDad]

ZoneAlarm is a far better free firewall. Another vote for it, and read up at grc.com

 

[Electric Amish]

<< Zone alarm rules!

Black Ice Defender is just a joke. The worst part is it interferes with disk maintanence.

Check out grc and click on the Leak Test link. I am sure you will find it very illuminating. >>



Steve Gibson is a mope!

I tried ZA and it fouled up everything I tried to do. I installed BID and it has worked smoothly from the get go. The only thing it doesn't do is check the outgoing requests.

amish

 

[Iron Woode]

<< I installed BID and it has worked smoothly from the get go. The only thing it doesn't do is check the outgoing requests>>

Thats the whole point of Gibson's letter and test. Outgoing requests are more important then incomming requests.

And I installed zone alarm and had smooth sailing too. Never caused any problems with my internet access or functioning of my LAN.

 

[911paramedic]

<<

<< Zone alarm rules!

Black Ice Defender is just a joke. The worst part is it interferes with disk maintanence.

Check out grc and click on the Leak Test link. I am sure you will find it very illuminating. >>



Steve Gibson is a mope!

I tried ZA and it fouled up everything I tried to do. I installed BID and it has worked smoothly from the get go. The only thing it doesn't do is check the outgoing requests.

amish >>



I purchased black ice a while back, needless to say I threw away the case it came in and threw it into my cd binder. I went to install it again (on my XP Pro, reformatted with a new OS) and I could not locate the SN which I usually write down into a binder. I emailed the bastages and they never wrote back with a SN so I could use the product. Bastages. I had a similar problem with Flash and emailed them, they looked up my reg info and sent my SN within the week.

BLACKICE HAS NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT OR LOYALTY!!!!

 

[Electric Amish]

Yeah, but if the firewall has been in place since the attachment to the 'net then, theoretically, all the out-going request should be authorized/initiated by the user, right?

amish

Edit- According to tests done by PCMagazine, BID and ZA both only got 3/5. I forget what they thought was the best...

 

[Crucial]

Not if you somehow get a virus that goes undetected and uses your connection

 

[Electric Amish]

<< Not if you somehow get a virus that goes undetected and uses your connection >>



How?

Anyway, that's why you run a virus scanner too...

amish

 

[Iron Woode]

<<Yeah, but if the firewall has been in place since the attachment to the 'net then, theoretically, all the out-going request should be authorized/initiated by the user, right?>>

Theoretically you are correct, but in reality people don't start with a blank slate. The system may already be compromised and therefore, with BID installed, will never be aware of the problem.

Worse still is the fact that there are certain trojans and virii that can get into your system without triggering a reaction from anti-virus programs. Some javaspript virii get in that way and cause problems.

The point is that outbound requests need to be monitored.

PCWorld keeps giving Zone Alarm the award for best PC firewall product.

 

[Electric Amish]

<< <<Yeah, but if the firewall has been in place since the attachment to the 'net then, theoretically, all the out-going request should be authorized/initiated by the user, right?>>

Theoretically you are correct, but in reality people don't start with a blank slate. The system may already be compromised and therefore, with BID installed, will never be aware of the problem.

Worse still is the fact that there are certain trojans and virii that can get into your system without triggering a reaction from anti-virus programs. Some javaspript virii get in that way and cause problems.

The point is that outbound requests need to be monitored. >>



I don't agree. 🙂

amish

Edit- Anti-Steve Gibson Link(s)

 

[NeoMadHatter]

How about Sygate. that's what i use. it's great.

 

[glen]

What about Xp's built in firewall?

 

[rickn]

I use Tiny Personal firewall. It requires a little more knowledge than others, but it has worked great for me. It blocks both in and outbound.

http://www.tinysoftware.com/

 

[yakko]

<< Zone alarm rules!

Black Ice Defender is just a joke. The worst part is it interferes with disk maintanence.

Check out grc and click on the Leak Test link. I am sure you will find it very illuminating. >>

Oh my! It doesn't stop outbound traffic. You mean it actually works like it is designed to? How can they get away with that? Everyone knows your software is supposed to do stuff not written into the code.


Read a little here and then go to other security sites and read more.

 

[etech]

I like to know what programs are "phoning home". I use ZA.