Zonealarm and XP

[FuckMSTillTheyDie]

I know most of you guys don't use XP or any shit MS OS for that matter but some of us still have to use Microshit because that's the environment we
develop in and/or work in.

k nuff excuses.

hookup zonealarm and run XP...watch zonealarm go fucking crazy as XP constantly phones home for no reason (WMP is the biggest culprit)

I feel sorry for those morons that use the xp firewall (which doesn't catch anything from MS dialing out)..

to use microsoft products is to really learn to hate microsoft.

[Calum]

i heard somewhere that zonealarm wouldn't work with MSwinXP at all, maybe it was a rumour, or maybe zone labs fixed it quick.
Why not just set all those naughty applications to be automatically rejected every time they want to dial out?
Unless you WANT media player to SOMETIMES access the internet, there seems to be no reason not to cut of its 'phone priveleges completely, except it might make it run slower, but who's going to notice the difference anyway!?!

[Zombie9920]

The newest build of Zone Alarm is XP compatible. Why not just get on a P2P program and download Norton Personal Firewall 2002? It gets in the way alot less than Zone Alarm and it is just as(maybe more) secure.

[Nerull]

The onlyesr thing M$ XPee firewall stops thats Local Network / NetBIOS
Greets Nerull

[Zombie9920]

The built in XP firewall is better than no firewall at all(alot of home users don't know what a firewall is so obviously they aren't going to install one). It may not block attacks like backdoor trojans, but it does block connection to your machine through methods that don't use a backdoor. It also blocks portscans(it stealths your ports so your machine doesn't appear online to portscans).

[Calum]

That's all very well as far as it goes, but a lot of the time, those things that it doesn't protect against are going to affect people who don't know what's going on inside their computer (there's quite a few of them) and where will M$ be? throwing its hands in the air and saying it handed out a firewall and it was the user's responsibility to install a more comprehensive one if they needed it.
 

quote:Originally posted by Zombie9920:
(alot of home users don't know what a firewall is so obviously they aren't going to install one)

This is the bit that rankles me.
Those people don't even know what a firewall is? in that case, forgive me for being harsh but they need a bit of first hand virus infection to make them aware of firewalls.
Viruses are only going to multiply in the future (depending on the uptake of *nix of course    ) and people better be prepared for them.
"i didn't even know what a firewall was" is not going to make a trojan hang it's horsey head in shame and trot on out of your computer all by itself.
Zonealarm is free. many other ones are cheap.
It takes a few minutes, definitely less than an hour of one's life to make an educated decision regarding firewalls.

[eXor]

I've used ZoneAlarm but found it too simplistic.  It's popular because it's easy to set up and use ( kinda like the win OS family hehe). I prefer Tiny Personal Firewall as it's more flexible and provides much more control. You can set rules at the packet level or application level. Set it up properly and watch all hell break loose when IE tries to phone home  

[dbl221]

I maintain that a hardware firewall is best......preferably on running  Cisco IOS........a PIx firewall can be had for under $600.00 US.

[eXor]

yeah, hardware firewalls own. An old 486 with something like coyote linux is a nice cheap alternative to commercial solutions.

[voidmain]

I used to use PIX firewalls but have since switched to NetScreen for corporate.  I use dedicated homebrew Linux firewall at home with FreeS/WAN IPSEC VPN.