Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)
  • Which free firewall?
  • tiss
    Free Member

    Just installed AVG on my new laptop,but it does not include a firewall…..Anybody using a free one which they can recommend?

    HTTP404
    Free Member

    comodo

    Drac
    Full Member

    The one in your router.

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    thepurist
    Full Member

    Sunbelt works for me – use it alongside AVG

    retro83
    Free Member

    The one in your router or the windows built in one.

    tiss
    Free Member

    HTTP4…..Used comodo for a day or two,but wants to deny access to pretty much anything foreign.

    tiss
    Free Member

    Call me dim,but ‘the one in your router?’….

    scu98rkr
    Free Member

    both router + windows firewall

    Drac
    Full Member

    Which router do you have most have a built in firewall?

    HTTP404
    Free Member

    routers use nat firewalls.
    not the same thing.

    retro83
    Free Member

    Yes yes but since it blocks incoming connections reaching the pc in most cases it will do enough.

    Drac
    Full Member

    routers use nat firewalls.
    not the same thing.

    Does the same job.

    HTTP404
    Free Member

    Does the same job.

    No. It doesn’t.

    breakneckspeed
    Free Member

    +1 for COMODO – can be a bit of a faf at first but no problems here oncie its up & running

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    zone alarm

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    routers use nat firewalls.
    not the same thing.

    I have a Netgear DG834G modem/router and it has a pretty useful firewall built-in.
    Control over incoming and outgoing ports, broadcastable logging, UPnP support, VPN support, DoS and Port Scan protection.

    More than sufficient for home use.

    I’d only bother with a software firewall if I was using a laptop and connecting via WiFi points etc where I don’t have any control over who else is on the network.

    stilltortoise
    Free Member

    HTTP404 – explain yourself. Why is a software firewall needed as well as a nat firewall in a router?

    Drac
    Full Member

    I have a Netgear DG834G modem/router and it has a pretty useful firewall built-in.

    Snap!

    HTTP404
    Free Member
    Christowkid
    Free Member

    Have used Zone Alarm for years….. but the recent version seems to be a complete nightmare. I’m running vista, and in the end took it off as it really was screwing it all up. ( can’t remember exact details, bit simply just too much faffing )
    I asked several IT people’s opnions, and also posted on here. General opinion being that our router + windows firewall seems to be sufficient for home use.
    cheers
    Q

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Whilst NAT discards all unsolicited traffic received from the Internet, it does not restrict conversations initiated by the computers behind it. A software firewall (and it’s user) would theoretically prevent malicious programs from initiating these ‘outbound’ conversations.

    As I said, the firewall on my router does allow me to control outgoing ports. Granted it only does it by port as it can’t know which particular program is initiating the connection, but I agree with…

    Clearly, a software firewall employed as a security measure in this scenario should only be considered as a last resort backup against the subset of malicious code that is network-aware. If your existing measures against malicious code in general (common sense included) are up to scratch, a software firewall may well be a waste of both your and your computer’s resources. If they are not, you really need to make them so!

    As with all security measures, the decision to run a software firewall should be based upon an evaluation of the cost / benefit ratio. A software firewall uses memory and CPU time on the host computer, requires proper configuration, frequent user interaction and often produces false positives in (usually overly dramatic) alerts and logs.

    The router firewall is more than sufficient for me. I leave the built-in Windows Firewall running for some software-level protection, but I have no need to install ZoneAlarm, commodo etc.

Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)

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