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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 04, 2004, 01:40:59 pm

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 04, 2004, 01:40:59 pm

After using Zone Alarm for some time, it's dawned on me that it's ****e.

So, are there any good free firewalls out there?

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: jdjtcagle on June 04, 2004, 01:44:43 pm

No free ones... But I have found the absolutly best nect solution...
Webroot Spy Sweeper, it' sa ad-aware / spyware remover and works in real-time and picks up on them as they come...  100x better than spybot search and destroy.  Do a search for it on google you won't regret it

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 04, 2004, 01:45:40 pm

I have that already, as it happens.
Just not installed.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Ghostavo on June 04, 2004, 01:48:23 pm

Try to get or borrow Norton from any of your friends :nervous:

Title: Re: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: karajorma on June 04, 2004, 03:17:15 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB
After using Zone Alarm for some time, it's dawned on me that it's ****e.

What's wrong with it? Never had any problems with it at all.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Corsair on June 04, 2004, 03:18:29 pm

Yes, please tell. What's wrong with ZoneAlarm?

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 04, 2004, 03:21:15 pm

No matter how many times I tell it to allow OFP access, it dosen't, causing the game to lock up.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: karajorma on June 04, 2004, 04:11:52 pm

I've seen that one before with Black & White and I don't think it's Zone Alarm's fault so much as the games. What I did in the end was turn off ZA. Boot up the game then alt-tab out and restart ZA.

Then I tried to start an online game. When the program tries to go online ZA will block it and this time you should be able to alt-tab out and accept.

With Black & White the problem was that it was running a second exe file and that was the main program (so therefore ZA needed confirmation for it to access the net) but the program was blocking alt-tab from working and therefore you couldn't click accept on the ZA dialog.

Can't really blame ZA for that one.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Stealth on June 04, 2004, 04:14:05 pm

i stopped using Zone Alarm because it didn't like DSL.  

anyone ever used McAfee Firewall?

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 04, 2004, 05:30:25 pm

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
With Black & White the problem was that it was running a second exe file and that was the main program (so therefore ZA needed confirmation for it to access the net) but the program was blocking alt-tab from working and therefore you couldn't click accept on the ZA dialog.

I manually set it to allow every OFP exe I could find, to no avail.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: mrduckman on June 04, 2004, 05:41:32 pm

I prefer the Sygate Personal Firewall.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: kv1at3485 on June 05, 2004, 12:06:12 am

Hey, someone else uses Sygate Personal other than me!  Yeah, I'd say the Sygate one is pretty good.  (Easier to use than Kerio.)

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Nix on June 06, 2004, 03:13:08 am

Big ups to the sygate massive!  
I've used it with no problems, has most of the other features of the other firewalls, and never really crashed any kind of multiplayer game.  I've used the Mcafee firewall before, and it's GOOD, cept that it screws over any kind of internet-dialer software.  I was using NetZero for a while before I could get REAL internet service cheap locally, and every time I would dial in, for some reason the firewall would block the initial connections to the server, and disconnect.  
I used Norton firewall as well for a while and had no complaints other than it was a little too "automatic" for me.  Not a lot of fine-tuning could be done with it.  Plus, the pop-ups that I had regarding certain types of connections were just getting overwhelming.   There is an option to not notify you though.
I also used ZoneAlarm for about 3 days, and I tried the Sygate trial as well.  After seeing that ZoneAlarm's support was garbage, and that Sygate catered more toward professional business types, I went with Sygate, bought the firewall and it's worked great ever since.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Fury on June 06, 2004, 04:23:13 am

The only good firewall is hardware one. Most decent DSL routers have built-in NAT capability and firewall.
If it must be a software firewall, then Sygate and Kerio (which both have free versions) are pretty good.

Windows XP's own firewall (which will be pretty good in SP2) should be more than enough for modem users.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: karajorma on June 06, 2004, 07:17:01 am

Quote

Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB


I manually set it to allow every OFP exe I could find, to no avail.

To this day I still can't figure out what task Zone Alarm added for Black & White. The programs list calls it lh yet no file of that name exists within the Black and White folder.

Even the second time I had to install ZA after a crash I couldn't manually add the program due to this oddity. It seems to point back to anther file called runblack.exe but tryng to manually add this did nothing. I suspect you're having the same problem as me. And considering that Black & White was incredibly unstable I'm going to blame B&W for this problem before Zone Alarm. :)

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Windrunner on June 06, 2004, 08:09:05 am

i am using the XP own firewall, works fine for me

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Ghostavo on June 06, 2004, 08:14:07 am

Am I the only security freak here? :nervous:

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on June 06, 2004, 08:27:03 am

Well I've got Kerio 2, and it's working fine, allowing OFP to work.

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: karajorma on June 06, 2004, 10:05:11 am

Quote

Originally posted by Ghostavo
Am I the only security freak here? :nervous:

I had a friend who was. He'd surf the net all the time checking on the latest exploits etc. He was always trying out new firewalls and anti-virus programs to see which one was the best. He was always telling me to do more about security etc. and pointing to his computer as an example. One day he went out, forgot to lock his back door and someone nicked it.

There's a moral in that story somewhere :D

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Admiral LSD on June 06, 2004, 10:56:45 am

I hate software firewalls.

"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"
"OH NOS!1!!!1! PROGRAM X IS TRYING TO ACCESS TEH INTERNET!1!!!!111 WANT ME TO STOP IT??!?!!?"

Title: Looking for a decent firewall.
Post by: Fury on June 06, 2004, 12:13:20 pm

Admiral LSD, that is why I have only NAT enabled on my DSL router. Anything can go out but nothing can come in unless I have port forwarding enabled. And I have nothing to worry about outgoing traffic because I know exactly what my 'puters eats. Unlike those who don't even know nothing about security.