alternate to firewall?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.networking.firewalls,comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

ATM I am using Tiny Firewall but i no longer have a need for it
apart from popping up when a new process starts up and
asking whether it should be trusted (this time only / always)
or not, etc.

are there any programs available that do just this? any recommendations?

ashecorven

Archived from groups: alt.comp.networking.firewalls,comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

ashecorven wrote:
> ATM I am using Tiny Firewall but i no longer have a need for it
> apart from popping up when a new process starts up and
> asking whether it should be trusted (this time only / always)
> or not, etc.
>
> are there any programs available that do just this? any recommendations?
>
> ashecorven

what else is it doing that you don't want it to do?

if it did 'just that' then it wouldn't be a firewall. firewalls block
incoming too. but that's mostly invisible. So you gotta say what it
is doing that is a nuisance to you. Maybe the graphical user interface
is cluttered. Sygate has a nice interface, you might want to try that.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.networking.firewalls,comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

Thankyou VB, james and casey for your responses.

I should have explained some more. I have being using tiny firewall for
quite a while but now i have bought a router and i do believe (please
correct me if i'm wrong) i don't need the "main" use of the firewall
anymore. But tiny like other firewall products i have used in the past (ZA,
Sygate) it pops up when a new program starts and asks whether it is
trustworthy etc. or if the file has changed since the last time is was run
etc. I find this quite useful and was wondering whether there were any
programs that did JUST that.

However i would like to know which firewall software is currently regarded
as the best. I would rather a firewall that uses minimum system resources.
Any trustworthy third-party websites with features, effectiveness, etc?

All comments welcome.
AHA

ashecorven


<jameshanley39@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1127591284.787868.39710@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> ashecorven wrote:
>> ATM I am using Tiny Firewall but i no longer have a need for it
>> apart from popping up when a new process starts up and
>> asking whether it should be trusted (this time only / always)
>> or not, etc.
>>
>> are there any programs available that do just this? any recommendations?
>>
>> ashecorven
>
> what else is it doing that you don't want it to do?
>
> if it did 'just that' then it wouldn't be a firewall. firewalls block
> incoming too. but that's mostly invisible. So you gotta say what it
> is doing that is a nuisance to you. Maybe the graphical user interface
> is cluttered. Sygate has a nice interface, you might want to try that.
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.networking.firewalls,comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

ashecorven wrote:
> Thankyou VB, james and casey for your responses.
>
> I should have explained some more. I have being using tiny firewall for
> quite a while but now i have bought a router and i do believe (please
> correct me if i'm wrong) i don't need the "main" use of the firewall
> anymore.

that's 90% right
'Home Routers' block incoming, (the main security advantage)

Thoguh if you wanted to run a server, then you migt want to tell your
software firewall to restrict access so that it's not open to any IP.

And also, the PFW offers a second layer of security.

What you need or don't need is relative to you. But if you were
runnign servers and you don't want anybody to connect to them, then you
would need a firewall.

And you will probably want to run servers. Running an FTP or similar
server is almost the only easy way to transfer files. And you wouldn't
want anybody conecting, so a firewall blocking or restricting incoming
is important.


>But tiny like other firewall products i have used in the past (ZA,
> Sygate) it pops up when a new program starts and asks whether it is
> trustworthy etc. or if the file has changed since the last time is was run
> etc. I find this quite useful and was wondering whether there were any
> programs that did JUST that.

that is blocking outgoing and prompting with a popup
there are no programs to block just outgoing. So your software firewall
would be blocking incoming superfluously/redundantly . The incoming
packets wouldn't actually reach your PFW, they would stop at the
router.
your PFW won't use up much resources from blocking incoming (especially
since there's nothing to block if your router is stopping it and you
don't want it to reach one of your servers)

> However i would like to know which firewall software is currently regarded
> as the best. I would rather a firewall that uses minimum system resources.
> Any trustworthy third-party websites with features, effectiveness, etc?

I just ask a few people, they usually rate Sygate very highly. I've
heard Kerio rated highly. I prefer sygate, nice gui.

but, I don't think sygate prompts when a file has changed like your
current PFW does!
sygate does has a nice port logger updated in real time. maybe some
other PFWs don't have that. The windows firewall doesn't.

There is debate as to whether it's worth blocking outgoing at all. See
recent threads where VB demonstrates how a malicious program can easily
get aroudn this.

You shouldn't worry about a firewall using resources blocking incoming.
It really doesn't use much resources. I know sygate has an option to
"allow all" but that'd allow all incoming and outgoing. Leaving you
with the port logger as the only feature left!

Archived from groups: alt.comp.networking.firewalls,comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

"ashecorven" <gharoway@netspace.net.au> wrote in
newsh8tic$1lth$1@otis.netspace.net.au:

> Thankyou VB, james and casey for your responses.
>
> I should have explained some more. I have being using tiny firewall
> for quite a while but now i have bought a router and i do believe
> (please correct me if i'm wrong) i don't need the "main" use of the
> firewall anymore.

Well, some say yes and some say no. If you're practicing safe hex, have a
router that does logging so you can watch inbound and outbound traffic to
and from the router and basically know what you're doing like looking for
dubious remote connections and using proper tools to help in the
detection process, then no you don't need a PFW/packet filter solution to
supplement the router.

But most home users don't know how, and therefore, some use a PFW/packet
filter solution to supplement the router as most routers for home usage
cannot stop outbound if needed. And I am not talking about the worthless
Application Control in PFW solutions but rather the ability to stop
outbound by at least setting filtering rules to stop outbound by port or
IP.

> But tiny like other firewall products i have used in
> the past (ZA, Sygate) it pops up when a new program starts and asks
> whether it is trustworthy etc. or if the file has changed since the
> last time is was run etc. I find this quite useful and was wondering
> whether there were any programs that did JUST that.

It's worthless as malware can circumvent and defeat it. It can be
defeated at the computer boot process as malware can get to the TCP/IP
connection first and be done before the PFW solution can even start and
get there to do anything. Anything running at the machine level with the
computer's O/S suspect to being attacked and defeated.

>
> However i would like to know which firewall software is currently
> regarded as the best.

None of them as they all do the same thing some with more bells and
whistles than others.


I would rather a firewall that uses minimum
> system resources. Any trustworthy third-party websites with features,
> effectiveness, etc?

Snake oil

Duane