Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
DanR wrote:
> Thanks for fast answer River Rat. I'll look into Zone-Alarm. Do you like it
> better than XP FW?
Almost anything is better than WinXP's built-in firewall, which is
adequate at stopping incoming attacks, and hiding your ports from
probes. What WinXP SP2's firewall does not do, is protect you from any
Trojans or spyware that you (or someone else using your computer) might
download and install inadvertently. It doesn't monitor out-going
traffic at all, other than to check for IP-spoofing, much less block (or
at even ask you about) the bad or the questionable out-going signals.
It assumes that any application you have on your hard drive is there
because you want it there, and therefore has your "permission" to access
the Internet. Further, because the Windows Firewall is a "stateful"
firewall, it will also assume that any incoming traffic that's a direct
response to a Trojan's or spyware's out-going signal is also authorized.
ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available. Even the commercially
available Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall is superior by far,
although it does take a heavier toll of system performance then do
ZoneAlarm or Sygate.
> Is it easy on system resources? Norton's sure isn't. Also
> looking into anti-virus for same reason.
>
>
>
You'll get nearly as many differing opinions as you will
responses.
I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all
without any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that.
But it's been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee
products. Their quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they
were acquired by Network Associates.
However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ) and the
free version of Sygate's Personal Firewall
(http://smb.sygate.com/free/default.php ). Both have proven to be
easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I
was pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable
improvement in my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec
product.
--
Bruce Chambers
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