A multitude of firewalls post-SP2 1

[Nelviticus]

I have a hardware firewall that blocks incoming things and until yesterday I used the free version of ZoneAlarm to block outgoing things (I had turned off its incoming protection when I got the hardware firewall). Windows' own firewall (pre-SP2) had been turned off ages ago.

I installed SP2 yesterday and now I have a third firewall, the new one that comes with SP2. Things are getting pretty confusing at this point so I'd be grateful if someone could help me out with a couple of questions.

1. If I have the hardware firewall (an AP/router) to handle incoming traffic and ZoneAlarm to police outgoing traffic, is it safe to turn off the Windows firewall? By "safe" I mean "not foolhardy" - I understand that every extra level of protection makes you safer, it's just that I don't want too many layers of complexity otherwise configuring things like on-line gaming will be hellish.

2. Does turning off the Windows firewall in the security centre actually turn it off properly or do you have to go into admin tools for this?

3. If I were to use the Windows firewall, am I able to easily edit the list of applications which it's allowing/blocking? This is really easy to do in ZoneAlarm which is one of the reasons I'd like to stick with it.

Thanks

Nelviticus

 

[gpalmer711]

The Windows firewall only blocks incoming trafic, had it also included outgoing traffic it would almost certainly been looking at another anti-trust suit.

Turning the Firewall off in the security centre does indeed turn it off properly. Another way of doing this would be Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > Right Click you Connection > Select Properties > Click the Advanced Tab > Click the Settings Button.

This screen would also be used for controling which applications/ports are blocked/unblocked.

In my opinion you are getting nothing out of having the Windows firewall as it is just replicating your Hardware firewall.

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[Nelviticus]

Thanks for that Greg, I feel a lot happier about it now!

Nelviticus