Windows XP Firewall vs ZoneAlarm

[kwinsw]

Just out of curiosity, for the moment at least, I’m looking into how well I can secure a PC using just Windows XP Firewall (SP2). Does anyone know what advantages third party firewalls sush as Zonealarm have over ICF?

I know that it doesn’t monitor outbound traffic, but is there anything else? It looks pretty comprehensive at first glance.

Thanks for any and all help.

KWINSW

 

[djpic]

The Third Party firewalls allow more features and customization. The windows firewall is fairly new and has not been fully developed. In my option, the windows firewall works fine as long as you have a router (for personal computer). If you are directly connected (DSL or Cable), I would say use a third party software or if you are in a business environment, best to use a third party software or hardware (hardware preferably). Also keep in mind that third party software firewalls use more resources than the windows firewall because of the additional features and tend to take a little longer to configer. It all depends how secure you wish to be.

 

[karlisi]

Windows firewall is one way, it blocks only incoming connection attempts.
ZA blocks also outgoing connection attempts, it is more flexible, but it is for more knowlegable users and there is much more work to configure it.

===
Karlis
ECDL; MCSA

 

[pinkpanther56]

Yes agreed if i'm looking at a friends XP box i'll always turn on the firewall but i'm warey about installing ZA as my phone starts ringing. If you're looking to defend a few boxes against worms and keep your phone from ringing then the windows firewall is fine. For a more comprehensive solution with users that will understand all of the ZA popups (the outbound filtering is usless if users just click ok to everything) then ZA is for you.

 

[cdogg]

kwinsw,
I can't speak for Mcafee's firewall, but from personal experience, ZA and Norton's firewall solutions aren't that bad at hogging resources. I've configured both on many PC's without noticing any major slowdowns.

Norton is slightly worse off than ZA in terms of resource management. However, in this day and age, the average PC over 2GHz isn't going to notice, unless the PC is already bogged down with too many apps at startup to begin with.

As for the Windows built-in firewall...

I would say that it is fairly secure from incoming attacks. However, incoming is hardly the worst of your concerns nowadays. Most attacks are planted within files you download or actions you execute on the web, compromising your PC from within, then sending unauthorized packets of data to the hacker. So getting a software app that monitors outgoing packet data is worthwhile regardless if you're behind a router or not.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[kwinsw]

OK, having another problem now. I'm trying to set XP SP2 firewall up to block pretty much everything apart from basic web surfing. Even when I remove all exceptions, however, the machine can still download from ftp sites or connect to and stream from an external audio or video source.

Anyone know what's going wrong?

Thanks

KWINSW

 

[karlisi]

XP built-in firewall can block connections which are initialized from outside not from inside. You should use ZA or similar software to do this.

===
Karlis
ECDL; MCSA

 

[cdogg]

kwinsw,
Yes, maybe that part doesn't seem very clear. In your original post, you acknowledged that you understood XP's firewall doesn't monitor outbound traffic. Well, downloading via FTP or watching streaming audio/video is part of that. YOU are initiating the connection, not the outside source. XP's firewall will allow anything you initiate (or anything that a worm, virus, spyware initiates), which is why many recommend a 3rd-party app for more protection.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117380,tfg,tfg,00.asp

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[genekr]

You guys are the best! Thank you.