Firewalls

[Epyslon]

What fire wall do you recommend?


I currently use Outpost Firewall Pro v4

[yukijin]

http://www.comodo.com and if you dont like it go to http://www.filehippo.com and look at their list of top software .

[Belisarius]

None. Use a router instead, it doesn't chew up your system resources (cpu cycles, ram usage)

Or Linux, since it's less vulnerable due to a lack of script kiddie software that targets Linux systems, but good luck getting FFXI to run under Linux. Curse Cedega!

[Epyslon]

None. Use a router instead, it doesn't chew up your system resources (cpu cycles, ram usage)

Or Linux, since it's less vulnerable due to a lack of script kiddie software that targets Linux systems, but good luck getting FFXI to run under Linux. Curse Cedega!

my connection is threw a router with wireless protection however it does not appear to have any sort of firewall functions. its a Dlink 624 rev c

[Belisarius]

Routers don't do application filtering, they use NAT. It's a different -- and IMO better -- sort of protection.

An application filtering firewall (zonealarm et al) operates by keeping a set of internet access rules. Program A is allowed to access the internet, and program B isn't, etc. This causes problems because when OS components (svchost.dll, anything referencing NDIS) ask permission to access the internet, lusers panic and block them, hence blocking the entire OS from internet access. This cannot happen with a router.

A router "firewalls" by effectively making your computer invisible. Your computers get non-routable IP addresses (usually 192.168.x.y) coming from 3 pre-defined IP address ranges which are by common consensus reserved for private networks. If a packet with a 192.168 ip address somehow DOES get out onto the internet--not that it ever should--the first router it hits drops the packet as garbage. Instead, any request you send to the internet goes out with your ROUTER's IP address and an encrypted header that tells that router--and only that router--which computer it is destined for. If you were magically able to swap out your router for another router of the exact same make and model, the second router would not be able to tell which computer on your LAN the packet was destined for, and would therefore drop it.

End result: The internet can't see your computers, it can only see your router. Your router is not running Windows. 99.9999% of all script kiddie programs target the Windows OS and send Windows API function calls which your router gleefully ignores.

NAT isn't a firewall by design, but in effect, it's all the protection you should need unless you're foolish and download trojans from warez sites which send out requests originating from your computer--and if you have such a trojan, an application-filtering firewall isn't going to stop it anyways.