Your Opinion On FIREWALL

[gogreen1]

Read MJC'S Thread on Applications and Security. Personal Firewalls. He mentions Sygate . Have any of you out there tried this one, and if you have, what is your opinion of it. Tried Zone Alarm and had problems with it. Running OS 98se. Explorer 5.0. Thanks

[randyrhoads1981]

Id go with Sygate Personal Pro.

[Jiggy]

try Black Ice, easy to use, no mess. me and my bro both use it.

[Mitch Hatfield]

Hi Jim

What kind of problems have you experienced with Zone alarm?

Are you running the latest (substantial) upgrade?

It was launched this week and can be obtained here:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/releaseHistory.jsp

If u do go for it, make sure that you follow the installation instructions to the letter- and preferably do a clean installation, although u can go over the top of your existing ZA program, should u prefer.

Otherwise, u have already heard mention of Sygate, a freeware firewall product which gets great marks from lots of knowledgeable users.

Between the two, there is probably little to choose, with Sygate maybe just having the edge.

In the end, however, u can do no more than u have done and that is to research the issue as far as u are able. Good luck!!:) :)

[gogreen1]

Thanks Mitch. Think I'll go with Sygate. I am going to do some reading on the subject. There is more to it than I thought. Just might have to ask you guys in the know a few questions. Thanks again.

[david eaton]

Jiggy You might want to lookHERE (http://www.grc.com) and see what Gibson security have to say. I do not know if it is right, but maybe something to think about.


David

[Mitch Hatfield]

Hi gogreen,

I've been through the same process of evaluating Firewall options - the FREE ones that is.

The Gibson Tests (access via Google), also FREE and one of which David has supplied Jiggy a link to, are fascinating. I also found the comparative study below to be most useful and very straightforward:

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/reviews/firewall/index5.html


Enjoy!!;)

[gogreen1]

I just downloaded The SYGATE Personal Firewall. I am a concerned about which ports to block and which ones to allow and why. Would appreciate your expert advice. Thanks

[Mitch Hatfield]

Jim

Would it help if I put up a screen shot showing my own current access/block situation with Sygate?

Otherwise, it's a bit of a problem to TELL you what to block and what to let through.

Some programs are obvious, some less so and with others it's personal choice.

Let me know. :)

[gogreen1]

Mitch, that would help alot. So far I really like SYGATE and your advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Mitch Hatfield]

Not very good at this image thing. Let's see how it goes, otherwise I'll email u the info later.


http://ukmitch.topcities.com/SYGATE.jpg:)

It gives u the general idea. Sygate selects and u say "yes" or "no" basically.

Let me know if u need more;)

[gogreen1]

Mitch, tried clicking on the image and it didn't work. What you told me though is basically what I have been doing. There are 2 Applications that I am concerned about allowing access. I just don't know what they are:
1. Net Beul Virtual Device (version 4.0) has receive a packet from remote machine do you want to allow this protocol drive to access the network.
2. Win 32 Kernel Core Component is trying to broadcast an ICMP type 10 (router solicitation packet to (224.00.2) Do you want it to access the network. Thanks for your advice. gogreen1@swbell.net

[Mitch Hatfield]

Hi again gogreen,

The win32 Kernel Core application I allow.

As to the Net Buel(Beul) Device, I'm afraid I've never heard of it before. A Google search turned up nothing.

Could be Spyware, although I've run it through "Spychecker" on the net, also without result. If u turn it "off" in Sygate, it may well request authorisation again, in which case u might spot what it is from what you are doing at the time.

In any event I'd run Ad aware, or Spybot, or even both to check it out for Spyware.

You may have these, but if not, they are FREE and can be obtained as below:

www.lavasoftusa.com

patrick.kolla.de/spybotsd.html

I don't if u've yet looked into the link u got the Gibson's research page, but a more specific reference is: http://grc.com/lt/scoreboard.htm

As requested, I've emailed the Sygate image to you. Hope it's ok :)
The link to the previously posted image is:
http://ukmitch.topcities.com/SYGATE.jpg