Is SP2 win xp firewall any good?

[wedge22]

If it is I will leave it on if not I will run Sygate.

[directhex]

it needs some serious configuring before being anywhere near reliable.

[wedge22]

Ok I will turn it off and turn on sygate then.

[Paul Adams]

It's perfectly fine as a starting point for an inbound port filter - but it does not (by design) do any outbound port or application blocking at all.

The idea is that by having it enabled by default, the majority of home users will now have a level of protection against sasser/blaster type of attacks which was available before but they weren't aware of it.

Basically, if you know what a firewall is to ask if you need one, chances are you would benefit from using a 3rd party personal firewall.

The XP SP2 firewall is not meant to replace 3rd party solutions.