What Firewall for XP PRO and WHY!

[|{££|"]

yo,
wondering whats the best firewall to use on XP PRO as currently using Pc-Cillin2002 with built in AV get nice dl speeds etc.but when downloading a trail ISO the other night was getting crappy speeds and there were loads hosting and dling and they were getting nice speeds.... so what and how should i config Pc-Cillin2002 or what AV would you advise, NOT FREE ONES as i heard they dont have all the features that you need... so what firewall would you guys advise...
PS i play source so dont want it to interfere with that....
cheers for any opinions or info

keef

[Betty_Swallocks]

I use Norton Internet Security which comes with Anti Virus as well.
I've no complaints about it at all. It's nice and easy to configure and it gives me all the features I need, including the ability to define different users on the PC and apply different content restriction to each. Probably not that important to most on the forum, but as a parent I like the fact that I can prevent my 5 year old from stumbling across stuff she shouldn't be seeing while leaving my own account unrestricted.
The anti virus is one of the market leaders, and the firewall has kept me protected against lots of intrusion attempts while allowing me to host online games with no problems.

[|{££|"]

sorry mate not a big norton fan... very unimpressed with it,i switched AV proggys and found literally 100s of virus's none of which norton found...

[Zak33]

are you on boradband? If so I'd strongly suggest you think about saving for a hardware firewall/router cos they dont drain your PC while fending off the advances of al the weirdo's out there.

Mean time, I understand that Service Pack 2 firewall is pretty good!

If not...ZoneAlarm.

[|{££|"]

zonealarm kewl heard good stuff bout that.

[myth]

I use my hardware on the nforce 3 chip... And I also have a router firewall! I never use software, its just a waste of resourses..

[nvening]

tre but the best AV is kaspersky pro, but it costs

[r1zeek]

zonealarm kewl heard good stuff bout that.

But be forewarned:

I used to be a hardcore ZoneAlarm user (had 56k) and it has a permissions system where you have to let stuff get out to the internet. It has been helpful a few times ("Would you like to let "msblaster.exe" access the internet?" ) but most of the time it's very annoying whilst playing games (for example, you're loading into a source server and just as it gets to the end of the load, the game seemingly hangs, but all that has happened is zonealarm has popped up behind the game so you can't see the permissions prompt. Although it does save the config (so you will only need to do it once) it does get right on my nerves!

That's about the only thing wrong with ZA and if you manage to set that up into a sweet spot then it should cause barely no problems

[/warning]

IMHO, you should take Zak33's advice, save up for a hardware firewall, I was very glad finally being able to dump ZoneAlarm in favour for a much more secure Router. I have had fewer problems with opening ports on my router than I had in a month using Zonealarm, nuff said.

But if you don't want to get a router, ZoneAlarm *should* do, but as I mentioned, it can become infuriating.

[|{££|"]

personally dont see the point in hardware firewalls.besides lol few resources dont bother me,all games and apps run smooth...

[r1zeek]

besides lol few resources dont bother me,all games and apps run smooth...

The point I was trying to make was that it pops up all the time when you're trying to play net games (and will continue to block them if you don't set it) and if you disable the permissions system, there is no point having a software firewall.

And what would be best is a router, provides IPs to multiple computers and also protects all of your ports (my router has inbound protection only so you can "dial out" easily but can't connect without permission)

It's your call matey and if you're on a tight budget, go for ZoneAlarm Pro (or free zonealarm)

[|{££|"]

hmmm
i use pc-cillin2002 all up to dated and i dont seem to get problems some erm spyware sometimes but ad-aware gets rid of that

[nvening]

you will be shocked if you try spysweeper and pestpatrol then.

[cm_uk]

norton 2002 was gd. then went the mcaffee route

[Anders]

Anti Virus wise I use Kaspersky as well.

If you do want to use a software firewall I would recommend Agnitum Outpost, took me a bit of time to setup properly but it is worth getting to grips with. Download the secure configuration guide on this page. Also, the stickies here are useful.

[nvening]

dont like mcafee, dont like nortan, free avg all the way lol

[timread]

Agnitum Outpost (2.5) is supposed to be an excellent firewall-only software package - low resource use, excellent logging.

I recently uninstalled ZAPro (for the second time now, only to come back after the first time) because it currently has an issue that causes it to crash. Fed up with this happening on ZA every year... go check the ZA forums, you'll see what I mean