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tomintx

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25 years ago

T

tomintx

1003 Posts

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9006

February 3rd, 2002 21:00

Need for 3rd party Firewall with XP?

If you use the XP Internet Firewall (ICF) option, can someone share why you also should have another one, like ZoneAlarm, as I have seen mentioned in several postings on the forum. I have done security/port checks from a couple of sites, including DSLreports, and received a green rating on both. Disabled ICF and did it and several ports were either detected or not stealthed. I used to use ZoneAlarm on my Win98 XPS T700 and know it was very simple to work with, but wonder what is the advantage of it over ICF in XP. Knowledgable referrals or site links that might assist me would be appreciated. Thanks.

Regards, Tom

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  • W

    wsnyder

    1 Rookie

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    580 Posts

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    Posted February 3rd, 2002 21:00

    The big advantage which I find useful is that ZA is very easy to temporarily disable and then re-enable, while the built-in firewall is not. I have found that on rare occasions ANY firewall interferes with the proper functioning of my satellite internet system. The other advantage is that ZA monitors outgoing internet usage as well as incoming, so that you know when something on your machine is attempting to use the internet; the built-in firewall does not do that.

    Shadow
  • G

    gmb79819

    1 Rookie

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    50 Posts

    201

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    Posted February 4th, 2002 00:00

    one firewall you shouldn't get is whatever one "boy" uses

  • T

    The_Fratboy

    129 Posts

    201

    0

    Posted February 4th, 2002 00:00

    one firewall you shouldn't get is BlackIce Defender. check out my link on firewalls.

    Some Links You Might Find Useful

    A Great Alternative to FrontPage

    Test your personal firewall's effectiveness

    Access a password-protected ZIP disk without knowing the password
  • Z

    Zupe

    57 Posts

    201

    0

    Posted February 4th, 2002 18:00

    As WSnyder mentioned, the major reason most people don't feel the XP firewall is sufficient is that it does not provide outbound blocking. What this means is that if a trojan, spyware or other malicious or semi-malicious program makes it on to your system, the XP firewall will do nothing to prevent it access. On the other hand, ZoneAlarm, Sygate, Tiny, Norton and a host of others provide both inbound and outbound protection. BlackIce, like the XP firewall, provides only inbound protection, so is also not generally considered a good choice as your only firewall.







































    Dimension XPS B1000r (Bios v. A08)
    Windows XP Home Edition
    256MB RDRAM
    IBM 45GB ATA66 HD
    NEC 12x DVD-Rom Drive
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    Dell FP1701 Flat Panel Display
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