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Fire Wall for computer??????????

Spring CreekSpring Creek Member Posts: 1,260 ✭
edited July 2002 in General Discussion
Once I learned to get around on GunBroker, I thought that was all I needed to know.
Now all these new fangled words show up, like Fire Wall.
What do they do? Are they a good idea? Should a person install one?
Saw one advertised by "ANONYMIZER.COM", is theirs any good?
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Comments

  • GreenLanternGreenLantern Member Posts: 1,647 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Firewalls keeps anyone (unauthorized) from getting into your computer from another computer. If you have some form of high-speed access like DLS or Cable I would recommend it. If you just use your standard 56k dial-up modem you don't need it.
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  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have to go GreenLantern one better on this. Here's something I know a lot about, because I just went through the drill.

    Regardless of the speed of your modem, if you get e-mail, if you download shareware, if you use sites like KAZAA for music, you are becoming more and more likely to get a virus or worm, sooner or later. Some of these don't just screw up your computer, they build a "backdoor" so that anyone with the right utility can log onto your computer whenever you're on the net and see what's on your hard drive, maybe even mess with it.

    I have a 56K modem, and I got a virus or worm (I'll call it a virus) called "BackDoor SubSeven." There are several varieties called BackDoor. It came in from another unsuspecting victim's address book through my e-mail.

    Since my computer backs itself up against the need for a future restoration every now and then, it backed up this virus as well. So my virus scanning software found the virus and deleted it from my active files, but when my computer would fault and I would use the restore function, the virus was always re-installed. My virus software could "see" the worm in my restore archive, but couldn't delete it from there.

    A firewall blocks a foreign computer from successfully reaching what's on your computer when you're on line. Virus software, when updated weekly, will help keep you from getting a worm in the first place. But if you get a virus and it spreads into your "restore" archive, your virus software will tell you about it but it will be unable to get rid of it. So you don't want to mess with viruses too often, because they can require deletion of certain archives to eradicate. Some people even reformat their hard drives to get rid of it. Which is only a temporary solution if they don't do something to keep from getting another one. Enough about that technical part.

    The trouble with some firewalls I tried was that I couldn't understand them. They had blanks to fill in with strange words like "proxy server numbers." Not helpful at all. I finally decided to try the best, as recommended by local computer techs: Norton. I have Norton AntiVirus and Norton Firewall. Norton Firewall was easy to set up, told me exactly what it was doing and why, and enabled me to run a firewall on my computer sensibly for the first time. It notifies me when anything funny is going on.

    Guess what? Since I previously had the BackDoor worm, I must be on some digital mailing list, because my firewall has blocked a couple hundred attempts to hack into BackDoor SubSeven on my computer from a number of different servers since then. Despite my little 56K modem.

    I understand that Windows XP has firewall functionality built in. One more reason to upgrade, I suppose.

    - Life NRA Member
    "If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,842 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Zone alarm is the best you can get for the money (free!)

    You can get it at www.zonealarm.com

    Merc



    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

    ****************************************

    "Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt
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  • pigeoncreek1pigeoncreek1 Member Posts: 217 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Totally agree with Mercury. Zonealarm is a great product, I use it on my home PC. I have yet to have a problem with it!

    Gun control is hitting your target
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  • concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I also like Tiny Personal Firewall. You can download that one for free as well at http://www.download.com.



    Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT Criminals
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Norton has a good one which is part of their Internet Security suite, including anti-virus software which is just as vital to protect yourself. There are a host of good apps out there. Doesn't matter a great deal which you have as long as you have one of them. A professional cracker can probably get through the average home set-up, but has no reason to bother.
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  • rameleni1rameleni1 Member Posts: 998 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The best thing to do is upgrade to xp, and enable the firewall. Then get Norton antivirus 2002. The antivirus software can automaticly update itself. If you buy the "Norton Systemworks Suit" you will get a lot of things you don't really need. All of these other programs are usually copies of Microsoft programs, that come with xp. If you do install the other programs, they could be running all the time in the backround, slowing your computer.

    Rameleni1
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  • J and CJ and C Member Posts: 90 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    My advise is to upgrade to Windows XP and use Zonealarm. If you have a high speed internet connection a firewall is a must because your computer now has a permanent address on the internet and is always connected to this IP address and hackers never sleep.

    J and C
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  • AlpineAlpine Member Posts: 15,092 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not all high speed ISPs have a static IP address. It has to do with provider, whether you use a hub, and a number of other variables.

    "If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."
    ?The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.?
    Margaret Thatcher

    "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
    Mark Twain
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  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hold it! I'm getting double signals here. If XP does have a resident firewall, why add ZoneAlarm? I hear it's a good product, but two firewalls is asking for conflict trouble. Norton is generally agreed to be the state of the art for virus software, and I used to like McAfee better but I changed my thinking and found McAfee has a poor uninstall utility. It was an expert-level manual uninstall getting rid of McAfee. Anyway, I like Norton AV. It does have some good interaction with Norton Firewall, but I believe if I went to XP I'd first of all do a full install rather than an upgrade, and I would try XP's firewall alone before adding any other product into the mix. I assume XP has no antivirus, however, so we're still using third party SW like Norton for that aspect. I still don't know what "PRO" means.

    - Life NRA Member
    "If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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