Zone alarm pro...or? - Page 4

I do realize this - which is precisely why I mentioned the importance of antivirus / antispyware protection. Sure if you are unlucky enough to get hit with something very new - your virus / spyware signatures might not be up to date enought to spot it. But the chances for that are fairly low considering how often most vendors update their signatures (assuming you stay up to date on that sort of thing). And in the event that a virus/worm does get past your antivirus/antispyware protection it is possible that it could be smart enough to deactivate and/or rewrite your firewall software so as to render it useless.

Uh, no. My laptops are always online, no problems.

You're right, of course. But I subscribe to the "layered defenses" school of thought. If the enemy breaches your outer gates, he has to then take on your inner gate.

The entire point is why not just use Windows Firewall anyway? It's non-existent once you give your programs access and gives some level of protection.

^ Zone Alarm free should be adequate. But if you've got the money....

I was talking about thorndt, who said he didn't use any software firewall, which seems a little crazy in this day and age.

Sorry, man. It's been quite a few beers since your original post....

?????
Where did you get that?!?
I use norton (came free w/ 1.5 year subscription).

Normally I use AVG + Kerio Personal Firewall...

I think he meant FearNo1....

I setup my router to only let certain mac addresses use it. Is there any benefit to using WEP above that? (My router doesn't use WPA which I've read is better than WEP)

Mac addresses can be spoofed. Yes it helps and its a good start but you should also enable WEP (or better) and do not broadcast your SSID (you did change it already right )

As Adrenolin said MAC addresses can be spoofed, so it is still a good idea implement WPA or WEP. But perhaps even more importantly without encryption you are sending data that can be picked up and decoded by anyone within transmission range if they have proper equipment / software. So even if they did not spoof your MAC address they could potentially pick up data packets and interrogate them for valuable information you may be sending to / receiving from the Internet.

Nope, we're all wrong, I meant anettis, sorry guys *slaps head*

I just don't understand why you wouldn't turn on SP2 firewall anyway, anettis, it's free and offers a layer of protection in case something does get by your router.

I would like to point out that I am not wrong - Mr. K6. There is really no absolute right or wrong when it comes to how to configure a PC for security - rather it is a matter of opinion. And one's opinion is based on how comfortable they are with technology, what risk they are willing to accept, how many people are using the LAN in question, etc. When behind a router with SPI firewall on my own private LAN (where I am the only user) I simply don't feel it is worth the overhead of running a software based firewall. There is "some" overhead (granted it is very slight) plus there is configuration management for certain applications such as hosting a gaming server, peer to peer, etc. I perfer to keep this sort of configuraiton tied to my router. In some ways a firewall router can be superior to a software firewall as the router is basically its own device with a CPU, operating system, software, etc. - and as such it is not suseptible to the standard Windows based viruses, worms, etc. that a software firewall could be impacted by. Now granted running behind both the router firewall and the Windows firewall does give you some protection, but at this time I don't feel it is really needed with my current configuration.

AH no no, I didn't mean you or anyone was wrong. We were trying to figure out who I was talking to about having no firewall and I read back and realized you had mentioned you didn't run one, i.e. we all gave "wrong" guesses to who had said that. I'm first and foremost a firm supporter of everyone having the right to express his or her opinions. I was just wondering what your basis was for not running a firewall and I see what you mean. Sorry for the miscommunication, didn't mean to upset.

No problem Mr K6! Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks for the info guys. I was figuring along those lines after thinking about it. I'll setup WEP again.