Re: WinME firewalling

[adam morley <adam-fulldisclosure () gmi com>]

On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 08:03:30PM -0500, j wrote:
> I'm interested in opinions from list participants - all my work is with
> linux, like a firewalling linux bridge on a win/lin mixed network.
>
> Given:  A technologically-impaired grandmother with winME.  Any change
> of OS would be psychologically damaging... (WinXP 'kindergarten crayon'
> default theme would probably induce seizures... ;^)  Grandma now gets a
> DSL connection, and as per the ISP has this shiny new DSL modem plugged
> into said WinME machine, both now powered up ~24 hours per day, an open
> orifice with a target painted on it.
>
> What software firewall solution is truly suitable for Grandma?  As
> invisible to the user as possible, of course, since this Grandma doesn't
> understand most of the 'little window thingies' that spontaneously
> appear already.  (you know at least one - the manic 'ok' clicker...) 
> Additional hardware of any kind is not permitted, this has to be a
> software solution under WinME.

Why no additional hardware?  Is the DSL modem a USB modem or something?  When you said no additonal hardware, it 
immediately reminded me of this:

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8505038381.html

just because when I saw it I thought it was real neat, and I'd had the same idea for little VPN widgets for mobile 
officer workers.

That said, I ran Zone Alarm for someone and they liked it, but it had popups when certain apps tried to connect to the 
network which they really didn't like.  I too have trouble recommending software firewalls for Windows, but I'd look at 
the following articles at PC magazine, because PC magazine is synonymous with Windows for me:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1370707,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,646255,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,646256,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,55367,00.asp

One of the software ones in those articles must run on ME (hopefully)

-- 
adam

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html