Re: PC Firewall Choices

[Nic Werner <nicwerner () gmail com>]

ZoneAlarm - gets in the way, and hard to diagnose problems. You end up
turning it off because it never remembers your settings and you can't
trust it.

Kerio - I liked the best, but the GUI would crash when trying to
display all your packets. This is a known bug. Allows you to create
rules, and to see how they are applied in comparison to the
system-generated rules. Definitely try.

8Signs - Said it had stateful packet inspection, but didn't. I gave up
trying to poke a hole for TFTP.

I haven't tried Tiny, its next on my list. The toughest part about
these firewalls (for me) is determining how/when a packet is filtered.
Does it hit the internal rules first or does it check against yours?
If one time you hit Permit on a pop-up window, can you go into the
program and find rule?


On 1/17/06, Steven <steven () lovebug org> wrote:
> I am looking at supplementing the Windows XP (Pro) SP2 Firewall with a third
> party product on a bunch of Windows machines.  I am trying to determine what
> product to go with and wanted to solicit some opinions from this mailing
> list.  The four that I really come across and have used in some cases are
> ZoneAlarm, Sygate, Norton, Kerio, and Tiny.  My understanding is that Norton
> has actually acquired Sygate and that the Sygate Personal Firewall probably
> wouldn't be the best choice of these now.  With that in mind I am looking
> for a product that easy to setup, easy to use, works well, and does not take
> up too much in terms of system resources or harddrive space ( I also don't
> want it to add 20 minutes to the boot process either).
>
> I am not looking for e-mail protection, anitivrus, or any other non-firewall
> type services to be included.  I do however want it to be able to manage
> applications and their internet usage.  (i.e. if they install something new
> that tries to access the web (trojans included) they will get a popup
> telling them something is doing this).
>
> Any suggestions and opinions on the above products and any others that I
> might not have mentioned are welcomed.
>
> Also -- on top of this if someone knows of software/hardware that can scan
> these machines and verify whether or not both the SP2 FW and/or the 3rd part
> FW -- and perhaps prevent them network access if they are not running --
> please let me know. [I am not sure what security products have these
> capabilities]
>
> Thanks
>
> Steven
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
> Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
> Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/


--
- Nic
_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/