Hi, im looking for a firewall for a Windows XP Professional 64-bit computer, the computer is mainly running game servers, ventrilo servers, that sort of stuff.
What would you use in this scenario?
I dont really have that much experience in Windows and firewalls, purely cos i wouldnt trust one connected to net, but in this case im forced, so any help, advice, recommendations, do and donts, would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance. bob.
Why not stopping everything without the exception of the offered services? Or at least using the Windows-Firewall to filter anything else away?
Additionally, it could be a good idea to check traffic for containing attacks onto exploits in such servers. Is there documentation about the used network protocols?
If so, then perhaps using a Linux or BSD box and implementing protocol filters yourself may help. Unfortunately I don't know ready made software for game servers.
Yours, VB.
Hi, thanks for replying, yeah the server was previously running Linux, and running well, but some games now dont support dedicated server for this platform so the move to Windows is pretty much forced.
As with the Windows Firewall, never really used it outside and internal network, being an MS product anyway im not 100% confident that it will be secure enough!
Thanks for the suggestion on checking expoits on such services, i will look into that.
Some of my colleagues suggusted Blackice Firewall, but these have never really used it in a High profile environment, so i was hoping that maybe some people would have prior knowledge/experience.
Once again, thanks for repling.
Bob
You should not chose Windows as a server platform if you're not trusting in Microsoft.
Yours, VB.
Why would you care, since your server is running on Windows anyway? Windows is a Microsoft product too, y'know, and every software firewall will be running on top of it.
As VB said: stop all services that you don't need on that box. Remove all software that isn't needed to maintain the server. If you feel you need a firewall: running it on a separate box would be a good idea, because software firewalls will hog resources that you'd probably rather use for the game servers.
cu
59cobalt
Oh **** is that why its called MICROSOFT Windows XP Professional! Oh crap! 10/10 there sherlock! ;-)
Done all that can be done with services and any other daemons that are running, group policy. As for the the extra resources used by the firewall, think it will be small compared to other apps running. Doesnt bother, so back to the purpose of my post, anyone have any recommendation for a firewall that will run on Windows XP 64-Bit?
Ta.
Then you're forced to use Windows. I understand. Well, then you will have the problems of Windows, regardless what you're doing else.
BTW, the Windows-Firewall seems to be a simple while effective paket filter implementation.
Yours, VB.
benson snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 22 Mar 2006 08:02:00 -0800:
I suggest you try running a number of software firewalls on your server and test it - they take up a lot more resources than you might think. Personally I'd stick to keeping the firewall on dedicated hardware rather than allowing it to impact game server performance.
Dan
I figured you'd miss the point.
You think wrong.
If you desperately need a software firewall: stick with the Windows Firewall.
Regards Ansgar Wiechers.
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