How much can I trust XP SP2 firewall on its own?

Gerald Vogt (someone who posts here frequently) would disagree with the above statements. I've used the SP2 XP firewall with no compromises but I am now using Sygate just because it allows better monitoring and outbound protection.

Go into your XP root folder. Count all of the $NtUninstall* folders. Every one of those is one more reason not to put all your faith in a single Microsoft solution.

So, let's cut to the chase: what are we actually wrestling with here, YK? Gaming problem? Can't solve it with Port Forward rules in your router?

/daytripper

"YKhan" wrote in news:1111520341.384250.73880 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

NO! NMAP can drill right through SP2 firewall.

You can not trust it any more than you trust anything based on MS Security. I would never connect a workgroup computer directly to the internet using SP2's firewall, and I would never suggest it as being "good enough" to any client.

What are you doing that you need a direct connection - we might be able to help you do it without a direct connection - securely.

I would think that taking the router out of the picture is just a configuration issue. So why are you removing the router to make a direct connect to the Internet with a machine?

Duane :)

There are always two or more sides to every solution, and I just will not trust my clients with SP2 Firewall as their means of protection. I've been working with computers since the 70's and never had a computer/server compromised, never had a client compromised, and install firewalls all over the country. I'm going to stick with what I know works and I see no reason to trust any personal firewall, let alone one put out by MS. Don't get me wrong, the company I own is a MS Partner, and we're also a ISV, but I'm not abound to even think of trusting the SP2 Firewall.

I checked out this thing after you mentioned it. It looks like it may not be an issue with the SP2 version of the Firewall.

Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary: XPSP2 rips out raw sockets

Yousuf Khan

Other than general reputation of the company who makes the product, is there anything specifically known about the SP2 firewall?

Yousuf Khan

Yeah, but it also doesn't look like there's a too much they could do to screw up this software -- listen for a signal on a port, and don't answer it.

No, just a problem with the router itself, it seems to overheat and drop connections.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote in news:fls0e.36450$nK.1208966 @news20.bellglobal.com:

Howdy. You may want to check these links.

It's nice the MS offer a free firewall, but the only thing I like about it is the nice looking high quality icon that has the red bricks in it!

Cheers.

There are lots of things being learned about the SP2 Firewall, like the ability of a program to add an exception for itself when the user is running as an administrator level account - seems like a serious flaw to me.

And?

sounds like you need a new router then, on the whole a router should be lot safer, and you can get a cheap wired one for beer money really.

roger

The problem is, it is a new router, only had it for a few months.

It's one of those ultra-compact routers, a Dlink DI-524, extremely tiny. I have an older DI-614+ in another location and that one has been running nonstop flawlessly for several years now, but it's also twice the volume of the DI-524. I think as is usual with these things, the tinier they get, the more they overheat.

Yousuf Khan

There is no outgoing security checkpoint. Which means, if you receive a Trojan, the data that that Trojan transmits will not be picked up by the firewall.

My suggestion is to use a conventional security bundle such as McAfee Security Center.

It picked up a DSO Exploit Spyware program practically before it began transmitting itself.

That's an advantage. If it doesn't pick up the spyware being stored on the hardrive, it will be picked when it transmits data back to it's source point

does it attaully get hot?

there is review of your router with some one else having drop outs,, if it gets worse as it heats up? then its probably is heat, if not possibly it might be something that can be fxed by a firmware update?

roger

Not that hot to the touch (through all of that plastic anyways). However, the proof comes from the fact that it doesn't happen as much when it's been turned off for awhile, but it does happen if it's been up for days or weeks.

possibly

-467__prod_id--11695769#prof_reviews>

The firmware is already at the latest, it was the first thing I looked at. I also noticed that it happens more on applications that require a lot of simultaneous network connections such as the ED2K P2P network apps. It doesn't happen as much on relatively low simultaneous connection networks such as Bittorrent P2P.

Yousuf Khan