looking for a firewall

The Windows XP packet filtering FW is compatible.

Duane :)

He said "Firewall", that excludes Windows Sp2 and it's firewall.

A good one is already with your Windows - the Windows-Firewall.

Yours, VB.

I use the free version of Kerio personal firewall with avast! and windows xp sp2 on my laptop.

There is only one answer, Tiny. While it is no longer free, and costs $99 for the latest version, Tiny can do a lot more than other software firewalls. I have tried Zone Alarm, BlackIce, and MacAfee, but Tiny Firewall is the best. After trying MacAfee, BlackIce, and ZoneAlarm, I can see where software firewalls get the sterotype of "toy firewall". Tiny can do a LOT more. Tiny can, for example, stop Kazaa, where those other firewalls, and evev hardware appliances, cannot.

Any external firewall box should work fine :-)

Juergen Nieveler

Tiny is the only software firewall, however, that can block and/or restrict outbound communications. The only other solution would be to buy a hardware appliance that would be several times the cost of Tiny, and would not be as flexible or customizable as Tiny

Well, reciting

Tiny "Personal Firewall" does not filter all network servers in the standard configuration. This makes Tiny unusable for Joe Average.

Tiny cannot prevent spyware from sending your personal information across the Internet; it failed in our tests together with the rest of the "Personal Firewalls".

Tiny does not make a PC "invisible" or "stealth" in the Internet, as this is not possible at all.

And:

Tiny "Personal Firewall" installs SYSTEM-Services, which open windows.

This is a gross error, because this breaches security. Tiny show here, that they never read Microsoft's design guidlines for system services:

ary/en-us/dllproc/base/interac tive_serv...

For a software, which should enhance security, this design flow means the declaration of bankruptcy.

Yours, VB.

The trouble with ZoneAlarm, as with MacAfee and BlackIce, is that they only protect against inbound connections, and are not very customizable to your needs. With Tiny, I can restrict which applications on my NAT box can go where. You cannot do that with ZoneAlarm, MacAfee, or BlackIce. If you are serious about security, and dont want to spend hundreds of dollars on a hardware appliance, then Tiny is your best bet. At the $99 they are now charging, it would be well worth the price. You can get something that is just as good as, if not better than, a hardware appliance, for a fraction of the price. The $99 professional version can also implement filtering rules by specific user. That is something that ZoneAlarm, MacAfee, and BlackIce cannot do. Not even hardware appliances have learnd that one yet. Tiny can also instanly notify you of any attempted activity not in the ruleset, so you can decide whether to ban or allow it in the future. This is something the other software firewalls, as well as hardware appliances, have not learned yet.

ZoneAlarm can do the same and it's easier for novices to understand.

However, if you want to use a software firewall for a network enviroment, Tiny is the way to go. Tiny can stop a lot of other things the other software firewalls, as well as hardware appliances, can't. Tiny is the only firewall, software or hardware, that can stop Kazaa, without disturupting your other traffic. Given the ports to have to block to stop Grokster and Kazaa, Tiny is the only firewall that can successfully block Kazaa without blocking other applications. I just simply use two different programs for the HTTP and Socks proxies on my network. Tiny is configured to block port 80 and ports

1000-5300 on the Socks proxy, while the HTTP proxy is allowed to use those ports. I recently tested that with the latest version of Kazaa, and they have not, as of the latest release, expanded the number of ports the program tries, so blocking beyond 5300, to block Kazaa, it not necessary at this time.

You should look at ZA again, I had no trouble limiting applications from using the Internet or from doing much of anything with ZA.

In our test, it failed, together with the other "Personal Firewalls". A POC for this you can find here:

Yours, VB.

Yes you can do that with ZoneAlarm, as with almost any other PFW.

Holy christ, man! What is it with you and Kazaa!? Who gives a crap?

Tiny and Kazza --- Kazza and Tiny --- Tiny and Kazza on the machine

*together* in the Sun set somewhere --- please, please, please Newman you are killing us with this. What is it with you and your obsession with Tiny and Kazza?

Duane :)

Charles, you are so full of sh!t - you are unable to learn anything from all that we've tried to teach you.

Tiny, while it's a good PERSONAL FIREALL APPLICATION, it's no more aware of anything on the Internal Network than and Appliance is, and it's less able to protect you since you have to run it on a PC with Windows installed on it.

Don't be a doofus any longer, learn something for a change.

I can, and do, block Kazza with appliances with 100% success.

Firewalls".

We're supposed to download a file from a stranger in a newsgroup? No thanks, VB. I'll just have to remain unenlightened!

charlie R

personaly i think the windows firewall is not very good.

there are better (free) options out there: ZA,kerio or Sygate.

JJ

Volker Birk wrote:

Tiny is imho NOT very suiteble for beginners. Even for advanced computer users it is not very easy to setu up Tiny.

JJ

Charles Newman wrote: