Opinions on Norton PFW 2003

Oct 18, 2005 4 Replies
C

Having just helped someone acquire a new computer they have given me the software that originally came bundled with the PC.



Within this bundle, is Norton Personal Firewall 2003.



Is it worthwhile me installing this on my XP Pro system (I currently use Sygate's free offering) or am I better to resign it to the bin?



I have a firewall router (Draytek 2600) but I also like the 'comfort' of a software firewall. I'm not a fan of Symantec at the best of times, particularly some of the more recent offerings, so I'm not sure whether I should go with something by them that is close to 3 years old...


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C

The PC they got rid of that is!

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L

If you need a personal firewall, NIS is the most resource intensive of all of the ones I've seen, it's also the biggest PITA.

I would suggest that you use ZoneAlarm Professional over any other home personal firewall solutions - I would also suggest that you do not trust Microsofts Firewall solution at all.

As an example of WHY NOT TO TRUST MS SP2 Firewall - I was installing an updated program that was SP2 aware today, it asked me if it was permissible to add security settings into the MS SP2 Firewall so that the application could work - I said yes, and it entered the necessary settings. I didn't have to do anything with the firewall myself, it handled it all. Now, while that was nice, imagine being a user running a computer and not having a NICE program ask, but just go on and add exceptions to the SP2 firewall settings - without you knowing about it. That would not happen with ZoneAlarm.

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V

The latter would be a good idea. Just use the Windows-Firewall.

Yours, VB.

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<

Hi There is something which is just what you want, see

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It is only an outgoing firewall, so it is exactly what someone who already has a hardware filewall (modem router, wifi, etc) needs, but without all the inward ip drivers, it works very well for me.

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