dem Firewalls

[GoGeTa006]

Im starting to have issues with web browsing, its very annoying, I have to reload every single page I open, when uTorrent is open, i cant browse the web at all, when its closed I have otehr issues.

Anyways, as I am looking through all my computer stuff I notice I have my Router's integrated firewall, my Antivirus's firewall (avast) and Windows Firewall, I am connecting to the interwabz behind 3 firewalls and I am wondering if it is worth having all 3 up? or if any should be taken down and if they should, which ones should I keep?

are they different types of firewalls? whats up?

I can only connect to half my DOTA2 games, this is fuking annoying!

and if I open uTorrent, my DL speeds are pretty nice, so its not the bandwith or anything, its something wrong with the configuration of something somewhere.

how !?
why!?

[vuzedome]

The router firewall is standard so you don't have to worry about that.
What's overlapping is Windows' and Avast's, keep the one you want and disable the other.
Windows Firewall by itself is pretty sufficient, it does everything you need properly and usually it's just a button away from giving or denying access for new programs.
Avast's on the other hand I have no clue. 

[Takeshi]

I'd recommend shutting down Avast's firewall as well. I personally only have Windows' and it's been good to me without causing too many problems.

[halfelite]

Sounds like small nat table, torrents can fill up a nat table not allowing any more connections to go through same with games on steam. What router do you have.

[datora]

.
The good news is that you have a router with a firewall protecting your connection.  You definitely don't want to disable that (even if you can).  It is costing you nothing in resources or pain, and you have everything to gain with that first-level firewall in place.

However ... the quality of that router & it's embedded firewall could be questionable.  Find out your exact model & search up to see if there are any updates for it.  You might want to flash it, and most definitely research the exact flash procedure so you don't turn it into a brick.


Once you get to your computer(s), which operating system are you using?  Probably Win7?  Maybe WinXP?  Either of those, fully update and implement the Microsoft firewall.  I have a lot of criticism for Microsoft, but they do have the firewall implemented correctly and efficiently, and it is so integrated into the OS that it's extremely rare that you require better protection.

Therefore, turn off all other firewalls.  I live & die by the free version of Avast! anti-virus, so my opinion is that you're doing great with that as your AV.  I don't layer any malware utilities in real-time on my systems because I'm pretty careful about my computing.  I do scan & clean regularly, like every week.  I usually end up removing some malware about twice a year.  Avast! has great utilities for that, and I do a manual, full system scan for viruses & malware, with highest priorities and deep heuristics set, every week; usually start when I go to bed on Thursday night and it's all done when I wake up.

Depending on your computing habits, you might be able to do the same: manual malware scans rather than live.  But, I do have Avast! set for moderate to aggressive live scanning for viruses.  Again, due to my personal habits, I rarely get a true positive hit, maybe twice a year or so.


It will be a rare hacker that has a reason to and can locate and assault your router, so that is often all the firewall you need ... however, a little research to ensure you are using a decent router is in order.  Usually what happens is a virus infection tries to dial-in a hacker or a botnet.  So, avoid virus/malware infections, virtually eliminate hack attempts.  Again, for NORMAL computing.  If you're doing anything that's high-risk, then of course you're also making yourself a target and had better be prepared for that.

It is also possible, if you are so motivated, to flash a number of routers with third-party/open source BIOS/router OS.  For example, here's one of the best deals on the Internet:

 - Linksys E3000-RM 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router

This is a refurbished, goes for $46 delivered right now.  Until very recently, it was $50.  The new version was $80, but has been discontinued.  I have one of these running on the default software, fully updated.  Me very happy with it.  This router is a fucking boss.  Configured correctly, it's as good or better than many others that run $150 or $200.

However, read the feedback section and you find out that you can look up something called "DD-WRT" or "tomato" ... which are alternative software you can flash on this router (and many others).  Extremely powerful, if you wish to take the time to learn about them & do it.  This is on my "Round-toit" list ... when I have time one weekend, I plan to get around to flashing this router, probably with the latest tomato-USB option.  If you have the latest LinkSys software saved, you can always flash back to the manufacturer's software to return to basic functions.

By The Way ... this is a case where I REALLY like to have my router & computer connected to and being powered off a battery UPS.  The one thing that can go really wrong during a flash is if the power goes out or fluctuates severely ... the flash fails and you have no way to re-flash the system.  Result: brick.  Battery UPS is premium insurance against that tragedy.

With one of those in place (and there are other possibilities), you really wouldn't need any other firewall.  Your connection and wireless network will be extremely secure ... assuming you set some of the high-security options.

[GoGeTa006]

Sounds like small nat table, torrents can fill up a nat table not allowing any more connections to go through same with games on steam. What router do you have.

Belkin

I disabled the router's firewall and everything is faster right now, but now I dont feel protected

[vuzedome]

Wait how did you disable it?
As far as I know you can only DMZ yourself out.

[datora]

.
Wow.  Naked Internet connection.  I haven't done that in a few years.  You're router is now behaving like a switch ... meaning, pretty much everyone can see you now as a peer.

The last time I did that was about 2008 ... the software firewall on my computer was reporting about 3,000 probes per hour.  I haven't looked it up for a while, but it used to be that a naked connection to a Windows machine was generally compromised within about 15-20 minutes, on average.

That was back when Win2K was just turning over to WinXP circa SP1 & SP2 days.  Efforts to compromise machines have probably increased since then, but (assuming  you still have your Windows firewall up) it may actually be harder for generic bot probes to get through today.

Assuming you're on a patched Win7 system, you're probably a little bit safer than I was when I tried it last ... but, you are definitely running some ,,,interesting risks there.  You probably want to consider different options.  In the near future.

[Bob2004]

Personally, I'd recommend disabling the Windows firewall and using a different one. Either Avast, since you already have it (though I didn't know Avast even had a firewall), or something like Comodo (which is what I use).

The Windows firewall, when configured properly, is every bit as impregnable as any third-party firewall you could install. The problem is, configuring it properly is pretty difficult. Not only that, but while it is great at preventing people connecting to your PC from outside, it is completely useless for preventing unwanted connections from your computer to the outside world, which is just as important.

If you unknowingly install a trojan/spyware/etc onto your PC by accident, then it can automatically add itself to the Windows firewall's list of exceptions and thus allow some random computer out on the internet to be able to connect to it. Using a third-party firewall, it wouldn't be able to do this, and when it tried to accept a remote connection from another computer, the firewall would pop up a warning to let you know.

If you don't believe me when I say that, go and look at the Windows Firewall exceptions list. There will most likely be a whole bunch of programs listed which you didn't add yourself.

Third-party firewalls also have a bunch of other useful features, and are usually more configurable. If you want to block a specific program, or only allow incoming connections from a specific IP address, etc, you can't easily do that with the Windows Firewall, but it is possible with most third-party firewalls.

Either way, whichever you use, you should definitely make sure to turn the router's NAT firewall back on ASAP. It's incredibly useful to have, and there should be no cost to using it (although it does sound like it's not enjoying the hammering it's getting from bittorrent). That and one local firewall on your PC is all you need, but it's also the minimum you should have.

[nstgc]

I'm behind my router's (meager) firewall, as well as ESET's firewall. I do have some problems connecting to EA's servers, but only automatically. If I log in manually (in game) it works as expected.

[GoGeTa006]

Personally, I'd recommend disabling the Windows firewall and using a different one. Either Avast, since you already have it (though I didn't know Avast even had a firewall), or something like Comodo (which is what I use).

The Windows firewall, when configured properly, is every bit as impregnable as any third-party firewall you could install. The problem is, configuring it properly is pretty difficult. Not only that, but while it is great at preventing people connecting to your PC from outside, it is completely useless for preventing unwanted connections from your computer to the outside world, which is just as important.

If you unknowingly install a trojan/spyware/etc onto your PC by accident, then it can automatically add itself to the Windows firewall's list of exceptions and thus allow some random computer out on the internet to be able to connect to it. Using a third-party firewall, it wouldn't be able to do this, and when it tried to accept a remote connection from another computer, the firewall would pop up a warning to let you know.

If you don't believe me when I say that, go and look at the Windows Firewall exceptions list. There will most likely be a whole bunch of programs listed which you didn't add yourself.

Third-party firewalls also have a bunch of other useful features, and are usually more configurable. If you want to block a specific program, or only allow incoming connections from a specific IP address, etc, you can't easily do that with the Windows Firewall, but it is possible with most third-party firewalls.

Either way, whichever you use, you should definitely make sure to turn the router's NAT firewall back on ASAP. It's incredibly useful to have, and there should be no cost to using it (although it does sound like it's not enjoying the hammering it's getting from bittorrent). That and one local firewall on your PC is all you need, but it's also the minimum you should have.

Well the "avast firewall", from what I know of a firewall its pretty much like a real-time shield IIRC, so I am equating them both, Avast has 8 real-time shields that are active at the moment

IIRC a firewall is a thing that monitors all incoming/outgoing traffic and selectively blocks things according to its own criterion


BTW I re-enabled my router's firewall and the internet is still working nice and dandy. . .I dont know what happened but something happened and I think im back to normal with my 3 firewalls

[Bob2004]

Personally, I'd recommend disabling the Windows firewall and using a different one. Either Avast, since you already have it (though I didn't know Avast even had a firewall), or something like Comodo (which is what I use).

The Windows firewall, when configured properly, is every bit as impregnable as any third-party firewall you could install. The problem is, configuring it properly is pretty difficult. Not only that, but while it is great at preventing people connecting to your PC from outside, it is completely useless for preventing unwanted connections from your computer to the outside world, which is just as important.

If you unknowingly install a trojan/spyware/etc onto your PC by accident, then it can automatically add itself to the Windows firewall's list of exceptions and thus allow some random computer out on the internet to be able to connect to it. Using a third-party firewall, it wouldn't be able to do this, and when it tried to accept a remote connection from another computer, the firewall would pop up a warning to let you know.

If you don't believe me when I say that, go and look at the Windows Firewall exceptions list. There will most likely be a whole bunch of programs listed which you didn't add yourself.

Third-party firewalls also have a bunch of other useful features, and are usually more configurable. If you want to block a specific program, or only allow incoming connections from a specific IP address, etc, you can't easily do that with the Windows Firewall, but it is possible with most third-party firewalls.

Either way, whichever you use, you should definitely make sure to turn the router's NAT firewall back on ASAP. It's incredibly useful to have, and there should be no cost to using it (although it does sound like it's not enjoying the hammering it's getting from bittorrent). That and one local firewall on your PC is all you need, but it's also the minimum you should have.

Well the "avast firewall", from what I know of a firewall its pretty much like a real-time shield IIRC, so I am equating them both, Avast has 8 real-time shields that are active at the moment

IIRC a firewall is a thing that monitors all incoming/outgoing traffic and selectively blocks things according to its own criterion


BTW I re-enabled my router's firewall and the internet is still working nice and dandy. . .I dont know what happened but something happened and I think im back to normal with my 3 firewalls

Oh, that, I assumed they'd released a seperate firewall program or something. Yeah, those real-time shields are not firewalls, at all. They just scan various things to ensure no viruses are using them to hack your computer.

[vuzedome]

MSE is sufficient enough to keep those bugs away.
If you don't go looking for trouble, you'll be safe with it.
Usually those layers and layers of security that many commercial as well as AV software boast about is just to idiot proof a PC from malicious attacks.
If you go into a site that looks really fishy, get out. Only idiots will walk in there and fall for it.

[Bob2004]

MSE is sufficient enough to keep those bugs away.
If you don't go looking for trouble, you'll be safe with it.
Usually those layers and layers of security that many commercial as well as AV software boast about is just to idiot proof a PC from malicious attacks.
If you go into a site that looks really fishy, get out. Only idiots will walk in there and fall for it.

Well, the real-time shields are things like an email shield, that scans all incoming email for viruses, a P2P shield that does the same for Bittorrent/Gnutella/emule/etc traffic, a network shield that monitors incoming network connections and blocks any hacking attempts by viruses, etc.

Also a File system shield, which is just real-time virus scanning - something that is absolutely essential in any piece of security software really. There's no point in having an antivirus if it doesn't scan anything for viruses unless you specifically tell it to.

I imagine MSE probably has a bunch of similar features, it just calls them something else. All good antivirus suites do.