Discussion Forums > Technology
dem Firewalls
GoGeTa006:
--- Quote from: Bob2004 on May 28, 2012, 03:44:05 PM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: GoGeTa006 on May 29, 2012, 04:33:36 AM ---
--- Quote from: Bob2004 on May 28, 2012, 03:44:05 PM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: vuzedome on May 29, 2012, 11:29:51 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
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