Firewall Software

**D@ve** · May 13th, 2003, 12:40 PM

What Firewall software should I use, I know that this is probably a preference to the user but I'm wondering what anyone would suggest??

**jitBob** · May 13th, 2003, 12:46 PM

ZoneAlarm Pro. Easy to set up, easy to use and works as advertised.

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2003, 01:03 PM

For a standalone pc or a network?

If network, are you using a router?

**Stalemate** · May 13th, 2003, 01:54 PM

For a standalone PC, I would go with Kerio: www.kerio.com.

Check out my review here: http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin...threadid=41018

**Dark Millennium** · May 14th, 2003, 12:36 AM

If your using just a standard windows pc then I would definetly recommend zonealarm or kerio.

If you like depending on your skill level, you could grab an old comp and tosssmoothwall

This is a firewall built around the linux Kernel.

Have fun

**TechZ** · May 14th, 2003, 01:32 AM

For a home pc, definately Zone Alarm Pro, using it for a long time now and is up to the mark in every way.

**swamprat** · May 14th, 2003, 07:40 AM

No one uses Sygate?

**confus-ed** · May 14th, 2003, 07:48 AM

Originally posted by a d e p t
For a standalone PC, I would go with Kerio: www.kerio.com.

For free I

it .... you need to know some stuff about ip though ...

If you don't mind paying BlackICE .... has some nifty features as well as intrusion detection (anti trojan), tracing, all sorts of 'interesting' stuff....the default rules are pretty good too ... unlike others - for the 'interested type'....

I keep seeing too many security alerts for zonealarm & scripts for my liking, especially the 'free' version but I really don't get along with the interface so I find ammending the default rules tricky, but I'm oft confus-ed....

**kato2274** · May 14th, 2003, 07:52 AM

Originally posted by Dark Millennium

If you like depending on your skill level, you could grab an old comp and toss smoothwall

This is a firewall built around the linux Kernel.

Have fun

yeah baby ROCK AND ROLL. Smoothwall rocks. I've got a box at home. I've also been playing around with SME server and it rocks the house too, because not only is it a router / firewall, but fully functional print/file server that's a breeze to set up.

**confus-ed** · May 14th, 2003, 07:56 AM

Originally posted by swamprat
No one uses Sygate?

Yeah sure ... but for one pc ? I ain't paying that much. Corporate networks - this is 'king of kings' .... I might 'accidently' use this at home for 'educational' purposes most definately !

**kpataska** · May 14th, 2003, 08:43 AM

When I first got my cable modem, I tied it directly into my PC via the USB cable. However, I quickly found that my poor old 10-B-2 network was behind the times and that I wished that all of my PC's could access the internet.

This was over 2 years ago when the home routers were around $200.

I chose GnatBox. For the price of a floppy disk and an old 486/Pentium with 2 NICs, you can have a great firewall/NAT box! www.gnatbox.com - get the free one, set it up, and then fill out the paperwork with the internal NIC's MAC address, and they will mail you a code to have 5 simultaneous users.

The stateful packet inspection saved my machines on more than one occasion from the skiddies.

I had to power the box off twice in just under two years - both times to take the cover off and dust! Not too shabby for a 486/133 w/16MB, no hard drive and 2 3C509 cards!!! The only moving parts are the fan in the PS and the floppy drive! I didn't even have a keyboard or monitor hooked up!

The documentation is great and this is a good way to get your feet wet with Linux networking, as this is based on FreeBSD.

Hope this helps!!!

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled Peas