Firewalls

[rcgreen]

How important is a firewall if you have dial-up internet service?
Does it have a serious effect on performance?

[uraloony]

There are several vulerabilities on unpatched machines that a firewall could help, and also trojans can help be stopped by a good firewall. I would run a firewall just for the heck of it. Also, firewalls do not decrease performance if you get a decent one.

[iNViCTuS]

Actually, a firewall runs as a service which will use system resources, which technically will affect performance, but no you will not notice any difference with the naked eye.

And yes, even on dial-up, it is a good idea to use a personal firewall

[uraloony]

Originally posted by iNViCTuS
Actually, a firewall runs as a service which will use system resources, which technically will affect performance, but no you will not notice any difference with the naked eye.

Thats what I meant. It will use resourses but not make a noticable difference in performance.

[deByte]

its important. it doesnt matter how u r accessing the net, u need to hv at least one installed. dont worry abt the performance, its negligible. it will protect ur box from being hijack for malicious purpose like ddos...

its better to prevent than to cure.

rgds
de

[friqid]

most firewalls have the option of coming on when you connect to the internet,
that would be the thing to do w/ dial up... that way when your offline, you have peek
performance, and when you sign on you are protected....

[angelic_ky]

well it is very important..

though it DOES NOT improve the performance of your PC it DOES however increase the security of your PC...

a firewall is required when your PC is on a network.. in this case.. the Internet. The firewall will block any intruder who will try to connect to your pc..

with the firewall.. nothing comes in or out of your PC without you knowing..

if a certain program which is in your computer tries to connect to the internet, your firewall will try to inform you. it is up to you then to decide whether you sould let the program connect to the net or not.. If you do not know what the program is.. i suggest do not let it connect to the net untill you find out what the program is.. or what that certain .exe file is..


it also warns you if someone on the outside (in the internet) is trying to connect to your pc..


its basically like a security guard.. It is a nessesity for a person to have a firewall if he/she is to connect to a network especially the internet.. and it does not matter whether they are using dial-up connections or ADSL or CABLE or T3... or whatsoever kind of connection..

[Maverick811]

Originally posted by rcgreen
How important is a firewall if you have dial-up internet service?
Does it have a serious effect on performance?

I recommend using a firewall with dial-up, cable, dsl, any kinds of service. While the probability of your machine being broke into or used for malicious activities decreases with the use of a dial-up account, it still can happen. Especially if you leave your connection on for long periods of time - of course, when I used to use dial-up my ISP would drop my connection frequently for unexplained reasons, but that's a different story . I'd recommend using something like Zone Alarm or Tiny Personal Firewall - they are both good software firewalls.

As far as affecting performance, I've never used those products on anything but higher end machines - there was no effect on performance - I'd take a guess and say that on an older machine, you may see some degradation of performance because the firewall is just like any other program, it does use system resources. However, even if you did see a performance decrease, I'd say that it would be slight and worth the protection that you were gaining. I'd rather have my machine protected against harm with a slight slowdown of performance than an unprotected machine with superfast performance.

But yes, definately use a firewall, even for dial-up.

[casper3699]

Originally posted by Maverick811



I recommend using a firewall with dial-up, cable, dsl, any kinds of service. While the probability of your machine being broke into or used for malicious activities decreases with the use of a dial-up account, it still can happen. Especially if you leave your connection on for long periods of time - of course, when I used to use dial-up my ISP would drop my connection frequently for unexplained reasons, but that's a different story . I'd recommend using something like Zone Alarm or Tiny Personal Firewall - they are both good software firewalls.

But yes, definately use a firewall, even for dial-up.

That is true. Sometimes on DSL if you have the router than you really dont need a firewall but I would still recommend putting one on. The one i use is ZA Pro and i have had really good luck. I ran a couple tests from different security websites and none of them could get through. I tried Tiny for a day then didn't have any more time to play with it so havent had a chance to test it out yet. If you are on dialup you will get pinged, and attacked by crackers, Script Kiddies, and Viruses. Another benefit is you know what programs use your internet so you can track your programs and know what they do. So it is a good idea to use one.

[NetSyn]

I feel that EVERYONE regardless of what they do.. should run a firewall of some sort. I think if ur computer is ever connected to anything thats gives access to the net you should run a firewall. Firewall may not stop DoS attacks all the time if thier based on bandwidth and not a sploit u will most likely get lagged bad or dissed. But a firewall keeps people from finding out things u might not want them to know such as what ports u have running or other such info. I dont go to most chatrooms without running some sort of v-host or redirect or proxy because i like kiddys not being able to find my host be any easy means.

so basicly run a firewall or pay the price when the day comes. If ur not gonan run a firewall to protect urself. At least run one to protect us from u being used as a zombie.

-NetBioM-