XP Personal Firewall

[-DaRK-RaiDeR-]

Does someone knows the real potential of the personal firewall of Windows XP?

For a 6 PC's LAN (small office), am i protected enough or should i install another bigger firewall?

Thanks.

-DaRK-RaiDeR-

[SoggyBottom]

Personally, I would feel better having a hardware firewall in your situation. It would be far easire to manage 1 hardware firewall as opposed to 6 personal Firewalls.

Also, personally, I would feel secure relying on a hardware firewall as the main security mechanism between my business and the dangers of the Internet.

I could recommend somthing like ipchains/iptables as a hardware firewall. Cheap and easy to configure, or SmoothWall, another freebie with a pre-hardened platform and a nice GUI. FYI, I posted a link a few weeks ago regarding smoothwall.

Good luck!!

[yanksfan]

I agree, and if you don't get a hardware firewall, I'd at least get tpf (tiny personal firewall) because all I've heard about microsoft...that they might be hand in hand with the government (like having a log file tracking all of your internet history), I'm just paranoid....not that I did anything illegial but it just helps me sleep better and gives me a sense of security.

Also consider to get an inexpensive router which gives you NAT protection...plus you could install a firewall at each computer if you're REALLY into security...like me

-Mike

[cwk9]

I've herd nothing but bad things about the built in fire wall for xp. Apparently it doesn’t even block out going connections because that would interfere with Microsoft’s spy-ware. NAT and a hardware firewall would be nice but if you don't want to spend any money tiny is a great start. It’s way better then the junk firewall that comes with xp plus its free.

[Tedob1]

really can't say much about it. i know plenty of people with xp but i don't know anyone usings its firewall. that about says it all i don't think it would be a real good idea to depend on microsoft for security.

[Chuck56]

XP's firewall blocks incoming only. It does nothing for outgoing. As far as the firewall goes, it'll pass pcflank, sygate, and any other test involving incoming attempts. As a firewall, it is barely adequate. I have it disabled and use a real one.

It won't warn you of attempts to breach the system, unless you happen to check the activity log screen from time to time. I kind of like to know when something is happening so I can take whatever appropriate measures are needed.

I won't go as far as to say it's junk, as cwk9 did, but I sure won't disagree either. I guess, for people who don't have any security consciousness, it's slightly, very slightly, better than nothing.

[-DaRK-RaiDeR-]

Thank you guys,

If you say that XP personal firewall is not a good aoption then i was lucky for not being "hacked" for a whole year. I'll search and choose one of the many firewalls you're telling me to use. And you must be right when say that Microsoft may has a "secret" to use with his own XP firewall, yeah, it's a good point to take care of.

-DaRK-RaiDeR-

[Chuck56]

A couple of sites I know for free firewalls are
http://www.agnitum.com
http://www.sygate.com

At both, the free firewalls are the same as the pay versions, with a few toys disabled. If you're on a network, agnitum's outpost doesn't support ICS sharing yet.

Another option is to go to http://www.webattack.com/freeware/freeware.html and click on firewalls. There are several freeware versions there and all are good. Hope this helps.

[-DaRK-RaiDeR-]

Guys,

OK, talking with my partners we have decided to buy a hardware firewall. Could you tell me a good brand in which i could trust?
Please, remember i will use it for a long, long time. Give me a really good one please...

Thanks,

-DaRK-RaiDeR-

[SoggyBottom]

Well, it all depends on your budget.

Do you want a freebie?
Do you want a Server, or an Appliance?