XP Personal Firewall

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.

:D -DaRK-RaiDeR-

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!!

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 :D

-Mike

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.

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.

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.

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.

:D -DaRK-RaiDeR-

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.

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,

:D -DaRK-RaiDeR-

Well, it all depends on your budget.

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

SoggyBottom,

We'll work with 1 PC as a server and then 5 more PC's. Yes, we'll need a server one.

Which brand do you suggest to buy?

Thanks in advance.

Problem with the XP firewall is that it is not
turned on by default....
Yes it is basic.... but it works !
I use a hardware soultion myself.
Many users who have the older Windows OS's do not
turn off file sharing... and/or install iis which is
real unsecure....
You can use that scanner from www.rawlogic.com and
find lots of open computers on the web....
most are 95/98/ME boxes
If you log Code Red or Nimda .. you get the message

In most cases Any Firewall is better than NONE!

Sorry, maybe my last question didnt exlpain myself:

You can either have a dedicated server and install all the appropriate firewall software on it. Remembering that you will also need to know how to harden whatever operating system platform you choose.

Or, now you can purchase appliance firewalls which are like little boxes, which come preconfigured and prehardened. So with a little configuring of routes and interfaces, you can just plug it in, and away you go.

If you are comfortable with linux and have some understanding on hardening a linux box, you could have a shitty old server running ipchains or iptables. Very cheap, and if set up correctly and used to its full potential, very secure. On the other hand, if you prefer a lovely GUI interface, and you couldnt be stuffed hardening a server, you could get something like SmoothWall. It has a nice GUI, easy to use, and you download an image of the OS, so to some extent, it is prehardened.

Or if you are concerned about warrenties, support etc.. and you want to spend up on a product. Checkpoint is the market leader, and their firewalls are pretty good.

But in the end, its your call..... :)

Guys,

Now we'll have plenty of different ways form where we can choose to "protect" our LAN.

You have really helped us.

Thanks.