MetaChat - good firewall?

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07 March 2006

good firewall? →[More:]

The firewall that came with my motherboard is driving me insane. It occasionally blocks things for no apparent reason and the only way to view them is to shut it off and restart the computer. I do not like the XP firewall because I like to keep certain programs from phoning home.

post by: weretable and the undead chairs at: 13:42 | 13 comments

Zone Alarm is pretty good. Better still is the hardware firewall in most hubs these days.

posted by Capn 07 March | 13:49

I'll second Zone Alarm. It's free, simple, and lets you limit which programs can access what, and at what level.
I don't have any experience of hardware firewalls - I'm assured my router has one, but of course it's only good for blocking incoming nasties...
(At least, as far as I know, it is. There might be ways to keep tabs on connections going through your router, but I'm happy with my setup as-is)

posted by Incharitable Dog 07 March | 13:53

I use ZA Pro, and really like it, upgraded from the free version, which is also excellent.

posted by essexjan 07 March | 13:55

Kerio. Older versions of ZA BSODed W2K.

posted by orthogonality 07 March | 13:56

Yes, ortho's right, you shouldn't use an older version, and you shouldn't switch from XP to 2000[/snark]

posted by Capn 07 March | 13:57

I was just wasting my time trying to be helpful. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

posted by orthogonality 07 March | 14:04

Crucify him!

posted by agropyron 07 March | 14:07

I said "[/snark]"

posted by Capn 07 March | 14:18

I've used kerio and zone alarm, both of which were buggy. I had a lot of problems connecting to other computers on my network with kerio and zone alarm didn't seem to function very well. I just stick with xp firewall.

posted by puke & cry 07 March | 14:54

Thanks for the answers.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 07 March | 15:23

I like Kerio, but the free version doesn't allow you to network, I think.

posted by taz 07 March | 17:51

Normally, I'd say, get a 4 port ADSL modem router, hide behind NAT, use firefox and anti-virus software.
If you do this, you don't really need a firewall.

However, you want to stop certain programs phoning home, so this advice doesn't really apply.

posted by seanyboy 07 March | 19:25

ZA does catch home-phoners (but not rug-pissers). Maybe use it just for this and follow seanyboy's advice (except, y'know) use the firewall in the router for anything else you need.

posted by trondant 07 March | 23:54

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