From the link: "In fact, the PC Industry press now reports that [i]the next version of Microsoft Windows, codenamed "Whistler", will include a built-in firewall[/b]. However, its exact nature and capabilities are currently unknown."

Hehe. I have no idea how old that page is (haven't paid attention to Steve in a good while) but it's most definetly pre SP2. That makes it 3-4 years old, at least.

Yep. I'm still trying to figure out how a virus sent out so many emails that your ISP sent a warning, with no email account. If there are viruses capable of creating their own accounts to spam from, I've never heard of it and can't find any info on it.

I fail to see how this is possible.

The only ways to get something onto a machine are:
- An action by the user (open an attachment, load some dodgy ActiveX extension, use an infected floppy),
- Run a listening network service (eg. Sendmail, Apache, all those things Windows has on by default), and allow other users to connect to the service and use it to carry out their wishes.

The first can never be fully prevented, and in that case no software firewall is going to help you either.

In the second instance, threats can be blocked in three ways:
- Turn off unnecessary services: The machine cannot receive connections if nothing is listening for requests.
- NAT Routers: These are pretty effective at shielding the machines behind them from detection and communication attempts. The only way around them that I'm aware is some funky source-based routing stuff which most routers don't support IIRC.
- Firewall: Block the ports of services you don't wish to advertise to the internet and it will be extremely hard for someone to access them.

A software firewall is superfluous. If there is some super-intelligent trojan who can evade the above measures it will almost certainly be able to obtain Ring 0 privilages and disable whatever software protection you are using.

I used to run a third-party software firewall, mainly for the purposes of limiting what connections had net access. After a few years of it doing nothing more than irritating me I switched it off and just use the Windows firewall, but only because I'm paranoid and can't go cold turkey . No problems here.

Cheers,

Mr B

What you are saying is true but there had to be some user action (short of the NAT device being hacked and the hacker gaining access to the NAT table, which is a whole other problem) that caused the compromise. I have operated in environments that are only protected by NAT and have never had any problems at all. Savvy users know how to avoid problems.

Flipside, I have seen un-savvy users wreck PCs that had very strong defenses protecting it.

If you are behind a NAT device and you take the proper precautions, you can keep a PC safe.

Thats disappointing This had recently become my favorite av app. Counter spy is making me a fan in the anti-spyware area.

"Programs that failed to detect:

McAfee, Norton, AVG, Avast, Spybot S&D, AdAware.

The one that got it was Trojan Hunter and after doing a google for the trojans name I got three, yes only three hits."

Trojan Hunter is $49.99. A-Squared detects trojans, keyloggers etc. and has a free version, don't know if it is as good though. Only thing it ever found on my XP machine was a tracking cookie.

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

I use:
Windows Firewall
Zone Alarm (free)
AVG Anti-Virus (free)
Webroot Spysweeper ($20.00 yr)

The Windows XP firewall gets disabled when you install Zonealarm as you can't have two firewalls running at the same time.

Yep...just noticed that. I suspect Zone Alarm is probably the one to keep.

ive had a trojan from just visiting a web page
avast caught it - but if it had not my firewall would of notified me if it tried to make an outbound connection

14/05/2006 04:01:03 Davros 1328 Sign of "Win32:Dialer-542 [Trj]" has been found in "C:\Documents and Settings\Davros\Temp Internet Files\Content.IE5\LYEVJ76W\cmb_243461[1].exe\[UPX]" file.
17/05/2006 20:11:50 SYSTEM 1284 Sign of "VBS:Malware [Script]" has been found in "C:\Documents and Settings\Davros\Temp Internet Files\Content.IE5\BNFV4M6F\keys-s13[1].htm" file.

Stop visiting porn sites.

Well, it's probably about the easiest 3rd party firewall to use but I don't think it's the best to use. Trying to uninstall it can break your internet connection and you have to go to the Zonealarm website to find out how to uninstall it cleanly.If you're ever in the mood for geeking out over a firewall try this one I stumbled across one day. I played around with it for a few days and it can be set very tight but then it becomes too annoying, people recommend you use it's default settings. You can control security policies and filter content on a lan with this one too.

http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm

how am i supposed to do my hand exercises

Usenet.