How many of you have firewalls?

[Mitzi]

I have the Mcafee firewall. I'm on cable and felt the need to have at least some protection. By the ways, cable is the BEST! I feel like I'm flying through cyberspace!

[interloper]

DSL with Zonealarm

[Glock]

There's no need and all can easily be overcome

[interloper]

But Glock, I also lock my house and use an alarm although it won't stop someone who wants to get in. Should I just leave the doors open?

[Mitzi]

Exactly. There's no harm in having something. And mine has told me several times when someone was doing something and stopped. Better then nothing!

[ubergeek]

I use Zonealarm right now and it is pretty good, so is Black Ice (a lot like Zonealarm). I am trying to get the parts together to build another computer to use as a firewall. One is not that much more secure than the other, but it is a gadget for me to play with.

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"They may have been ugly. They may have been evil. But when it came to poetry-in-motion, the Things had all the grace and coordination of a desk-chair." Terry Pratchett

[Glock]

You aern't just "leaving the door open" with a computer unless there's a specific problem. If you make sure everything is secure as in no trojans or open ports other than necessary then there is no need for a firewall...and these software ones aern't even true firewalls regardless. Both ZoneAlarm and BlackIce are overplayed anyways and I haven't heard anything good about McAfee

Originally posted by interloper:
But Glock, I also lock my house and use an alarm although it won't stop someone who wants to get in. Should I just leave the doors open?

[interloper]

I run zonealarm on all of my computers connected to the internet (DSL) separately but you can also get a hub that has one built in. I have found some pretty strange requests from software on my own computer asking for access to the internet and I just say no!

[ubergeek]

I have had to uninstall a lot of software that asks for access to the internet. The problem I ran into was when I said no with Zonealarm it would release my network connection and I would have to either reboot or do a /renew in DOS. I still use Zonealarm because I get a ton of ftp request warnings. Of course my provider is infamous for having one of the most insecure networks around here. I would switch, but they are the only game in town. That is until the company I work for starts providing service here. Then I get it free or at least really cheap.

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"They may have been ugly. They may have been evil. But when it came to poetry-in-motion, the Things had all the grace and coordination of a desk-chair." Terry Pratchett

[GDenman]

Went to a training course with a session on computers & the instructor there recommended putting a firewall on. He cited Zonealarm & Black Ice as being good for free programs but suggested buying firewall software. I immediately came home & downloaded the Zonealarm. I don't know all that much about computers & what Zonealarm is doing for me but I haven't had any problems with it.

[RT]

I got a firewall and Road Runner. It is the greatest! We have four computers online now believe it or not. But I am afraid I can't get into the chat room anymore. Is the firewall the reason?

[RaychelR]

I am behind a firewall at work and at home I have two different virus scans that are scheduled to run daily.

[interloper]

Ubergeek, I have to make sure I connect to my DSL before I start the zonealarm or else it won't let my DSL connect. It will totally lock up my computer and I would have to reboot. Otherwise it works great and I turn off the notification window that tells you every time someone tries to ping you. It still keeps track if you are interested but won't interrupt you every 30 seconds. It works with everything I have on my computer including Napster, Dialpad, ICQ, norton antivirus mail scanning, and my personal web server. As long as you set up the permissions correctly it should work fine.

[Mitzi]

RT, take your firewall down and see if you can connect to your chatroom. If so, then it was your firewall. I am on cable and Roadrunner also and I love it also. But, they had a heck of a time installing it because of my firewall. I took the firewall off and cable installed beautifully. I put the firewall back up and had no other problems. Computers.....I think they think for themselves sometimes!

[This message has been edited by Mitzi (edited 06-04-2001).]

[ubergeek]

The only programs it has any conflict with are adware programs. Imesh is the big one that horks everything up. I have Napster, ICQ, AIM and Mirc running without a problem. I just want to build a firewall just to see if I can get configured properly. I do these things not because they are useful, but just to see if I can do it. That would explain my 3 other machines running various server software. they serve no real purpose, but they are fun to play with.

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"They may have been ugly. They may have been evil. But when it came to poetry-in-motion, the Things had all the grace and coordination of a desk-chair." Terry Pratchett