Firewall etc

I assume you are talking about the security suite offerings of
McAfee and Norton. In that case, their offerings provide an
"anti-virus" along with the personal firewall and anti-foistware
Vista offers.

There are excellent freeware programs in all categories, so
there is no reason to consider yourself obligated to run what
you already have.

I use the firewall application and defender that came with Vista
and added Avast! anti-virus (free). I also am behind a router/
wireless access point that has (is) a fairly configurable firewall.

Modern personal firewall applications have attempted to tackle
data leakage. You may be the kind of person willing to pay for
a good one of these, I'm not.

"jo5030" <jo5030.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FD2CC28F-2836-48DD-9D2C-7D48BB8E1A99@microsoft.com...
> Can anyone comment on the effectiveness of the MS supplied Firewall and
> Defender offering when compared to other commercial products (such as
> McAfee
> and Norton)? I use Norton at the moment, and it seems to me that if one
> is
> offered through Vista for nothing, I may as well use it rather than pay
> for
> another?

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:10:01 -0700, jo5030
<jo5030.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Can anyone comment on the effectiveness of the MS supplied Firewall and
> Defender offering when compared to other commercial products (such as McAfee
> and Norton)? I use Norton at the moment, and it seems to me that if one is
> offered through Vista for nothing, I may as well use it rather than pay for
> another?


There are three kinds of software products you need for adequate
protection:

1. Firewall. I used to prefer the ZA firewall (or other third-party
firewalls) because it also provided outbound protection. I've become
convinced, however, that outbound protection is meaningless. Once one
of the nasties gets into your computer, it can essentially do whatever
it wants, including circumventing the firewall. So the extra
protection that a firewall that monitors outbound traffic provides is
more apparent than real, and I think the Windows firewall is fine.

2. An anti-virus program. Windows provides *nothing* in this regard,
and you should run a third-party product. I recommend NOD32, if you
want to pay for a product, or the freeware Avast! if you don't.

3. Anti-spyware programs. No single anti-spyware is adequate to
protect you against everything. Windows defender comes with Windows
Vista, but it alone isn't sufficient. I recommend adding at least one
or more of the following: Spybot Search and Destroy, Spyware Blaster,
Adaware, and Super AntiSpyware.

You mention McAfee and Norton. In my view (and that of many other
regulars here), Norton is the worst product on the market, and McAfgee
is only slightly better. Although they are the best-known and the
biggest sellers, I strongly recommend against both.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:20:08 -0700, "Kerry Brown"
<kerry.TakeThisOut@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote:

>Personally I use either a hardware firewall or a Linux box as a
>gateway device for doing this kind of stuff. Even most home
> routers have these features now. Use the appropriate tool for
>the job. Software firewalls aren't really the appropriate tool to
>stop malware once it's on your computer.

Hi Kerry,

I am using only my router's firewall. Another "MVP" (don't recall who
it was) advised that people like me should also be running Vista's
firewall for the additional outbound protection.

Your post and another I just read from Ken Blake seems to downplay the
need for ANY kind of outbound protection using the argument that a
good piece of malware can easily bypass such protection.

I think I'm fine with the hardware firewall. Am I correct?

"Nonny" <nonnymoose.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5i8s7499gkm97grvrm0bfqfj2le1me2n77@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:20:08 -0700, "Kerry Brown"
> <kerry.DeleteThis@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote:
>
>>Personally I use either a hardware firewall or a Linux box as a
>>gateway device for doing this kind of stuff. Even most home
>> routers have these features now. Use the appropriate tool for
>>the job. Software firewalls aren't really the appropriate tool to
>>stop malware once it's on your computer.
>
> Hi Kerry,
>
> I am using only my router's firewall. Another "MVP" (don't recall who
> it was) advised that people like me should also be running Vista's
> firewall for the additional outbound protection.
>
> Your post and another I just read from Ken Blake seems to downplay the
> need for ANY kind of outbound protection using the argument that a
> good piece of malware can easily bypass such protection.
>
> I think I'm fine with the hardware firewall. Am I correct?


Have you disabled Vista's firewall? I wouldn't recommend that. I don't
enable outbound protection but inbound protection is very useful. I
recommend the Vista firewall in it's default configuration be used at all
times. I don't bother configuring it for outbound protection. If that's
needed I use an appropriate external device.

To answer your question. Yes with a NAT router (preferably with a built in
firewall of some type) and the Vista firewall you're fine as far as
firewalls go. You do need other protection like AV and anti-spyware. I
currently recommend the following setup.

Router, Vista firewall, Windows Defender, and NOD32 (or Avast if you want a
free AV). You may want to run another anti-spyware as a scanner only once in
a while. You don't want it monitoring in real time. My current favourite for
this is Superantispyware.

http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://www.superantispyware.com/

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/
http://vistahelpca.blogspot.com/

Guys

Thank you all very much for your help. As a result of it, I have
reconfigured my protection as follows:

1. I am using my broadband hub as a firewall (for those of you that may
know it, a BT Home Hub set to Standard security level)

2. I have turned on my Windows Firewall as well with automatic updating,
but malware protection turned off (and removed Norton).

3. I have installed Avast! On-Access scanner as virus protection

4. I am considering using SuperAntispyware or Spybot as well.

To you experts - does this seem enough, and would you advise me to use on or
both of the products mentioned in 4 above.

Thank you all again for helping me.

John

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:10:01 -0700, jo5030
> <jo5030 DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > Can anyone comment on the effectiveness of the MS supplied Firewall and
> > Defender offering when compared to other commercial products (such as McAfee
> > and Norton)? I use Norton at the moment, and it seems to me that if one is
> > offered through Vista for nothing, I may as well use it rather than pay for
> > another?
>
>
> There are three kinds of software products you need for adequate
> protection:
>
> 1. Firewall. I used to prefer the ZA firewall (or other third-party
> firewalls) because it also provided outbound protection. I've become
> convinced, however, that outbound protection is meaningless. Once one
> of the nasties gets into your computer, it can essentially do whatever
> it wants, including circumventing the firewall. So the extra
> protection that a firewall that monitors outbound traffic provides is
> more apparent than real, and I think the Windows firewall is fine.
>
> 2. An anti-virus program. Windows provides *nothing* in this regard,
> and you should run a third-party product. I recommend NOD32, if you
> want to pay for a product, or the freeware Avast! if you don't.
>
> 3. Anti-spyware programs. No single anti-spyware is adequate to
> protect you against everything. Windows defender comes with Windows
> Vista, but it alone isn't sufficient. I recommend adding at least one
> or more of the following: Spybot Search and Destroy, Spyware Blaster,
> Adaware, and Super AntiSpyware.
>
> You mention McAfee and Norton. In my view (and that of many other
> regulars here), Norton is the worst product on the market, and McAfgee
> is only slightly better. Although they are the best-known and the
> biggest sellers, I strongly recommend against both.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:50:55 -0700, "Kerry Brown"
<kerry RemoveThis @kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote:

>"Nonny" <nonnymoose RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:5i8s7499gkm97grvrm0bfqfj2le1me2n77@4ax.com...
>> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:20:08 -0700, "Kerry Brown"
>> <kerry RemoveThis @kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote:
>>
>>>Personally I use either a hardware firewall or a Linux box as a
>>>gateway device for doing this kind of stuff. Even most home
>>> routers have these features now. Use the appropriate tool for
>>>the job. Software firewalls aren't really the appropriate tool to
>>>stop malware once it's on your computer.
>>
>> Hi Kerry,
>>
>> I am using only my router's firewall. Another "MVP" (don't recall who
>> it was) advised that people like me should also be running Vista's
>> firewall for the additional outbound protection.
>>
>> Your post and another I just read from Ken Blake seems to downplay the
>> need for ANY kind of outbound protection using the argument that a
>> good piece of malware can easily bypass such protection.
>>
>> I think I'm fine with the hardware firewall. Am I correct?
>
>
>Have you disabled Vista's firewall? I wouldn't recommend that. I don't
>enable outbound protection but inbound protection is very useful.

Why would it be needed when I'm running behind a hardware firewall?

> I
>recommend the Vista firewall in it's default configuration be used at all
>times. I don't bother configuring it for outbound protection. If that's
>needed I use an appropriate external device.
>
>To answer your question. Yes with a NAT router (preferably with a built in
>firewall of some type) and the Vista firewall you're fine as far as
>firewalls go. You do need other protection like AV and anti-spyware. I
>currently recommend the following setup.
>
>Router, Vista firewall, Windows Defender, and NOD32 (or Avast if you want a
>free AV). You may want to run another anti-spyware as a scanner only once in
>a while. You don't want it monitoring in real time. My current favourite for
>this is Superantispyware.

I have all the A/V and malware protection I could possibly need.


>http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php
>
>http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
>
>http://www.superantispyware.com/