[zotjen]

Does anyone running Vista also use a third party firewall? Is one really needed or is Vista's good enough?

 

[Brian_the_King]

You can definitely do better than the firewall software that is built in to Vista.. I use Comodo but check this website out.

Gizmo's - Best Free Firewall | Gizmo's Freeware

Just make sure you disable the firewall in Vista before installing a new one.. and if you fancy paying for a firewall I generally have heard that NOD32 is the way to go.

 

[EnOYiN]

Take a look at this site for some info on 'regular' firewalls. After that start reading up on linux firewalls. (smoothwall, monowall, untangle and the lot)

In the end pretty much every firewall which requires the user to allow or deny access to his/ her computer is flawed, because you simply don't know every harmful program out there.

My method - which has been working very well for years now - is to install a simple (free) virus scanner and to use common sense when browsing the internet. That last part is the most important thing. Just think about the link/ program before clicking that 'Ok' button.

 

[Dzjudz]

Yeah I use Comodo as well. In combination with aVast! virusscanner my Vista PC is protected like Fort Knox.

 

[Afro_Rebel]

It is a good idea to have something supplementing the Windows firewall. That's one more layer of protection for your computer.

I use Zone Alarm Security Suite as well as Registry Doctor, and it's a pretty good combination.

 

[apatN]

I use AVG at the moment and the standard Firewall. Had some problems with Avast in the future.
The most important thing is KEEP YOUR FIREWALL ON. Don't ever turn it off. You'll have viruses in no-time.

 

[Al4x]

i had ZA firewall until it interfered with firefox, now just windows firewall

 

[Nocturnal310]

Comodo is the best firewall u can have on windows.

highly customizable, detects all incoming connections of major protocols.



tried, tested & recommended.

 

[iriverdude]

Firewall is disabled in router, no windows fw

Just ran sheilds up test

GRC Port Authority Report created on UTC: 2009-03-27 at 00:31:50

Results from scan of ports: 0-1055

3 Ports Open
0 Ports Closed
1053 Ports Stealth
---------------------
1056 Ports Tested

NO PORTS were found to be CLOSED.

Ports found to be OPEN were: 21, 23, 443

Other than what is listed above, all ports are STEALTH.

TruStealth: FAILED - NOT all tested ports were STEALTH,
- NO unsolicited packets were received,
- A PING REPLY (ICMP Echo) WAS RECEIVED.

our Internet port 139 does not appear to exist!
One or more ports on this system are operating in FULL STEALTH MODE! Standard Internet behavior requires port connection attempts to be answered with a success or refusal response. Therefore, only an attempt to connect to a nonexistent computer results in no response of either kind. But YOUR computer has DELIBERATELY CHOSEN NOT TO RESPOND (that's very cool!) which represents advanced computer and port stealthing capabilities. A machine configured in this fashion is well hardened to Internet NetBIOS attack and intrusion.
Unable to connect with NetBIOS to your computer.
All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.) Relative to vulnerabilities from Windows networking, this computer appears to be VERY SECURE since it is NOT exposing ANY of its internal NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet.

21
FTP
OPEN!FTP servers have many known security vulnerabilities and the payoff from exploiting an insecure FTP server can be significant. This system's open FTP port is inviting intruders to examine your system more closely.

23
Telnet
OPEN!Telnet provides a remote command prompt window which allows remote systems to be configured and controlled. Any system that appears to be offering a Telnet connection — like yours is right now — is offering the potential for total command-level access. Since a surprising number of Telnet servers are known to have no password, this open Telnet port will be attracting a LOT of the wrong kind of attention. If your network contains a residential NAT or DSL router, it may be that its "WAN-side" management interface is open and accepting connections. No matter what the cause, you should immediately attend to this open Telnet port.

443
HTTPS
OPEN!The presence of this secure web port in your system implies that this system is establishing secure connections with web browsers. The number one reason for doing this is the transmission of credit card information. This implies that the successful intruder could access the web server's credit card database and score bigtime. This is a VERY bad port to have open unless you are actually conducting secure web commerce!

 

[CDBacklash]

No viruses here, no malware here. I have kapersky running but frequently disable it because my computer doesnt seem to get viruses lately.