SG Broadband Community

Is a firewall a really good thing to have? I'm on cable.

What are the disadvantages to firewalls?

If your modem is on and your PC is one then you are on the internet. I would recommend using a firewall.

Run some tests at this site and see what it tells you about open ports.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

You can get a free personal edition of ZoneAlarm Firewall here http://www.zonelabs.com/

see here for info on firewalls

If you are on cable or dsl,you for sure want a "firewall" app,I like "zonealarm",go to www.zonelabs.com and get the basic for free.I use "zonealarm Pro".and I don't think there are any disadvanteges.I use it on my three pc home network,and seems to have worked well for me.

If you have some money burning a hole in your pants.. get a LinkSys Router. I paid around $125 for mine or if money is tight go with something like ZoneAlarm. Thats a neat lil proggie.
The links below talk about the various firewalls with some reviews.

Info to read: http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/cable_security.shtml
http://www.speedguide.net/reviews/linksys/index.shtml

There's no point in getting a Linky router if it's only purpose is to be a firewall, especailly since software firewalls are better (they cover all 7 layers where as hardware firewalls usually only cover the first 3).

Ok i scanned my ports and it says my netbios is open. Hmm i don't have file/print sharing enabled but i found this...

<img src="www.woodnworks.sk.ca/netbios.jpg">

if that pic doesn't work go to www.woodnworks.sk.ca/netbios.jpg


So how do I uncheck that? It is "greyed" out.

[This message has been edited by chicko (edited 11-07-2000).]

I wouldn't say that a software firewall is better than a hardware firewall.

Both types of firewalls have benefits and cons.

As I have experience in testing, software firewalls tend to be something I stay away from.

All software (including the best software firewalls) have bugs in them, in fact hundreds of bugs. Some of which will allow people to bypass your firewall or crash it.

Also if you run a software firewall your computer is still visible on the Internet which means once they have worked around your firewall they know your ip and can exploit other security holes in your os.

NAT firewalls (like the D-link one available for $99) on the otherhand actually mask your IP address which means the Internet doesn't know your ip address and can't connect directly to your machine.

This makes it harder for them to even know you exist, let alone how to get to you.

By having a dedicated firewall you also offload the overhead of the firewall (certain attacks can consume a lot of cpu, especially when your firewall isn't configured properly which most probably aren't).

An addtional benfit of using nat is you can connect multiple computers to the internet without having to lease another ip address (they all share the same internet ip).

If you insist on using a software firewall I would go for the most powerful and robust which I have found to be conseal pc firewall (its the only Windows software firewall I would consider trusting).

If you run Unix then there are multiple firewalls available that no windows firewall will ever match.

You could make an argument for using proxies but they are insecure and unstable (at least the affordable ones are) wingate has had too many security problems to count (and bad code isn't limited to wingate ).

I use D-link's firwall product and am happy with the benefits it gives me (If I could afford one I'd go with a PIX but I can't afford to give Cisco that much money .

You need to unbind Client for Microsoft Networks as well.

go to this site http://grc.com/su-bondage.htm it should tell you how to close your netbios (port 139). hey, it worked for me at least.