Just a little poll active at MSFN right now that I figured would be interesting to see the results. I've deleted the 'Firewall' option and added 'Panda Titanium/Platinum' to the list.

My favorite firewall is most definitely, without a doubt, Panda Titanium.

Other: I prefer the NAT in my router.

As you mentioned in the 'Networking 2 Computers' thread, yes.
[offtopic]I may go out and buy a router (Linksys preferably) sometime when money is more available.[/offtopic]

Well I havent tried Panda Platinum yet but Panda Titanium is just anitvirus without firewall. So i've used a few of those listed, right now i'm using Sygate PF Pro and I like it better then any of my other firewalls.

Other: None, not paranoid

you should be if your a broadband user I'm very paranoid hehe maybe too paranoid

Now don't be too hasty to make such a decision, Troa. I'm "supposedly" hacked many times (maybe 3-4 times (average)) in one day, at least that's what Norton claimed before it was uninstalled, resulting in a huge system performance boost. I highly doubt all/if any of these intrusions are ture because of the fact I'm using 56k and they are consistently the same virus warning.

Seeing your new post, actz... response:
I'm too paranoid as well, especially being on 56k (as mentioned above). In fact, I'm so paranoid, that when my dad asks me to disable my firewall when testing networking problems I'm very reluctant and instantly enable it again. I often times don't feel like disconnected for such an unimportant thing.

I guess I should rephrase my answer, no software firewall, our router has one. Linksys BEF452sa2ni2 whatever the heck it is. But... If stuff starts gettin messed up and cant fix it, format time, I really dont mind I have too much time on my hands most of the time.

well apparently routers are supposed to do a great job so at least your not wide open like i thought. format and reinstall is my favorite time of the month hehe

Yeah I agree a good firewall can also keep unwanted aps from accessing the internet.... I block ALOT of outgoing connections I dont want some one knowing every time I scan for a virus or run a tweak program or any of a number of programs that want to report back home.

ya its amazing how many things its usefull for like you mentioned out going apps just as much as incoming. Loads of unwanted programs try and connect to the internet that dont need connecting. If you have loads that you dont know about try downloading either spybot or Ad Aware.

i like BlackIce bc Zone Alarm i have problems with, with my connection but I do not always use a firewall

ah... who needs a firewall... I installed norton and uninstalled it within 5 mins... I had forgotten how nagging and slowing Norton was...

hehe i suggest you try another firewall it does protect your computer against oh so many things i can even beggin to list... get seperate Antivirus and Firewall i hate the combo packs i'm not at McD's thanks.

I just stick to my Cisco firewall..
i dont want to slow my computer down with more software. i already have too much

I like Zonealarm .. it does the job.. and does it well .. lol

i have NPF 2003, i wouldnt mind using ZOne Alarm xcept 4 the fact that it has a lot of probs with multiplayer games...

ZoneAlarm is still better than Norton.. why why why anakin are you did / are you using Norton for Anti virus + firewall lol.. comon .. ya gotta look past the scum!

Vampyric's right, anakin, Norton is a HUGE resource hog. I was using it for a few years and finally uninstalled it. I noticed a large performance boost. Try AVG or Antivir.

Yea.. I uninstalled Norton a few months ago and now My computer runs A LOT better..

yeah its weird i had the same problem norton 2004 is terrible on system resource but norton 2003 manages it way better I suggest Sygate as a firewall after using ZoneAlarm for years I pref sygate.

Well... How about simply.. Norton Sucks!

yeah Zone Alarm maybe better. But the thing is, im not really paranoid bout security. I just want something thatll let me use the net the way i do (browsing, gaming etc) without hampering what i do & offer as much protection as it can. Nptron configs itself around my games pretty well, so i tink ill stick with it

Why is it that you bought security software then?

who said i *bought* ??

lol yea .. who said he bought.. barely anyone buys lol

I know, I know. I was thinking about that before I acted.
But anyway, back on-topic.

black ice

I use a Linksys wireless router with a built in firewall and I also back that up with ZoneAlarm installed I notice a little more lag then just running one or the other but since I hardly play online games it doesnt bother me at all. Hmmm of course some of my lag could be just becouse im on cable ? anyway yeah I can say you can run both with no problems and its probably way more secure that way Hardware firewalls are awsome but I wouldnt put all my eggs in one basket. Some people do not run Antivirus and I have actualy heard this before "I dont use antivirus becouse I have a firewall so no one can hack me" lol thinking like that will get you into trouble....

im running zone alarm pro w/ a router(microsoft,i kniw,i know please no comments) w/ a built in firewall i have no problems

Zonealarm free, and pro have exactly the same firewall, pro just has spam and pop up blocking added... Get Zonealarm free

I'd like ta get my 'newbie' 2 cents worth in.
I thought that firewalls prevented 'back door' type virus invasions.

I installed the 'Zone Alarm' firewall when I first built this piece of junk I use, but just the fire wall, to run with Nrton 2004. They seemed to work very well once the wall is configured. This ran flawlessly for over 1 1/2 yrs.
Loading is a bit of a trip f you're a novice.
Don't unload it if you are not professional, from my point of view it seems to 'wrap' around alot of other programs and walks away with necessay OS parts if you are not careful.
The copy I got was a 1yr demo but was, or seemed whole. I do not know about their antivirus programs as I only wanted the firewall.

ZA seems to be a good system and I'd use it again. maybe.

Warning.

Uninstalling the fwall created so many problems that in the longrun I ended up having to reformat my hd, losing all sorts of stuff I hasdn't had the time to b ackup (my fault).

I have been runing no firewall since and so far have no probs but then I'm really careful and don't surf alot. If I was going to put another one in I'd shop around unless you know you'll never take it out. IMHO.

I don't really know much about firewalls and which one is better, because i use a lab computer. one question though, i was in this chatroom once and this guy who claimed to be a hacker told me that those things are invincable i'm guessing that this is not true if there are others better than others. are they really impenatrable?

Been using Kerio 4.1.1 lately, seems pretty good

In answer to your question firewalls do not make one unhackable it just makes things more interesting you have to know about buffer overflows and also knowing about HTTP tunneling helps get you past most firewalls..... anyway thats been a long time

I use the mcafee firewall, it is good, as lo and has a lot of cool features like, track an attack and that sort of fstuff. Mcafee kind of is a resource hog also, but it dosent bother me that much, as long as i know that i am secure

Yeah, I'd like to add a bit more to explain, since I've been reading a lot about exploits and such for the last few weeks.
You may have a firewall, but a good hacker will get past if he needs to. If you really want to be impenetrable, you should plug out your connection. Because once you're online, and you have some program running to go online, you can be hacked. Example : you're downloading something with kazaa (just an example, I don't know if there are exploits available). All a hacker has to do, is overflow a buffer (put too much info in a part of memory), he can make your computer run arbitrary code, and tunneling all the info to an open port is the final step. Once that is done, the hacker could have maximal access to your computer.
Dunno if this is readable, but I like to keep people informed.
One more thing : try not to use an administrator account for your everyday computing, that'll make things much easier for hackers. And, of course, use a firewall.

On an added note having a hardware firewall is much prefered to running a software implementation as they are more resistant to buffer overflow attacks... I actualy have a Linksys hardware firewall backed by Sygate personal firewall

I use Bit Deffender 8.0 Pro Plus. Its got Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus and Firewall as well as registry monitering. It AWESOME!!!

You explain the ability to cause a buffer overflow like you could do it with the click of a button, but I'm guessing it's not quite as easy, just out of curiousity, has anyone here especially M$ and psychotic, ever hacked past a firewall. intentionally that is not the accidental ones discussed in the other topic.

no its not that easy well it is if you use a pre generated script but no finding one on your own generaly requires knowing about a program in depth... and there is more then one type of buffer overflow there are some that just crash a program and worse are the ones that allow one to upload a small bit of software and execute it...

You seem to know a lot about hacking are you a hacker? no need to say but tell me this where do you get pre-generated scripts and how do you implement it? Say a web browser can you use that to hack into someone's harddrive, there's the george bush website where south africans and other nationalities are not allowed, how can you get into that website being a southie like i am.

To get into the web page you need an anonymous web browser. I used to do alot of hacking in fact some of the new stuff I have never done (got out of the buisness when they started passing cyber crime and cyber terrorism laws here in the states) anyway the web page thing shouldnt be a proiblem just do a search for browser proxy servers to let you surf anonymously that will work ! Where to get the scripts is a totaly google thing.

Firefox with the SwichProxy extension

Heres a list of anon servers that i use with SwitchProxy

210.177.248.151:80
164.58.25.34:8080
209.94.127.82:8081
66.119.33.134:8000
213.130.53.82:80
216.148.246.69:8000
200.31.79.213:3128
63.147.240.13:7028
195.57.165.183:8080
195.57.165.181:8080
170.224.224.133:8000
198.26.120.255:80
198.26.120.132:80
216.148.246.133:8000
195.57.165.182:8080
195.57.165.183:80
151.11.129.154:80
203.117.33.25:8080
80.59.239.12:80
170.224.224.133:80
213.86.52.193:3128
170.224.224.101:8000
216.79.41.36:80
209.74.43.164:8080
148.244.150.58:80
200.207.11.10:3128
80.36.91.127:8080
202.88.149.72:81
207.250.10.170:8080
82.67.4.166:80
80.225.251.12:80
65.167.248.19:8080
195.166.50.19:80
218.145.25.11:8080
80.37.129.207:80
216.79.41.36:3128
200.56.225.138:80
80.225.253.189:80
200.118.118.4:3128
210.150.253.178:80
63.110.140.28:8080
195.172.182.228:80
194.126.30.138:80
195.57.165.182:80
80.24.9.54:80
202.97.150.150:8080
64.19.80.100:2009
198.165.92.74:80
198.165.92.98:80
202.163.109.253:80
192.115.106.236:3128
148.223.194.250:8080
193.170.43.66:80
212.191.172.149:80
211.57.209.225:8080
200.153.112.250:3128
195.141.64.150:80
200.153.68.60:3128
68.82.228.231:8080
80.177.91.242:80
213.174.191.234:8080
61.222.179.202:3128
212.37.48.120:8080
80.59.184.196:80
195.230.170.16:80
212.97.35.12:443
65.254.137.238:80
213.121.209.14:80
212.117.156.53:80
203.127.190.22:80
200.56.225.141:80
167.196.234.94:80
208.192.192.140:80
200.206.24.130:3128
66.119.33.166:8000
80.225.252.189:80
200.35.96.38:3128
61.145.123.203:3128
213.76.152.186:8080
209.236.124.24:8080
192.115.106.236:80
80.191.22.23:3128
193.191.141.65:80
195.61.146.130:80
200.207.91.219:3128
194.126.117.218:3128
216.17.211.4:8081
66.119.33.166:80
202.157.192.162:3128
211.184.45.123:3128
216.135.202.146:8080
12.30.210.2:81
203.130.13.243:8080
133.65.181.63:80
80.15.132.11:8080
61.145.73.211:80
212.85.2.70:80
211.114.192.18:8080
164.77.202.91:3128
213.42.60.141:80
216.126.204.21:8888
203.113.29.2:8080
82.101.132.38:80
205.206.63.123:80
170.224.224.101:80
64.90.204.86:8080
66.213.135.22:80


BTW Dren,
There are not that many "true" hackers in this world.
95% of those that claim to be or act like they are "hackers" are nothing more than "Script Kiddies"

Script Kiddies simply use tools/scripts etc make by true hackers to attemp to "hack" other people computers.

Many use R.A.T's (Remote access trojan) to get into and manipulate people's systems.

Simple defence is to use a properly configured firewall and an uptodate anti virus.

I don't know much about hacking myself, it's just that I'm interested in programming, and somehow I found a few sites with exploits, and explanation on how they work. So I have never hacked past a firewall, coz I don't even know exactly how a firewall works. I still visit these sites, but my goal is not to attack a computer, but to learn from the problems software creates. And I sure don't want everybody to think that I'm some kind of über 1337 h4x0r, coz I'm not.
And one more thing, if you run some kind of server software on your computer (thus accepting incoming connections), you might be vulnerable. Because if that software works, and you have set your firewall to accept those incoming connections, obviously, it won't block them.

One little sidenote : if you want to try some exploits you find on the web, install the vulnerable software on your system and attack THAT, not a public server or something

the best firewall is a free firewall..ZA for me. and is this the same thread that was up a few months ago? i know, i should look at the date on the first page, but that involves too much clicking

Edit: nm, i see that it is. i decided that i could use a workout so i clicked back a page.