Personal Firewall

T

thomas

Hi all,

I would like to know what people here are using for firewall. I read some user reviews in cnet.com and amazon.com and here's what I read:

Norton Personal Firewall 2001 3.0 does not work well with Windows 2000.

Zone Alarm is rumored to be actually a spyware. :eek:

Black Ice Defender seems to have decent reviews (3.5 stars out of 5).

Tiny Personal Firewall is more configurable than Zone Alarm but requires some firewall knowledge from the user.

I use Pentium 1.3 MHz with 256 MB RAM, Windows 2000 Professional, IB TWS and QCharts.

By the way, I read from QCharts site that you may have to configure the firewall to allow QCharts run behind firewall?

Thanks for any info, and good trading.
 
Unfortunately your source of information is incorrect

BlackIce is useless. It leaves you wide open. Use at your own risk.

Norton is ok but not as powerful as ZoneAlarm

Not only is ZoneAlarm not spyware it is the BEST. Not only do you get an extremely powerful firewall, it is completely FREE.

This is one of those times where you have to realize that just because you pay for something it may not be better than what you may get for free. It takes only a few minutes to download and configure into a state of background functionality.

Tiny Firewall is also very good and FREE. BUT do not approach unless you are a techie and know what a port is.

For accurate info on firewalls checkout:

http://grc.com/lt/scoreboard.htm

Also interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/13/holes.in.firewalls.idg/index.html

 
i use zonealarm free - very good indeed - no compatability probs at all. I use quicken quotes live, IB, medved quotetracker plus others, no problems. As you start these programs each time after installation of zonealarm it will ask you if you want to allow it access to the internet, and can opt to remember this each time for each piece of software. Thus qql and IB start up fine without any intervention, but Getright (allows resumption of broken downloads) i leave as discretionary each time.

PLUS - i have turned off windows autoupdate - yet zonealarm will tell you when those devious bastards are still trying to connect to your pc even so, and you can refuse them access.

You can go to www.grc.com to look at and try Steve Gibson's Shields Up stuff - this will test your system's security.


coops
 
Coops,
Would you tell me how to turn off windows autoupdate? I have Windows2000, but directions for any operating system might get me started. I also have zonealarm. We seem to share a strong distaste for MS's intrusive ways.


Thanks
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the info. I went to GRC, ZdNet, CNN, etc. and did bunch of readings and learned that Zone Alarm is pretty respected firewall (and not a spyware). I also learned that combination of hardware firewall (Linkys Etherfast cable/dsl modem router) and software firewall (Zone Alarm) would give best protection. As an added bonus, I also found out that these two and Trend Micro's PC-cillin antivirus software are offered as a bundle. I haven't found out the price for the bundle (if you do, let us know), but my guess is that it shouldn't be more than $150.

www.zonelabs.com/pressroom/pressreleases/2001/linksys_tm_zl.html


Also, here's an interesting review:

www.webattack.com/reviews/leaktest_rv.shtml


I hope this helps you.
 
MS Windows updates - in WinME (soon to be updated, thank god) go to start menu, control panel and in there there's a section for automatic updates. Launch it, and choose to manually update. Voila, maybe...

coops
 
I noticed that this post is in the wrong category -- Discussion > Brokerage Firms > Professional Firms > Personal Firewall

How do I correct this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top