Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
104 Posts
0
6091
August 14th, 2004 18:00
Windows Firewall and Outbound Protection - Please Clarify
I read on the forum that WF will provide some outbound protection, but not as much protection as my free Zonealarm. Please clarify this. For example, when a friend recently got an update to AIM, it installed a spyware program that caused a Zonealarm alert. I know that the program was going to send out the user's email address and other data to the home company. A second example, I got an unexpected notice recently from Zonealarm that something wanted to access the Internet, and I googled the name of the program and found that it was a program that gets planted on your computer and then tries to access the Internet to download one of the latest worms or viruses.
So which of these threats will WF alert to and which will it not? Please clarify what outbound protection WF will have.
5fc5e52801914a6
403 Posts
0
August 14th, 2004 19:00
Just read an article about SP-2's firewall and it has inbound protection only, not outbound. I'll try to find the article later and post it here for ya...
Found one article so far.....
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=11&shownews=8698
Here is a second article on the inbound and outbound question
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117380,00.asp
Message Edited by Unhappy45 on 08-14-2004 04:20 PM
NemesisDB
2 Intern
•
7.9K Posts
0
August 14th, 2004 22:00
As I discussed here http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=120463 , WF has only basic outbound protection.
It will prevent applications from acting as servers without your knowledge. This is of some utility against a variety of Remote Access Trojans. It will do nothing from stopping programs you ALLOW to be downloaded from using the internet. It will not stop a worm from updating its code but, by virtue of being a firewall, it will prevent some worms from infecting you in the first place.
Also, get real. AIM does not install "spyware." It does have two optional installs that you can easily opt out of. AIM has your email address. If they wanted to give it away to "bad" people it wouldn't be that hard.
If you're worried about worms or viruses, then antivirus software and current window's patches are the best answer (aside from not doing silly things like opening random emails or executable files).
I think ZA free is one of the worst programs ever made. Of course, this is mainly because most of its configurable features are disabled until you pay. It is a huge pain if you are running a local network and wish extra security.
I'm not going to repeat everything that's been said on the above thread (see the link), but I think for most people, that paying for third-party firewalls is a waste of money ... And that for most people the free firewalls out there are too complex (or too disabled) for them to be used effectively. Windows Firewall is easy and more than you need if you have antivirus and anti-spy software.