How bad is the Trend Micro firewall ?

How bad is the firewall that comes bundled with Trend Micro Internet Security 2005? I want to try the Wi-Fi intrusion detection that comes with the package, but the firewall needs to be installed to be able to use it.

Since I have a wireless router, will this really be what is stealthing my ports? Also, I hear Trend Micro is not an application based firewall, does that mean it will not alert me when programs access the internet?

 

It will alert you when an app connects to the net, and the Wirless protection will let you know when another connection is made to your network. It doesn't stealth your wireless. The trend firewall is not all that bad, there are settings but you have to dig a little.

 

I realize this, by questio was more this - the trend firewall has been knocked for leaving ports open. If i am behind a router, isn't the router's firewall what is stealting the ports?

 

Yes, your router is what is actually allowing/dropping the packets, so you can use this to monitor which applications get access to the net, etc...

This wifi monitoring sounds interesting, I will have to look into how that works.

 

I would recommend you to try the firewall of the 2006 or 2007 (if it is released) version and not the 2005 version. Any Trend Micro customer using PC-cillin Internet Security 2004 or newer can upgrade to the latest version (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009.....and so on) for free. All you have to do is that you must remove your older version of PC-cillin, and install the latest version, 2006 or 2007 or whatever. When the 2006/2007 version asks you for the license key, simply enter your PCC 2005 license key and you'll be able to use PCC 2006/2007/whatever for free.

This is a fact that is documented on Trend Micro's website, but they do not like to advertise it much.

 

I have been a PC-Cillin customer since version 2004 and have even beta tested 2007. It is a great product for the average consumer with little security knowledge but you will quickly discover that the built in firewall is severely limiting and will impact your systems performance. I am now testing NOD32 with ZoneAlarm (my pc is working beetween 15-25% faster).

Good luck