At the moment I am trialling Lns, in place of Sygate personal but I was hoping to be able to obtain others opinions of Sygate in comparison to LnS. I realise this board is heavily into LnS, but all I want is top security, with simple and clear operation, something that will not confuse me or my family when using the pc as so far I feel LnS is very daunting in its appearance at least. So in that vain, does anyone have an opinion on Sygate personal firewall,in comparison to LnS or done the same move I am considering ? Cheers
I've tried them both and now use Sygate Pro. I'm a relative newbie regarding security and nearly ignorant of firewalls and what's good and what isn't. From all I've read both here and elsewhere, LnS is probably as good a software firewall as you'll find. The problem I found is that there is a learning curve, or knowledge curve perhaps. Sygate, free or Pro, is fairly well set up from the get go, which is what I needed. Sygate, either version, is not a lightweight in the software firewall realm. It's a very good firewall and properly set up by someone knowledgeable is one of the best. I run it basically as it downloaded. I don't understand making rules. I only know that in several tests , pcflank and others, it shows me to be fully stealthed. I also like the stealth feature in the Pro version that blocks websites from seeing my browser information. If you know what you're doing, LnS may be the best. If you don't, I vote for Sygate. Take a look at Outpost and ZoneAlarm too.
Hey Chuck57 I don’t see why you wouldn’t get Outstanding results when using Look ‘n’ Stop’s EnhancedRulesSet.rls rule-set, I found Look ‘n’ Stop to provide an impressively securer rule-set that’s pre-installed… Look ‘n’ Stop provides impressive amount of Features to assist in Rule creation, I don’t quite understand why when people sees these Extra Features that they think it’s totally necessary to understand from the beginning otherwise it’s just too difficult. Making rules is extremely easy with Look ‘n’ Stop, all you need to know is the Ethernet Type (… IP), IP Protocol (… TCP, UDP, ICMP), Packet Directions, and Source IP&Port & Destination IP&Port to get things setup like any other Software Firewall existing. You don’t need to know and use Frag. Offset. Frag. Flags, TCP Flags & MAC and so forth Features to get things done like you would on any rule-base Software Firewall. These Extra Features exists for those who has the need for them and those who willing to learn these new things, and not to be comprehended from the beginning & used. Use the basics for rule creating… So when I look at Look ‘n’ Stop and I look at other Software Firewalls I don’t see Look ‘n’ Stop being anymore difficult then Sygate for an example… And those who really likes Look ‘n’ Stop but don’t use it, not much of an excuse since there is great deal of folks on Look ‘n’ Stop Forums who would be more then honoured to assist in helping others learn. In any case I still think you should try them all out anyways and see what you feel most comfortable with… Bests Regards,
Hi Kentish Either of these two firewalls would be a good choice. Both will provide excellent protection "out of the box" so to speak. While LnS may appear duanting, the default rule set or the enhanced rule set will work fine for most users. Should you ever want to get into the rule set, then it is very configurable. Application control is fairly straight forward. Sygate also provides for advanced configuration/rules - more so in the pro version - should you ever want to customize. So as mentioned above by Phant0m``, the right choice is the one you, and the other users of the computer, are most comfortable with using and understand. Regards, CrazyM
Well, phantom, bottom line is that I'm a techno idiot. I'm the guy who downloaded Proxomitron and then began adjusting the rules to suit myself and fixed it to where I blocked myself from the Internet. Finally had to remove Proxo because I couldn't figure out what I did. I could go on with my experiences with Regcleaner and some other similar programs. The bottom line, after a couple of hard drive reformats and a mountain of lost work, I've decided that what's best for me are software programs that are pig simple and don't challenge my stupidity.
I don’t think you’re unintelligent, and you shouldn’t think that of yourself either. I believe your inexperience, and need little assistance, once you get little assistance you would easily comprehend. You ever decide to give Look ‘n’ Stop another try, know you can seek help from me and whomever else on wilders Look ‘n’ Stop forum… Regards,
As a matter of fact, I've been contemplatin a change. Along with being technologically challenged, I'm somebody who can't simply be comfortable with any software (other than my word processor) for any length of time. I've got to try different types of AV, firewall, whatever. Sygate is functioning beautifully and there's no need to change, which means it's getting near time to look at something else. One reason I left LnS was it left Ports 135 and 139 open. I couldn't figure out how to close them. With Sygate, all ports are stealth. And, I like the stealth browsing feature that hides my browser type, os type, etc.
You can ask any number of Look ‘n’ Stop Customers and they all tell you what I’m about to tell you; using EnhancedRulesSet.rls rule-set your ports would have been Stealthed from remote Scans, unless you was Scanning Internally?
I used Sygate Pro for a year and have been using LNS now for aabout six months. Sygate at first gave me a "warmer fuzzier" feeling (dont ask what that is ) After playing around with the advanced rules function in Sygate, I found that after a while I wanted the firewall configured to my specs, Sygate can be a bit limiting there. A few other things that got me about Sygate was that: a) the advanced rules always have priority over the application security settings, so you actually have to be very careful about any rules you write; b)you cannot use a proxy such as Proximotron with it, however this may have been fixed since about January as the problem has been around over a year; c)heavy footprint and it is a resource hog compared to LNS; and d)With Sygate there is an annual subscription for updates, half of the original cost if I recall. There is none of the above with LNS. The only thing about LNS is that it is more difficult to write your own ruleset frim scratch because the rule input fields are not as simple as Sygate. There is no need to write your own, I use the enhanced ruleset on one machine and Phantoms, adjusted to suit my paranoid settings on another. I having written anything, only tweaked. Of the two give me LNS any day. Cheers Looney
From the very beginning I liked my Software Firewalls extremely advanced; I knew Advanced was the only way to go then and the only way to go now. Yea easy is okay if you really enjoy being limited, I don’t! I was dedicated ConSeal PC Firewall user, only real Software Firewall existing for many years with many beneficial Features which I always considered necessary for High level Software Security. I’ve been more then extremely open minded about Software Firewalls, testing every single one which became publicly released and updated. Heck none of the Software Firewalls had “TCP – Block Incoming Connections” Feature like ConSeal PC Firewall had for many, many and many years before hand until Look ‘n’ Stop. I’m not sure what Software Firewalls now has that Feature implemented. I’m pretty sure Sygate Personal Firewall doesn’t, and I’m pretty sure Sygate Personal Firewall only Controls like 16 or less ICMP Types out of 255 Types, Look ‘n’ Stop Personal Firewall was the only other Software Firewall a year ago to provide full Controls over ALL ICMP Types (0-255) like ConSeal PC Firewall… I could list off all kinds of Features that I just don’t see in many of today’s Software Firewalls, but plain & simple Advanced Software Firewalls the only way to-go, if you like easy then you like limitations and less “Software” Security. And if you especially type of person who gets bored easily of same ol same ol then Advanced Software Firewalls is the only way to-go, it’ll keep you on your toes, you should enjoy comprehending it’s Features and once you succeed any Software Firewall you use from that period forth would be extremely easy to understand as Learning ConSeal PC Firewall inside-Out gave me everything I needed to know to Operate and fully configure “ALL” other Software Firewalls even “ALL” today’s Software Firewalls… And well, since my discovery of Look ‘n’ Stop the other year ago I had never bothered testing any other Software Firewall. I see great potentials in Look ‘n’ Stop Software Firewall product, and I’m sticking to it through its good and bad days, now that there should tell you something!
Cheers guys for the advise and honest opinions. Its always nice to see a few views that dont tow the party line without being derogatory. After much thought, I shall give LnS another go, to see if I can get fully comfortable with it. We will see if time persuades me to swap permanently Cheers
