Windows 7 Firewall or Zone Alarm Free

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Aventador, Sep 12, 2012.

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  1. itman

    itman Registered Member

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  2. Aventador

    Aventador Registered Member

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    Lol. Yet another one who points to an out dated article. That was 4 years ago. Try finding up to date info. My 2Wire does not allow for any DNS changing. I can only do it via my pc.
     
  3. itman

    itman Registered Member

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    Here's a sample of exploit code for 2wire's. You can rest assured there is much more available on the hidden hacker market. But I am done. If you feel your unhackable, more power to you.

    http://exploitsdownload.com/search/2wire/
     
  4. Aventador

    Aventador Registered Member

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    Where did I ever indicate I was unhackable? But when your links are 4 years old it's irrelevant to today's world. I have a brand new gateway just issued 2 weeks ago. There are no DNS settings. No one is unhackable. Even our Government. 4 years ago Norton sucked the life out of your pc. Now it does not. But to you doesn it mean it does? FYI...........I have a 2Wire Gateway 3801 HGV.
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2012
  5. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    What absolute nonsense.
    The windows firewall always "stealths"its ports .but whether you are stealthed or not doesnt make you any more secure.:ninja: :ninja:
     
  6. SnowFlakes

    SnowFlakes Registered Member

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    Belive it or not, that's up to you, i am just telling the truth!!!
    It was back in the days when this happend and then i used XP.
    When i had Zonealarm on with stealth ON they could not come in to my pc !!!

    So according to me no other firewall can beat Zonealarm no matter what other say's because i tried it myself, when i used other firewall they could join my pc eaisly
     
  7. RJK3

    RJK3 Registered Member

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    I never said that router hacking was done by script kiddies. Please learn to read.

    I said that the majority of threats originating from the internet will be script kiddies looking for easy vulnerabilities via port scanning - and these threats will be blocked by most garden variety modem routers.

    You can plan all day to block a competent hacker, but the chances of being targeted are very slim for the average person. Personally I approach security proportional to the risk (99% through the browser for me).
     
  8. Escalader

    Escalader Registered Member

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    Your question is a good one but hard to answer since I don't know your level of knowledge in firewall rule building.

    When you do finacial work are you doing online banking? if so you should be in a https site and safe enough.

    Avast should keep you clear of bad sites but I'm not 100% sure of that.

    If you find pop ups irritatiing that may mean you don't want to put up with rule buidling and thus will not fully benefit from a 2 way FW.


    From a personal point of view I would gets OP FW Pro on 30 day trial and then let if go through it's learning mode for a week while it builds your rules. If you like that then pay your $.

    There are many products out there PC Tools, Personal FW etc, L and S supported here.
     
  9. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    My view is that the most important thing is to prevent malware from getting onto the system in the first place, rather than trying to contain it once the system has already been compromised. This is especially important if the machine contains confidential data and/or is used to carry out online financial transactions.

    Taking that as the starting point, there are two separate issues to be considered. The first is whether or not the Windows 7 Firewall in conjunction with a NAT router provides adequate inbound network protection, and the answer is yes. The second is whether reliance on an AV as the sole means of protection against malware is optimal, and to that I would say no: adding another layer of a different type would provide better protection.

    As you have indicated that you do not like classical HIPS, you could look at adding either DefenseWall or AppGuard if on a 32-bit system, or AppGuard if on a 64-bit system. Policy restriction is the perfect complement to an AV, providing strong silent security without involving the user in decision making. The following post by Ilya Rabinovich sums up very nicely the advantage of pairing an AV with policy restriction: Re: What do you use with DefenseWall if at all?

    You could also consider a light virtualization program for increased browser protection: either an application sandbox such as Sandboxie; or a system virtualization program such as Shadow Defender, Returnil, Toolwiz Time Freeze, etc. The important thing is to ensure that the virtual environment is cleared of any potential malware before engaging in online financial transactions: either by emptying the application sandbox or by rebooting to exit the virtualized system partition.

    Kind regards
     
  10. Sm3K3R

    Sm3K3R Registered Member

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    Even though Fax may come and swear me i still say Zone Alarm is/was crap for me.

    I used the free version (9.2...) in a W7 32 bit installation recently (this summer) ,it worked somehow ok for 2 months then it started popping at every PC start some banner.
    This was not the annoying thing ,but the connectivity issues it was bringing at every first boot right after the banner started showing up.
    Some connections would not work at cold boot until a restart was made.
    Had to switch back to Windows Firewall.

    In the past had similar issues with Zone Alarm free.Practically PC was stalling if at cold boot there was no internet connection from the gateway ,for the crap to call home.

    Also had a giveaway license of version 8 in in the past and it was freezing my PC every time i was adding advanced rules similar to the ones i was doing in Outpost

    Good filtering to bad the rest is ...
     
  11. moontan

    moontan Registered Member

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    i tried the free version last week and my computer froze as well when doing the same thing.

    amateur hour at its worst. :thumbd:
     
  12. Aventador

    Aventador Registered Member

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    Well at least it wasn't just me. Phew. This thread can be closed anyways.
     
  13. fax

    fax Registered Member

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    No problem, it can't work for all systems. Everyone needs to find the best combination of software based on the system used. ;)
    If you want to play with a new version there is a beta currently available www.zonealarm.com/beta, feedback will go directly to development team. So you can channel your crap message to the right target :D
     
  14. Sm3K3R

    Sm3K3R Registered Member

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    :) Thanks for the tip! :D

    I would like to use it due to the good filtering stage ,i am not an a priori hater of the product.
    I will take a look at the beta ,maybe they managed to enhance it.
     
  15. Sir paranoids

    Sir paranoids Registered Member

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    Don't know about the new version of zone alarm but id probably go with zone alarm vs windows firewall.

    I remember testing zone alarm 9 at one point and it was a pile of fail,it had some AI garbage in it that would over ride your program settings you set for any app after the fact and open up that app~port and their was no way in that version to turn it off.

    So hard to find a decent review of a firewall out their inho seeing as the reviews don't want to lose advertising dalliers and they don't want to spill the beans on a "free" anything if its spyware like and likes to phone home a lot.

    You really have to read the End-user license agreement when installing something like that and even then.

    One firewall that has spiked my interest of last is FortKnox Personal Firewall though i haven't tested it as yet so your guess is as good as mine.

    example

    link :blink:
     
  16. fax

    fax Registered Member

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    Basing your recommendation on a 2 years old version is, to say the least, a bit biased. We are meanwhile at ZA version 10 with a completely redesigned software. o_O
     
  17. Sir paranoids

    Sir paranoids Registered Member

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    Well i recommended zone alarm 10 vs windows firewall so what are you trying to say then ?

    And ZA zone-alarm smart defense adviser is a retarded pos imho that needs to be exterminated in version 9. :blink:
    Is it any better in version 10 ?

    btw i saw one new way the new ZA was redesigned.
    ZA no longer allows users to do off line installing of the firewall yay and we both know what that's all about regardless of who were talking about :shifty:
     
  18. zip

    zip Registered Member

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    I would pick ZA 10 over the built-in Windows fw.

    It's a shame the older ZA 9 is much more user friendly than ZA 10.

    ZA needs to go back to the older ui.

    BTW, I'm happy with Privatefirewall.
     
  19. TheQuest

    TheQuest Registered Member

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    Hi Marcus_
    I would have though that you could [would or should :eek: ] have stopped the remote connections by disabling them in remote setting. ;)

    Take Care
    TheQuest :cool:
     
  20. fax

    fax Registered Member

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    I am trying to say that when you provide feeback to an OP you should at least make an effort to provide up-to-date advise. Otherwise it seems just trolling. Security tools are evolving at a faster pace and providing feedback on an out of support version is not the best service you can do to the user. It is not so difficult to follow I beleive, no?

    Full installers are there but not too easy to find as ZA during install needs the internet to determine the best configuration for your box. Installing it offline can results in sub-optimal configuration adn trouble for novice users. If you installing ZA on a offline PC then already you should wonder why choosing ZA. No offline AV signature available and not very much dial-up friendly (kaspersky based AV signature can be bandswitch demanding) + not good to install on a infected system with broken internet ability. There is always a reason (or several ones) behind certain choices :)
     
  21. zip

    zip Registered Member

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    fax,

    Please encourage Zone Labs to return ZoneAlarm to being the most user
    friendly fw once again.
     
  22. fax

    fax Registered Member

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    Well, ZA is fine for me like this.
    If you have suggestions for improvements then you should let them know (there is a dedicated section of the forum on suggestions for improvement). More they receive more likely they will look into it. They obviously can't please each users requests especially if isolated or very vague :)

    BTW, there is a beta running of ZAfree+AV (XP, WIN7, WIN8 ). This is the best opportunity to test and provide feedback. The messages will go directly to the development team. www.zonealarm.com/beta
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
  23. zip

    zip Registered Member

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    There are other fw's, both free and paid.
     
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