A change of firewall?

I personally don't like ZA free, because lots of newbies like it. I know more than a newbie, so I wont be caught dead running the same firewall. I prefer cooler firewall stuff with complicated rule making capabilities. All this tweaking with firewall rules makes me feel a lot safer.

 

for me zonealarm is to firewalls as norton is to antivirus. widely used but not necessarily the best overall solution. Theyre great for newbies but power users might want more powerful and possibly lighter solutions. I used ZA for a while but then again i didnt know if or how many other firewalls and antiviruses existed.

 

I haven't used ZA for a number of years. Last version was 2.6 when it was being heavily touted at GRC. People there were by that time digging into it saying that it operated at quite a high level in the O/S and it would be quite easy for a trojan to get in underneath and operate unseen. That is basically why I got rid of it. There was also talk of the developers using the f/w engine mechanics in another program which I think was aimed at advertising - forget the details now.

Don't know how much of this is still relevant now.

At the time personal f/w's were just coming into being and as I was new to them it suited me, but as I progressed I realised the limitations of ZA and moved on. I would not go back to it.

 

HUH?

Michael

 

Chances are, all your tweaking with firewall rules will make you much less secure due to user error... that's not a personal comment aimed at you, but just a comment saying that the odds are fairly good that you'll mess something up without knowing it unless you really know what you're doing.

 

I would have said that, but you beat me to it.

 

KISS is always a good rule anywhere and specifically in firewalls, sadly for programmers today, it is exactly the opposite, what once was achievable nicely with minimal resource load, is now a forgotten thing.