BlackICE as silent firewall?

I'm installing a new computer for people who don't know much about firewalls and don't like the popups it gives. So I need something wich just filters the traffic silent. What about BlackICE for this task? It seems to run light and it's very stable...

What's your opinion?

 

I wouldn't use the new version of Blackice if you payed me. I installed the trial version, but it would never run. I then tried to uninstall it but I could not get that stinkin program out of my computer. I tried safe mode and still no luck. The only last good version of Blackice I would recommend would be Version 2.5car. It is a good IDS firewall. Blackice's app filtering is't the best on the newer versions. It doesn't compare to other firewalls such as LooknStop.

Barney

 

The firewall built into XP will operate silently for the most part. The exception is any application that wants to act as a server. This would include P2P. It takes all of 2 minues to set it up for existing server applications. After that it is silent.

 

XP's firewall can be turned off by malware... So I think it's better using a 3rd party firewall...

 

Any firewall can be turned off by malware.

 

I would recommend spending $25 to $50 and buying a decent NAT router with SPI. Simple... set it and forget it! Doesn't use any CPU. I would recommend just about anybody connecting to the Internet to buy a cheap router.

Best of luck!

 

Also, have them use anything other then Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I would highly recommend Firefox and Thunderbird. And to avoid many macro viruses, use OpenOffice.org which is a FREE office suite and it, IMO, much better then MS Office and has a bright future ahead of it.

 

Use Look 'N' Stop. Nice firewall that isnt difficult to use and filters traffic silently.

And If you dont want to pay for it just go throught the trial and use the Lite version(but doesnt have the app filtering).

Regards,

snowboard

 

You may mean version 2.9car which is also my favorite version. It uses about 10 MB RAM, has never crashed on my system, and the event log is accessible by a single click on the tray icon. Initially, I needed to modify the firewall.ini so that ICMP would be blocked but since then it has been maintenance free on XPSP2.
You might also consider CHX-I or ICF which are both free.

 

While I do not use it myself you might consider Trend Micro PC-cillin antivirus/antispam/firewall combo. The firewall filters inbound/outbound traffic and gives no alerts.

 

BlackICE is an (semi-active) IDS not a firewall.

 

From the BlackIce web site:

"BlackICE products provide Intrusion Detection, personal firewall, and application protection all in one easy to use package."

 

Since getting my router. Life on the net is a lot better. I totally agree!

More good advice I use paid StarOffice (the same, more feature rich and closer to MS Office in abilities fully interchangeable with most MS stuff sometimes difficulty with stripped down MS "Works".) Very good advice Dave.

 

BlackICE does not have a "firewall" in the traditional sense. Its main protection mechanism is an application component 'sandbox' (nothing to do with network traffic) and a semi-active IDS. The 'firewall' table in this screenshot seems to be more for "unblocking" blocked addresses rather than general purpose use: http://screenshots.modemhelp.net/screenshots/Network_ICE/BlackICE_v3.5/Advanced_Settings/Index.jpg
In other words, BlackICE is an IDS first and firewall second or even third.

 

Last time I tried it, it appeared to act like a typical firewall, stealthing ports, except for allowing replies to incoming pings, otherwise all ports were stealthed. I assumed that it also blocked any incoming packets like a typical network firewall would. I'll have to check it out again and run CHX behind it to see if it's actually allowing packets in or not. Anything that BI let's in will show up in the CHX logs..