Firewall Problem.

Hello, Eset.

I'm quite a big fan of ESS but since I read this firewall test report from matousec.com, I begin to worry about the security of my computer. The test result stated that ESS has a very poor firewall. So is Eset aware of this problem? I do hope that you'll strengthen your firewall, hopefully as powerful as Kaspersky

Thank you.

 

Hey encus
Just out of curiosity, what specific improvements of the firewall do you think Eset is missing, to make it stronger?
My humble experience with Eset firewall, is that in interactive mode it will give you a great solid control over in-and output. Personally, I have my firewall in automatic mode with exceptions, and it has worked well so far. Do not give the many different test too much credit. The only thing that for sure will happen, is that you will go into paranoid mode leaving you eventually totally confused.

 

When I'm using mIRC, my computer often gets scanned by someone, and I think ESS firewall failed to block it. But when I used Kaspersky Internet Security, its firewall immediately blocked it.
BTW, I'm using automatic mode in ESS firewall because I don't want to be bothered by so many questions in interactive mode.
Thank you.

 

Could you please elaborate more on this? For computers outside the Trusted zone, your computer appears stealthy so I'm not sure what scanning you mean. Also let us know what was exactly detected by the other firewall and whether you're behind a router.

 

Hello Marcos.

What I mean by someone often scans my computer is that the person knows my ISP, IP address, current city, OS I'm using, something like that, and it really bothers me.
When using Kaspersky Internet Security, when someone tries to scan my computer, I will get pop up notification saying that someone is trying to scan your computer.
And yes, I'm behind a router and using wireless network to connect to internet.

Thank you.

 

That's just normal Internet noise, random bots scanning entire IP ranges for vulnerable computers, and your IP just happens to be in there. There is no way to prevent that, but any kind of firewall blocks it. In any case, you aren't personally targetted by these scans.

 

I'm not quite sure because I'm quite often notified by someone in mIRC via chat that he/she knew all those infos about my computer that I've said before.
I'm still pretty worried about this.

 

Hi Marcos/Aryeh Goretsky.

How do you respond to the matousec.com on ESS firewall test report? Is ESS firewall really that weak?

Lastly, what about my questions above regarding mIRC?

Thank you.

 

Hello,

You can review the comments in this message thread, as well this comment in ESET's press center and this one in their blog.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Thanks for your kind answer Aryeh Goretsky

 

Hello,

On the mIRC issue, I'd suggest switching to Interactive Mode, at least while using it, if you want to receive notifications about connection attempts from other computers.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Hi Aryeh.

I've heard that ESS 5 gives more pop up notification than ESS 4 about firewall, threats, etc even if your firewall is set to automatic mode. Is this true? Does it mean that in this automatic mode if someone in mIRC scans my computer, ESS 5 will give me pop up notification about this?

Thanks.

 

Hello,

I have not noticed any difference in the number of messages popping up between clean installs of ESET Smart Security 4 and ESET Smart Security 5 on a system running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 x64 and mIRC. Version 5 does include a HIPS module, so that might generate some additional messages the first time mIRC is run, depending upon how both programs are configured.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Ok. Thanks again for your answer, Aryeh.