Help : Win 98 + good, simple firewall

Dear Folks

As most of you are the experts in security software, I'm coming to you to ask for your advice.

I'm running Windows 98se, therefore the well-known free firewalls like Comodo, PC Tools Firewall, Ashampoo and Online Armor won't work for me.

Up to now, I've been using the Kerio 2.1.5 firewall (which, by the way, is exactly the same as the Tiny firewall) However, I'm reading that there are now better firewalls to be had.

I did install NetVeda but have no idea how to configure it (I'm not a computer expert) so would appreciate something more suited to my (limited) intelligence!

SO ... what I'm looking for is a FREE firewall that offers pretty decent security, runs on Win98se, and above all is VERY simple to configure.

I'd really appreciate your help and suggestions.

Thanks folks.

Dr. Mac

 

Kerio 2.1.5. Jetico Personal Firewall v.1 still works on W98 but definitely isn't very simple. Honestly I'd suggest to install Linux on such old boxes, W98 has vulnerabilities that no firewall will fix.

 

Vulnerabilities that are no longer exploited eather as everyone now days codes for the NT OS.

you could also look at old versions of Zone Alarm I recall them running light on 98 and are easy to configure. I'm not sure if OA or Comodo works on 98 but might be worth a look.

 

It might be easier to drop $100 for the XP upgrade, and possibly add some RAM. Or this could be a good excuse to get a new computer. A decent one is about $700 these days.

 

If I remember right, and this may not be the case, the original Outpost v1 Free was for 9x. It is still a good basic firewall IMO.

Sul.

 

Sygate is always a favorite

 

And again. The above is complete myth. I'd suggest that you install W98, connect it to internet and leave it sitting there, doing nothing, just let it connected. The box will get infected no matter how much you claim that noone codes for W9x these days. Took about 3 hours to get owned when I tried last year with the box just idling on a DSL line. There's enough people with infected W9x boxes that spread all that junk all over the internet even if noone codes anything targeted at this OS any more; and just that stuff is being coded primarily for NT doesn't mean it doesn't work on 9x.

Grab a copy of Windows 2000 somewhere, will probably work lot more reliable than W98 on the same HW, or install Linux on the box. W9x/ME is buggy history.

 

Hello,
I vote for Sygate.
Mrk

 

Hi, you can use Rising Personal Firewall Free. It works under Win 98 also, easy-to-use, often updated, light in resources.

Download Free version: http://www.tucows.com/preview/512796#MoreInfo

Topic in forum about: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213858

 

Sygate worked great on my Win98, very simple straightforward and light.

 

WinXP upgrade is still available in stores for about $100, so why install a OS that was a flop like Win2000?

 

Ugh, Windows 2000 certainly was NOT a flop, it's been (and still is at lots of places) massively used in corporate environments and have been whole load more secure and stable than any W9x out there.... Second, WinXP performance on old slow systems sucks, plain simple.

Windows 2000 Professional system requirements:

- 133 MHz or more Pentium microprocessor
- 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum. 32 MB of RAM is the minimum supported. 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM is the maximum.
- 650 MB of free space

Windows XP Professional system requirements:

- PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required
- 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
- 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space

 

You haven't told us what resources are available in your PC, so I assumed your box could handle XP.

 

Greetings folks

First of all, thank you all VERY much for taking the time to reply. I really do appreciate it.

To answer questions about my PC ... yes ... it's an old, old baby (but I love it) It is a Pentium II with a CPU of 450hrz and 160mb RAM.

Regarding upgrades, and even new computers ... I'm retired and living on a small government pension, so I'm afraid there is not a lot left over to go for modern technology and XP's !!! That is why I'm sticking to my Win98se O/S and why I really like FREE.

A few folk have mentioned Sygate. Yes ... I can get hold of that from "Old Version Apps" ... also there was a mention of Outpost v.1. and an older version of Zone Alarm (the newer version have stopped supporting Win 9x) I shall search for that - possibly it is also on the Old Version sites.

Regarding Rising Firewall, I have been reading some good reports here on this forum about it, but I see it requires a minimum CPU of 500 ... which is above what I have.

=================================

Just something about the vulnerability of Win 9x. While I agree it may not be a secure as XP, I do have it fully patched with all the critical updates from Microsoft (and yes ... although they stopped supporting 9x in June 2006, all the patches etc are still available on their Windows Update site)

Due to the limits of support for 9x by most security products now, I have only had Avast Home as my anti-virus/malware protection and Kerio 2.1.5 firewall. However, I regularly do an online scan using Webroots malware scan and the online Nod32 virus/malware scan. I also have the free version of SUPERantispyware installed. The free version does not have resident protection, but every week I update the sigs and then do a thorough manual scan.

In the past two years, Nod32 has only picked up 2 malware (which it cleaned and eliminated) and apart frojm tracking cookies, nothing else horrible has ever been detected. So, I guess I'm doing something right (and yes, old as I am I still visit "naughty" sites sometimes!)

=================================

Well ... I guess I'm off to Old Version Apps now to do some searching, downloading and trying out.

Thanks you all again for all your help and suggestions.

Best wishes,

Dr. Mac

 

Yeah, about what I expected for W98 user. I have a similar box running W2K pretty decently.

Seriously, Kerio 2.1.5 was a great firewall. It does its job very decently, nice and simple configuration. No HIPS and similar resource-hungry stuff. If you want to add more layers, there are nice things that would run on such HW without problems (I'd personally recommend ThreatFire, very simple to configure) but you are limited by your current OS. The choice becomes much better once you upgrade to W2000 at least.

HTH.

 

My father had a really old box, former Win 98 with 96MB of RAM, can't even remember what processor, but you can imagine circa 1999 purchase. I put Win2k on that, ran fine though obviously a little slow. Win2k was a good solid OS. I still have an old Thinkpad notebook with it running, has Sygate firewall on it.

 

My box is new, modern, fast, and I run W2K_SP4 by preference. An up-to-date, well hardened W2K box is the fastest, most stable, secure, trouble-free Windows OS ever produced. Microsoft still provides "retirement support" via Windows Update, and will until July 2010. After that, I'll think about XP.

I'm running OA AV+, build 3_162 and have experienced absolutely none of the problems reported by XP and Vista users trying to transition and test the OA betas. Zero.

Apologies for off-topic sidebar, but let the myth be laid to rest forever that W2K is a cheesy product!

Pinky

 

Did as you said took my Old P2 300 MHz laptop with windows 98SE no firewall. sat it in the DMZ zone and let it idle all day yesterday and up to now. no infections no problems still surfs the web fine. even tho its been exposed to the outside for 20+ hours now.

also on a Side note all the Firewall's noted here can be Goggled and downloaded I found alot of ZA you can download. Sygate is available Thur Google check it out

 

Thanks again folks.

I've got Sygate and have it installed now. Will give it a try for a few days.

After that I'll give an older version of Zone Alarm a try.

Despite still having Win98se, I'm sure I can still achieve a reasonable level of protection using the best out there that still supports 9x.

Cheers everybody.

Dr. Mac

 

Windows 98 is vulnerable to CIH virus, which attacks the BIOS and overwrites the first 2,048 sectors of all non-removable drives. Your system will be left unusable, until you recover the BIOS and the first 2,048 sectors.

As for the firewall, Kerio is the only one I know of. Windows 98 is ancient and is less stable than NT-based Windows. I strongly suggest that you upgrade your OS.

 

Total nonsense. I've run 98 on DSL for years with no problems. Yes, you can infect 98 by going to the wrong sites, opening the wrong files, wrong attachments, or clicking on bad links, but you can ruin XP the same way. Compared to NT systems as installed, 98 only has a couple of ports open, the netbios ports. These can be closed without a firewall by following the instructions at GRC. With these closed, 98 can sit connected for as long as you want.

Regarding firewalls, Kerio 2.1.5 is one of the best for 98. Sygate isn't bad either. With Zone Alarm, it depends on who you ask. With firewalls, light and easy to configure seldom go together. Kerio is good if you know how it works and what you're allowing or blocking. As for its not having HIPS, you can run a separate one if you want. They have the same problems as firewalls. The user has to know what they're doing and what the stuff they're making rules for does. Knowlege is power here. If you want a separate HIPS, the free version of System Safety Monitor supports 98 very well. Some use it and a firewall like Kerio as a full security package, with no AV.

It boils down to this. 98 isn't supported by MS and many vendors anymore. If you want to use it, you have to know it well enough to support it yourself. If you can do that, 98 can be used safely. If you can't or don't want to invest the time it will take, then upgrade to an NT system.

 

Windows 2000, A Flop You are trippin'

 

Most OEM motherboards came with a NON Bios write active. where you could write nothing to the virus without plunging the MB into a Updater. there is very few MB's out there with out some sort of Bios protection this motherboard on my laptop has 2 Bios's if one is EVER compromised the dormant one takes over. and recopy's its self to the first bios.

Older version of ZA were awesome on Windows 98SE it was recommended as the top pick by many company's for a VERY long time tell XP became the dominate OS.

 

but if you get Samurai Hips install plus jetico1 it will fix almost all windows vulnerabilities. it works even if you dont have patch.