New firewall suggestions

I realise this is like asking "whats the best car to buy, or best soundcard to fit", but I am looking for a firewall for my system. I run 2 Win XP home pc`s and a Win 98, wireless D Link network with dwl 900ap+ and 2 dwl 102 usb adapters. The whole lot is connected to Pipex broadband via the Access Point running thru a 3com Lan card port on my Asus A7N8X motherboard.
I use Blackice at the moment but I keep having to "trust and accept" all these computers on a regular basis and it is beginning to hack me off.
I cannot use Zone Alarm because one of my programmes is incompatible with it ( cant remember which one).
SO, I need a new firewall that is user friendly and needs little intervention in its use.
Is it worth getting a hardware firewall ( whatever that is) or can someone suggest something good. I dont mind paying a bit for one, but dont want to spend all my time fiddling about with settings and incompatabilities.

Not much to ask, I know (!) but you lot seem pretty clued up on here.

cheers

allan

 

Hello allan

We believe you will find Outpost Firewall the most user friendly, efficient and flexible firewall available. Check it out here: www.agnitum.com. There is also an online demo there. If you would like to read additional input try Kim Komando's input on this firewall at: www.komando.com/reviews_show.asp?showID=3533#complete

Try it. It is free and works well. It has the least amount of complaints and even comes with 6 plugins. More are possible.

HMSS Q Section

 

Yes, you can try Outpost.
One thing to remember about hardware firewalls is they are the best for incoming protection, but give you no control on what goes out of your computer. Therefore, you loose your trojan protection.

 

Outpost is great, but it has two small problems:
internet connection sharing on XP (you've got it ) is not very nice and using it on a Lan in effect requires the Pro version.
But than again, it's a great firewall and version 2 is right around the corner

 

Hey, thanks, outlook looks really good. Only problem is the thing about ICS as I use this for my computer network.

I can get the pro version free for 30 days, will this be ok with ics or should I wait till verion 2?

Thanks again

allan

 

Never call Outpost Outlook

You can try the 30 trial version. If it doesn't work, try something else, v2 for instance

ICS support depends on the windows version. W98 and W2K seem to be okay, it's just the XP version. You might consider using Analogx proxy running on an XP box for the time being. It's an effective and very efficient (for free) solution.
I would prefer running W98 for a gateway, though.
On your gateway machine enter the ip address of your lan workstation into the Outpost trusted zone and run OP free on the workstations. That way your security is (firewall wise) quite good.

 

Slip of the tonge

I`ll probably give it a go next week. Incidentally, I have had Blackice for 3 years and since visiting this forum, actually, whilst on this forum, I have had my first ever serious ( red icon) attacks, one was a Sub seven probe and the others were SQL_SSRP_StackBo thingys. I have no idea what they are, but Blackice stopped them. Is there something going on here that I should know about, and who is Pretty boy?

allan

 

Hi Allan. Lots of people come here every day and I have never seen any indication that coming to this site triggered any kind of new harrassment The only people on this board that could see your IP are The owner and Admins as far as I know. I think thats standard on all BBs.
Why do you ask who is Pretty Boy? And no, I haven't a clue.

 

Prettyboy is the name of the computer that "attacked" my computer over 200 times last time I was on this bb ( in about 10 minutes). Probably just getting paranoid!

Anyway thanks for all the info, looks like I qualify for 50% off the pro edition cos I use Blackice.

I just e mailed them for details of the offer.

Thanks again

allan


PS, while typing this I got almost 100 TCP port probes, over half from one address, and the others from different.
Thats why I asked the first question.
I never noticed this level of activity anywhere else.

Or is it just me?

 

Hi allan

Might want to reconsider your settings under backtrace options. Doing a direct lookup on probing computers is not something I would recommend for the average user. Most likely they are compromised systems, but the direct lookup will basically announce your presence to the probing computer.

Regards,

CrazyM