Newbie to the firewall...can you help me?

Hi. I am running Windows 2000 Professional on my home computer (with children's hands on it most of the time).

I would like some expert advice on a good firewall I need to get to protect my computer. I have been reading the post that everyone else has on here and have realized that I am more confused than ever because everyone likes the one they have better than someone else's. I just want to know what is user friendly, protects my computer, and what is compatible with Windows 2000 Professional. Any advice or suggestions are welcomed since I have no clue.

In advance, thank you for helping and guiding me to the right firewall protection for my computer.

Best Regards,

Nicole (GO Bulldawgs)

 

BTW: I use Bellsouth DSL, with the outside stingray looking thing, it is a speed touch USB. Dunno if I needed to add that to what I was asking in my first post. Sorry if I just used up space in letting someone know this. I am surely trying to learn all I can.

Thanks again,

Nicole (GO DAWGS)

 

Depends on if you want a rule based, or application based firewall. If application based I would recommend Zone Alarm, for rule based get LNS or outpost

 

If you want a set and forget firewall Zone Alarm Pro 5.0 is a good choice. About the only thing you have to know is which programs ought to have access to the internet. A good rule of thumb is that it you haven't tried to access it through some program such as a browser, email program, or the update function on another program, it probably shouldn't be given access. The only disadvantage is that Zone Alarm is that it is a resource hog and some have complained about bugs in the new 5.0 version. FWIW, I have it running on both my wife's and daughter's computers and no problems so far. Another advantage of Zone Alarm is that it has lots of other features besides being a firewall like ad blocking and cookie control. If your children have gotten into IMing, the Zone Alarm Security Suite (which includes Zone Alarm Pro) has some fine tools for preventing virus transmission and even clicking on web links in IM messages. The Suite also includes VET antivirus which is a pretty good AV program. It's the suite I have running on my daughter's computer and so far no problems.

 

Thank you both for your response. I do have a few questions. What is a rule based versus' a application based firewall? I am so new to this stuff. What I would like for a firewall to do is this....make sure that my children are protected because they use the IM thingy for AOL and Yahoo. I tell them not to download things or open things that they have no idea what it is or who it may be coming from. I would also like to be protected from the pop-up ads, the hackers that can see what and where I or we have been on my computer. I am not sure if I even have a firewall on my computer. I know that I have not installed one because I am clueless to this and just learned about all of these problems through this website.

Where do I go to get a firewall, do I need to purchase one or is there free ones? Will it allow me to search places that I have placed on my favorites list without problems?

I really appreciate y'all helping me. I am sorry that I have so many questions but I have no clue what to look for when getting a firewall. Can you also tell me what a Mozilla Firefox is and should I have that on my computer?

Thank you again!

Nicole (GO Dawgs)

 

here is a couple of links that have free personal firewalls and pop up stoppersfirewalls popup blockers in my opinion you would probably be better off useing zone alarm until you get a little more experience then you might want to try some others. pop this might be a good popup blocker to try.

 

the mozilla firefox browser is a web browser that works pretty much like Internet explorer, except that most of the security problems present in IE are not a problem in firefox. Firefox is a fast clean browser with the ability to add functionality as needed through the program. It is a nice security addition. You can have both browsers present on your computer in fact you need IE to get your windows updates. even if you don't use IE as a browser after getting firefox you still need to keep IE patched. you can get mozilla firefox free at the link


bigc

 

Thank you so much BigC. I will downloaded the items that you spoke about and give them a try. Again, thank you and all that have given me advice and suggestions.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Best Regards,

Nicole (GO DAWGS)

 

If you want to give Zone Alarm Suite (which I recommend to you because it includes a separately available program called IM Secure for securing IM connections) it is available for a free 15 day trial at http://www.zonelabs.com.

 

Why don't you give Outpost Pro a try. It is a very user friendly software firewall. You can set it in Rules Wizard mode and it will preset the rules for the applications running on your PC. You can set your own rules if you want to, but it isn't necessary. I been using it for several months now and love it. Firewall tests show everything stealth.


Outpost has a great forum. Everyone is friendly and helpful.


http://www.outpostfirewall.com/forum/


You can get a 30 trial version here..........


http://www.agnitum.com/