If you haven't done so yet, it's good time to install a firewall in your PC
 

I noticed an increasing trend over the last months of ppl complaining that they got hacked, had their info stolen, overcharged credit cards etc. This is going to get even worse.

If you follow the news, there's apparently an underground market among criminals that sell and buy any kind of data they can acquire from their victims. Webmasters should have an extra reason to worry due to extra valuable data they store in their PCs such servers logins, passwords for domains etc. Windows firewall offers very limited protection and an antivirus alone isn't gonna make the difference.

I gathered below 4 of the best performing firewalls:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com (freeware)
http://www.jetico.com/jpf2.htm (freeware)
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/index.php (shareware)
http://www.kaspersky.com/kis6 (shareware)

They are all equally good and they'll pretty much eliminate most of the threats you could face. I personally recommend comodo as a complete solution that is also easy to use and very light application.

I've asked various PC users in the past why they dont use a firewall and they usually reply they dont know how-to. Really, there's nothing hard when it comes to installing and setup of most firewalls. It wont get you more than 15min to become familiar with it and could be extremely beneficial.

think about it !

Thank you,sir.I am going to install it.

Thanks for the heads up...I've been getting an unusual number of trojan finds with AVG in the last few days...activity is definitely picking up :(

i got norton firewall on my pc but not on the girlfriends. is the router firewall not good enough?

Or you could just not install virus's and use a router :)

Don't forget XP SP2 has a built in firewall. I am experienced with networking and have a firewall at the router, but I've left it enabled anyway: apart from the once-off "do you want to allow this program to connect..." dialog for the first time you start ICQ, FTP etc it sits quietly in the background.

You could also seriously consider not using IE!!!

BlackCrayon, it helps, but in small degree. This happens because most router firewalls consider outbound traffic from LAN as safe. They are mainly for stopping incoming attacks on ports. Hackers employ various trojans to do their dirty tasks, different approach.

lol that will actually prevent most threats indeed

Good call Soul_Rebel!

I've been advocating software firewalls for a long time,
even as complementary to whatever kind of hardware firewall one might have.

if you have an extra pc (even an old one) this (http://www.clarkconnect.com/) will take care of all your needs :thumbsup

thanks, i got the one you recommended

You would have to be crazy not to have antivirus and firewall now a days...

It used to be so, but because newbies had a hard time setting them up to work with uncommon ports, many routers nowadays just forward all the data indiscriminately.

:(

Thanks guys. Yes, most just do that. A linux option is: http://www.smoothwall.org coming from a company offering some very advanced security solutions.

Firewalls are for pussies

Thanks for the heads up.I have a firewall installed,without it my computer would be ruined !

I use mathon,that is also very good.

Also, if you're using a router, set the gateway to something other than the default IP. It will help to an extent.

thx for the reminder, been planning to install one for a long time, but laziness... sigh

There is so much a software firewall or even a hardware based firewall can do to protect you, I worked as a network defense specialist/vulnerability assessment specialist for 4 years while I was in the military. Best thing to do is practice safe surfing, have a machine patched up to date and be proactive in regards of keeping your machine virus free. A firewall/antivirus are more of a reactive aproach to keeping a computer/network safe, once either of them has been triggered it might be already late and even if a trojan/virus/root kit/etc has been blocked the machine might of already been screwed.

So here are my tips:

-Keep track of logs (a pain but worth if you have sensitve documents you want to keep safeguraded)

-Update patches, firewall and antivirus as often as possible. I cant tell you how many people install any of those things once and they forget about them and wonder why they got infected with something.

-Safe web surfing. This one is hard to explain, just dont go to shady sites or go clicking like crazy on every link you find.

-Backup important files, sure everyone tells you this but there is a reason for it.

-Worse thing you can do is pretend you are safe just because you have a antivirus/firewall installed, there are so many easy ways to avoid those is not even funny.

Most of the malware out there are designed for MASS distribution so they exploit vulnerabilites that are widely available, those are the things programs or websites should be the least worried about. What programs/websites need to be worried about are about targeted or semi-targeted attacks, where a particular software, industry, company is being targeted, but then again the last place you want to go for advise on how to protect your assets is GFY .

Again be proactive about security, being reactive means something already happened and now its time to fix it!

and proactive among others is monitoring in/out connections

Now if all the average surfers would do the same... Would help us out and fuck those damn codec installer cheaters etc.

Damn Spyware and Viruses take alot of money away from us as affiliates. Alot more then most people think.

If you use Windows XP and have the Windows Firewall on and updated, is that sufficient or is it recommended to switch to one of the 4 you recommend and/or should I add one of the 4 on top of the default Windows one?

Thanks so much for the info.

yeah this is a must. :)

router firewall is about the best way to go. BUT, you must know how to set it up correctly.

a good router, with a software firewall and you are good to go. :thumbsup

What hershie said....

:helpme

what do u recommend for macbooks???

its never good to run two software firewalls at the same time. you will get conflicts. :2 cents:

Thanks for the info. Is the Microsoft Windows Firewall a sufficient product or should I switch to one of the 4 recommended in this thread.

let me retract a bit of this statement. i have found that microsoft windows firewall works with a lot of other firewalls. but this is the only firewall i found that works with other firewalls.

what slapass said....

:helpme