Do I Need a Firewall? - Comments Page 1

Hi Bob! Good points in your article but I do have to express concern over your position. I guess I'm from the 'More-is-better" side of the argument. In fact, I just freciently finished posting a 3 part posting on firewalls. I invite you to stop by and have a read. Basically, I look for the best solution for the least cost (free is best) amd after a few weeks work trying out a few offerings, I posted my results and reasoning. I don't trust Microsoft (we both know I'm not alone in that) and the firewall they provide is only 'ok'. I also use a NAT enabled Wi-Fi/wired DSL router from 2-Wire which does have an inbound barrier firewall installed with stealth enabled. Pretty good if I do say so myself. But I still run Zone Alarm 6 to make sure.

I've been in the business for 37 years and if there's one thing I know, it's that there is never a time when your system is safe. The more security you apply the better.

You might want to amend your article by way of saying a few words regarding wireless routers/hubs. At home, the router is most likely a hardware solution to the firewall, but wireless devices will need firewall software installed if they are to be used elsewhere.
(I like Trend's PC-cillin, it has a good user interface, and seems to work well without much intervention on my part.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Good point! If you take that laptop on the road and hook up to any network, wired or wireless, it's a good idea to turn on the firewall.

Well, I have to disagree with Doug on this one. Yes, firewall protection is absolutely necessary, but more is not necessarily better. It sounds to me as though Doug feels more comfortable with "more", but I doubt that he can prove that he is any safer than someone using either the NAT firewall of a router or the Windows XP SP2 firewall.

Hi Bob,

I'm using the free version of ZoneAlarm on dial-up connection with Xp Os for years now. I'm satisfied as it didn't cause me any problems since.

Thank you so very much for clearing this up for me! Every time I downloaded the firewall and/or the antivirus (McAfee), provided free with my AOL 9.0, my computer froze and generally acted up something terrible. I downloaded the AVG software which seems to work fine for my system, Windows 98. I have an older computer but have managed to learn how to clean & tweak it. My daughter gave it to me, when she bought a laptop, & told me I couldn't hurt it. I have DSL through BellSouth which does have a router. After reading this article, which came as a link in my newsletter, I am more than relieved. Once again "Thanks" for all of the great info for this lady that sometimes needs an airbag to bang my head on......God Bless You! Pat

Bob, I've been using a firewall program since ZoneAlarm was first released. For quite some time, ZoneAlarm (and Agnitum Outpost as well) has become more bloated and intrusive. I do have a router with NAT, and have considered dropping the S/W firewall. But I've had that nagging feeling that I needed both. Your article convinced me otherwise. I do use a great A-V, Kaspersky, and Webroot Spysweeper. So I just uninstalled ZA for the last time. Thanks.

Even if you have a hardware firewall, you should run a software firewall on every PC you own. If you have even one notebook that goes outside your firewall, if it's not protected, it can (will) get infected. When it comes back inside the firewall, your other PCs will get infected from the notebook. And if you have even one user behind the firewall who downloads questionable executables or visits questionable web sites, they can get infected regardless of your hardware firewall, and your other PCs will get infected from that PC.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Given my remarks in the article, we'll have to agree to disagree on this. :-)

Your comments on a firewall were invaluable. I downloaded the update on Zone Alarm and could no longer access AOL. I removed Zone Alarm and activated the Windows XP SP2 firewall, but wasn't sure I was being protected. Your analysis helped me to feel secure with the Windows firewall and not worry about trying to make Zone Alarm work!

I finally just uninstalled the software firewall I've used for a long time. I have a router in place and did a few port scans online to see if my computer could be "seen", without a software firewall in place; None of my ports were open.

For people who use the outbound communication argument, quite frankly if you know enough to configure a router, you should know enough to prevent spy/mal/adware from being installed on your computer. I don't do much to put my computer at risk, so I'm not worried about outbound data.

I agree with both sides. Saying that a common router is a firewall is somewhat untrue though. They do perform some firewall tasks, but it's not really the same level of protection. The problem is that anything that runs on your computer pretty much has free reign internet access. And if anything bad did manage to run on your computer, you'd be none the wiser. A software firewall will give you a little more control and a little more of a heads up. A true hardware firewall properly configured wouldn't allow any communication to the internet that you or you're company didn't know about, but this often gets in the way of free sprits. So yes you're pretty safe behind a router, but if you do stupid things and install everything under the sun that router won't protect you at all. Think before you click.