New ADSL service, and it's great

I've just got ADSL with Nildram, and it's great, it's magic, it's
better than sliced bread. I just can't get over the speed. I
downloaded the Newsgroup headers and it took about 45 seconds. Magic.
Now can someone put me right as far as Firewalls are concerned. I am
using a speedtouch 510 router with built in firewall, along with
Zonealarm. My dealer suggested that I get rid of Zonealarm as I no
longer need it, and it takes up system resources. Would this be
right, and do I not need a system Firewall installed? Many thanks.

-
Peter James
Change AT to @ to reply

I'm using a Speedtouch 530 which also has the built in firewall and my
PC-Cillin 2002 anti virus also has it's fire wall enabled. Before I had the
PC-Cillin 2002 and also ADSL, I used to run the free Zone Alarm but removed
it when my anti-virus was updated to include it's own firewall.

What a difference removing Zone Alarm makes, I could instantly notice a
speed performance on the then 56k connection. Zone alarm must have been
really hogging some resources -- but at the time when I had no alternative I
was still pleased to use it.

I think now you have an alternative, which is the firewall in your router,
uninstall Zone Alarm and free up the resources it is using. Incidentally, I
do run the PC-Cillin firewall still, set at a 'server' level so that other
PC's on my network can see it, but it has not logged any attacks on it's
firewall since I have been using the ADSL Speedtouch 530 which must indicate
that the firewall in the router is doing it's job.

The router is an excellent place to have the firewall, it means that
anything connected to the internet via that router is protected, it's why I
decided to buy a router and not just an adsl modem.

jsp21c wrote:
> I'm using a Speedtouch 530 which also has the built in firewall and
> my PC-Cillin 2002 anti virus also has it's fire wall enabled.
> Before I had the PC-Cillin 2002 and also ADSL, I used to run the
> free Zone Alarm but removed it when my anti-virus was updated to
> include it's own firewall.
>
> What a difference removing Zone Alarm makes, I could instantly
> notice a speed performance on the then 56k connection. Zone alarm
> must have been really hogging some resources -- but at the time
> when I had no alternative I was still pleased to use it.
>
> I think now you have an alternative, which is the firewall in your
> router, uninstall Zone Alarm and free up the resources it is using.
> Incidentally, I do run the PC-Cillin firewall still, set at a
> 'server' level so that other PC's on my network can see it, but it
> has not logged any attacks on it's firewall since I have been using
> the ADSL Speedtouch 530 which must indicate that the firewall in
> the router is doing it's job.
>
> The router is an excellent place to have the firewall, it means that
> anything connected to the internet via that router is protected,
> it's why I decided to buy a router and not just an adsl modem.

What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your system you
can effectively control what is connecting out from your PC. You may
be unpleasantly suprised by the number of programs which either come
with built in 'phone home' or load them as valued added extras.

Add to this the fact that in the unfortunate instance where you may
get infected with a trojan/virus/certain types of worms, your software
firewall may be the first indication that there is something wrong,
remembering that all AV programs are permanently running catch-up to
the viruses (how can you block something which hasn't even been
written yet??).

It's a belt & braces situation where I believe it is best to have both
a hard coded firewall as well as a software driven one, but I know
others will take exception....

--
B-)
Life is pain.....
Deal with it!!

"Kraftee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:jqE6b.3066$1%(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your system you
> can effectively control what is connecting out from your PC. You may
> be unpleasantly suprised by the number of programs which either come
> with built in 'phone home' or load them as valued added extras.
>
> Add to this the fact that in the unfortunate instance where you may
> get infected with a trojan/virus/certain types of worms, your software
> firewall may be the first indication that there is something wrong,
> remembering that all AV programs are permanently running catch-up to
> the viruses (how can you block something which hasn't even been
> written yet??).
>
> It's a belt & braces situation where I believe it is best to have both
> a hard coded firewall as well as a software driven one, but I know
> others will take exception....
>
> --
> B-)
> Life is pain.....
> Deal with it!!
>
>

Kraftee

Totally agree.
Three times ZA has pointed out to me that 'uninvited apps' have been trying
to connect to the internet - in spire of my router/modems firewall.
I would also recommend something to protect against spyware. I use spybot,
but there are others.

HTH

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 11:14:43 +0100, Peter James
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I've just got ADSL with Nildram, and it's great, it's magic, it's
>better than sliced bread.
snipped
Many thanks for all of the replies. Maybe I'll keep Zonealarm, for
the foreseeable future anyhow. Thanks.
-
Peter James
Change AT to @ to reply

It depends on the rules you construct, you can filter both in and outbound
connections. I'd configure the hardware firewall on the router correctly and
use that!

phoenix wrote:
> On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 11:14:43 +0100, Peter James wrote:
>
>> I've just got ADSL with Nildram, and it's great, it's magic, it's
>> better than sliced bread. I just can't get over the speed. I
>> downloaded the Newsgroup headers and it took about 45 seconds.
>> Magic. Now can someone put me right as far as Firewalls are
>> concerned. I am using a speedtouch 510 router with built in
>> firewall, along with Zonealarm. My dealer suggested that I get rid
>> of Zonealarm as I no longer need it, and it takes up system
>> resources. Would this be right, and do I not need a system Firewall
>> installed? Many thanks.
>>
>> -
>> Peter James
>> Change AT to @ to reply
>
> Hi
>
> You don't 'need' it but, IMO, it would be advisable to keep it. The
> firwall in your router will only protect you against inbound
> connection attempts whereas ZA will protect you against outbound
> connection attempts.
>
> Regards
>
> Bill

--

(¯`·._.· All Outgoing Mail Scanned With Norton Anti-Virus 2003 ·._.·´¯)

In article <jqE6b.3066$1%(E-Mail Removed)>,
Kraftee <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your system you
>can effectively control what is connecting out from your PC. You may
>be unpleasantly suprised by the number of programs which either come
>with built in 'phone home' or load them as valued added extras.

With a UPnP router such as the Speedtouch 510/530 your security may be
short lived. Any program - whether deliberately installed or a virus -
can tell the router to open a port.

-- Richard
--
Spam filter: to mail me from a .com/.net site, put my surname in the headers.

FreeBSD rules!

Mark&Lisa wrote:
> Mitch B wrote:
>> On 9 Sep 2003 22:11:25 GMT, Richard Tobin enlightened us all with:
>>
>>
>>> In article <jqE6b.3066$1%(E-Mail Removed)>,
>>> Kraftee <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your
>>>> system you can effectively control what is connecting out from
>>>> your PC. You may be unpleasantly suprised by the number of
>>>> programs which either come with built in 'phone home' or load
>>>> them as valued added extras.
>>>
>>> With a UPnP router such as the Speedtouch 510/530 your security
>>> may be short lived. Any program - whether deliberately installed
>>> or a virus - can tell the router to open a port.
>>
>>
>> So you
>> o configure your firewall to control what ports are opened
>> o run decent AV software
>> o run decent anti-trojan software
>> o run one of the myriad anti-spyware checkers
>> o don't install anything without Googling for info on same
>
> o run linux

Linux has (well can have) security holes as well, there just not
exploited so much as the OS is still very much a minority product. If
it was a major OS you'd see a lot more activity in the virus/trojan
department..

--
B-)
Life is pain.....
Deal with it!!

Kraftee wrote:
> Mark&Lisa wrote:
>
>>Mitch B wrote:
>>
>>>On 9 Sep 2003 22:11:25 GMT, Richard Tobin enlightened us all with:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>In article <jqE6b.3066$1%(E-Mail Removed)>,
>>>>Kraftee <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your
>>>>>system you can effectively control what is connecting out from
>>>>>your PC. You may be unpleasantly suprised by the number of
>>>>>programs which either come with built in 'phone home' or load
>>>>>them as valued added extras.
>>>>
>>>>With a UPnP router such as the Speedtouch 510/530 your security
>>>>may be short lived. Any program - whether deliberately installed
>>>>or a virus - can tell the router to open a port.
>>>
>>>
>>>So you
>>>o configure your firewall to control what ports are opened
>>>o run decent AV software
>>>o run decent anti-trojan software
>>>o run one of the myriad anti-spyware checkers
>>>o don't install anything without Googling for info on same
>>
>>o run linux
>
>
> Linux has (well can have) security holes as well, there just not
> exploited so much as the OS is still very much a minority product. If
> it was a major OS you'd see a lot more activity in the virus/trojan
> department..
>

rofl

Mark&Lisa wrote:
> Kraftee wrote:
>> Mark&Lisa wrote:
>>
>>> Mitch B wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 9 Sep 2003 22:11:25 GMT, Richard Tobin enlightened us all
>>>> with:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> In article <jqE6b.3066$1%(E-Mail Removed)>,
>>>>> Kraftee <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> What you've forgotten is that by running a firewall on your
>>>>>> system you can effectively control what is connecting out from
>>>>>> your PC. You may be unpleasantly suprised by the number of
>>>>>> programs which either come with built in 'phone home' or load
>>>>>> them as valued added extras.
>>>>>
>>>>> With a UPnP router such as the Speedtouch 510/530 your security
>>>>> may be short lived. Any program - whether deliberately
>>>>> installed or a virus - can tell the router to open a port.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So you
>>>> o configure your firewall to control what ports are opened
>>>> o run decent AV software
>>>> o run decent anti-trojan software
>>>> o run one of the myriad anti-spyware checkers
>>>> o don't install anything without Googling for info on same
>>>
>>> o run linux
>>
>>
>> Linux has (well can have) security holes as well, there just not
>> exploited so much as the OS is still very much a minority product.
>> If it was a major OS you'd see a lot more activity in the
>> virus/trojan department..
>>
>
> rofl

Obviously someone who has been convinced by the plastic penguin, hope
they don't find out the hard way....

--
B-)
Life is pain.....
Deal with it!!