Newbie confused by firewalls

How do I protect myself now that I am online 24 hrs per day.

I have a basic adsl modem, with currently no protection. I am running
Windows 98 Second edition.

What are my options. I am running Norton's antivirus 2003 does this mean
that I should be using Norton Firewall?

Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?

Is there really a threat from hackers or is it overhyped?

Is there some form of tutorial on the web which a non techy could
understand? Has any magazine/company analyzed the various options available?

Should I change to a router with a hardware firewall?

Should I upgrade to Windows XP which I understand has a built in firewall?

Grateful for any advice.

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 08:44:28 +0000 (UTC), "John Edwards"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>How do I protect myself now that I am online 24 hrs per day.
>
Read groups.google.com for answers to this and all your future FAQ's.

Andrew.

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 08:44:28 +0000 (UTC) and in article <bha9db$bfu$1
@titan.btinternet.com>, John Edwards said...
: Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?
:
Kerio Personal Firewall is far better.

--
chris

<snip>
> Simplest and quickest way to provide reasonable protection is to use a
> personal firewall on each PC, such as ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com).
However
> the newer versions of this software in my experience are a little
unstable,
> I'd download the 2.1.44 version from www.oldversion.com as this seems rock
> solid on my Win98SE machine.
>
> If you're looking for some tutorials or gain a little more understanding
try
> www.grc.com
>
> Using a router with built in firewall is OK, but my personal preference is
> to use a Linux firewall with NAT software, you'll have much more control
> over exactly what goes in and comes out. For that you'll probably need an
> ethernet ADSL modem (I'm unsure whether a Linux machine can use USB
modems,
> maybe others can comment on this).
>
> Mark.
>

Or of course a PCI ADSL modem!

Mark.

"John Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:bha9db$bfu$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?

I never liked it, always crashing and produced terrible warp with games.

> Is there really a threat from hackers

Yes

> or is it overhyped?

No.

> Should I upgrade to Windows XP which I understand has a built in firewall?

The windows firewall is useless, it doesnt stop any info from going out, including all the times your machine reports back to M$.

--

Steve

"They say a glass of wine makes you live longer but there's a drawback with that, the French drink it""

Guvnor.

>
> "John Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bha9db$bfu$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?
>
> I never liked it, always crashing and produced terrible warp with games.
>

The later versions of the software (> 2.1 ) seem to have been re-written
with a new user interface, and subsequently took a huge backwards step in
stability. The older version 2.1.44 version seems stable, at least on my
Win98SE and also a friend's win2k machine.

Mark.

In article <bhae9t$vr14t$(E-Mail Removed)>, markp
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>
>Using a router with built in firewall is OK, but my personal preference is
>to use a Linux firewall with NAT software, you'll have much more control
>over exactly what goes in and comes out. For that you'll probably need an
>ethernet ADSL modem (I'm unsure whether a Linux machine can use USB modems,
>maybe others can comment on this).
>
>Mark.
>
>
Both Smoothwall 1.0 (kernel 2.2.25) & Ipcop 1.3 (kernel 2.4.20) have
recent patches to work with the alcatel 330, so I guess the answer's yes
(but I won't know personally until adsl comes to darkest Thornbury
(BS35) on 3/9)
Bob

--
robert w hall

> > Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?
> I never liked it, always crashing and produced terrible warp with games.

It`s never caused *me* any problems (v2.6.82) and I tend to spend upwards
of 20 hours a week playing Half-Life online.

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
or you are likely to be spam filtered :-}

markp wrote:

> >
> > "John Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bha9db$bfu$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > Zone Alarm has been recommended. Anybody any comments?
> >
> > I never liked it, always crashing and produced terrible warp with games.
> >
>
> The later versions of the software (> 2.1 ) seem to have been re-written
> with a new user interface, and subsequently took a huge backwards step in
> stability. The older version 2.1.44 version seems stable, at least on my
> Win98SE and also a friend's win2k machine.
>
> Mark.

I've got Zonealarm (free version) running on Win98se and have very few
problems with it now.
Online gaming is unaffected by it once the ports are set (on my machine)
Ive got a router with nat running too, I even thought about an Ipcop or
smoothwall machine too, I may build one soon to try it out.