Firewall suggestions...and Why do I need one,again?

Juan handed

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So,I download this free firewall,ZoneAlarm.Seems to do the firewall thing pretty well...except it won't give me a break.It's always asking me to grant permission for everyhting that tries to connect to the internet.Driving me nuts.

Do I need a firewall,and what do I really need it to do?

I ordered a laptop for my friend's kid,I'll have it in a few days,I'm experimenting with some of the secutity programs in the meantime.I need to make it simple and user friendly.
thanks.
 
Well you're firewall provides as kind of a filter for all the "bad stuff' out there on the internet. It catches potential corrupted programs out there trying to get to your network. Then quarantines them, and deletes them. Yes they are absolutely needed and you would be absolutely crazy if you didn't have one.

What you need to do to it? Really not much. You can however go in and change your settings, like how sensitive the firewall is to information either blocking everything or to the opposite of letting everything through for example.

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with zonealarm so I can't tell you exactly what you can and cannot change nor what other security features comes with it (like anti-malware, system and internet security). But play around with it and see what all is included.
 
Well I must be absolutely crazy because I don't and have never had one. I just think they are annoying and get in the way of what I want to do. My firewall and antivirus is call 'smart-browsing'. Don't go to "bad sites" and you won't have to worry about it. I've been anti-virus and firewall clean forever, and don't think I've ever gotten a serious virus. But people who have paid subscriptions to anti-virus and firewall companies end up with the worst kinds of viruses out there....go figure?
 
I have yet to get a virus (even though I pay for an anti-virus). Like cavali said, it's all about smart browsing (for the most part).

My recommendation is to actually get a router even if you are the only computer on the internet. It has a hardware firewall that keeps out a lot of bad traffic. Pair it with the windows firewall built into XP and Vista and that's all you really need.
 
I've always found personal firewalls such as zone alarm annoying with the endless questions about what you want to enable.

I generally just don't bother with a personal firewall, there is a firewall built into my router!

The only good thing I can think about zone alarm is that in asking you to permit everything it can tip you of about the possibility of having a virus. so if you suddenly start getting a load of messages saying do you want to allow connection on port 25 for program xyz.exe, you should say no, and investigate what on earth it is...
 
I had two builds in the last 3 years and never used a firewall in any of them. It does more bad then good. If someone wanted to hack you, a sofware based firewall will prob not help you :) If you have a router that is more then enaugh because as someone mentioned b4 it has a firewall already bilt in.
 
Are you guys saying that my wireless router has a built-in firewall? How do I check it to see and how do I get to the settings?

OK,so XP and vista have a built-in firewall...how bout Win7?

Am I able to see a log of "incidents" in XP or vista if I need?

And if you had these 2 layers of protection,what could be the possible use of another firewall?
 
Well I must be absolutely crazy because I don't and have never had one. I just think they are annoying and get in the way of what I want to do. My firewall and antivirus is call 'smart-browsing'. Don't go to "bad sites" and you won't have to worry about it. I've been anti-virus and firewall clean forever, and don't think I've ever gotten a serious virus. But people who have paid subscriptions to anti-virus and firewall companies end up with the worst kinds of viruses out there....go figure?

yes, yes you are absolutely crazy :p

I just like having one that way I can manage security on my PC because my router doesn't have a firewall built in... that I know of... But yes you can just use smart browsing, but I guess I just like to have that block there.

Juan,

Don't use two firewalls, that is a bad idea. And we're not saying your router does, because some routers don't have firewalls built in. And yes you can check the logs... if you have admin rights to the router.
 
Wow I thought I was the only crazy person that goes without a firewall/antivirus, its a hassle trying to play any game online with a friend if you have either or worse yet both. Just dont go to any suspicious sites and download programs from a trusted site and your okay.
 
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