Good firewalls...

etsisk

etsisk

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anyone got any suggestions? My kerio has an .exe file that's messing me up; I'm getting a new (to me) tablet next week and am looking for options...
 
In all seriousness, I'm not a big fan of software firewalls. But that being said, Comodo's isn't horrible. It can be installed as a freestanding app (without the virus scanner) if you have another AV solution that you like. You shouldn't have multiple AVs (or firewalls, for that matter).

Zone Alarm is also quite popular, though I haven't used it in years.

You also can get a router with a built-in firewall. Most of them aren't in the league with Jesse's, but a few ICSA-certified small business models do exist that aren't horrible, nor horribly expensive.

-Rich
 
Personally, I like to build my own bastion hosts and put a nice aggressive honeypot right beside it...
 
Personally, I'm not fond of software firewalls. I used to have a dedicated linux system between the DSL modem and the network, but I got tired of dealing with it, as well as taking up space on my rack.

Linksys router/firewall (owned by Cisco) for a small setup (I've got 2 wireless and 2 wired):

DSL modem <-> Linksys (wired & wireless) <-> everything else

Altho the Qwest (Qworst) DSL modem has a wireless capability, I turn it off and manage everything on the Linksys. Fairly easy to do, just about everything these days uses a webpage. Cost is well under $100.

www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en
 
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Zone Alarm free is still good for me. I've been using it for years and it has been solid the whole time.
 
etsisk said:
anyone got any suggestions? My kerio has an .exe file that's messing me up; I'm getting a new (to me) tablet next week and am looking for options...
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What I used to use was Black Ice but I cannot seem to find a link for you and I wonder if it was sucked up or went out of business. It was great software, while I am not a fan of software firewalls either this one was on my corporate laptop and worked great. I and many others even were able to block all of the Corporate IT nonsense they would try and push onto my laptop. Which caused them to ban Black Ice from all corporate PCs SIGH!

If you can find that software package I liked it and it kept some our resident hackers out of PC when we would be at international standards meetings. I managed to actually catch a couple of them thanks to that software and had them removed from the conference.
 
We've got a linksys router (wired, not wireless - too many problems with our cordless phones) - is that sufficient for me, firewall-wise?

this crap makes my skull itch. :( (but thank y'all very much for the input)(well, except for Jesse's "suggestion" :rolleyes: :D)
 
TMetzinger said:
That's what I just put in at two client sites... very nice.
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Yeah. They do seem to be quite stable. I've got two of them in an active/standby configuration.

My only real complaint though is the fact that you only can have one default route and can't load balance between multiple WANs. Of course, Cisco, can sell you something to do it :)
 
We've got a linksys router (wired, not wireless - too many problems with our cordless phones) - is that sufficient for me, firewall-wise?
Click to expand...
let's try again!:)
 
I've had good luck with Linksys small-business type security routers. I use a RVS4000 through a cable modem at one location. Internally it has a gigabit switch, offers a basic firewall and remote connectivity with VPN clients as well as the ability to create IPSEC tunnels to other entities. No wireless, but they do offer wireless versions of the same.
 
etsisk said:
let's try again!:)
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I'd think that the wired router should do fine. The main thing for most consumer firewalls is not directly exposing a computer to the outside world. When hooked into the modem, your computer is 'visible', and without any software dictating otherwise, will respond to all connections, be it pings, port scans, etc. Placing it on the other side of the router, provided you haven't forwarded traffic to that one computer, you get most of the benefits. Connections that you have not initiated will stop at the router.
 
I've got a Zyxel and a Netgear (both are VPN endpoints, too) as well as a Linksys router/wireless access point. The Zyxel is the best of the bunch - the Netgears have been reasonably stable, and the Linksys requires periodic rebooting (among other things, the admin login sometimes doesn't work until you reboot).
 
wsuffa said:
the admin login sometimes doesn't work until you reboot).
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This is a fine point... no matter what, you need to 1) change the administration password on the router, and 2) make sure that remote administration is turned off. Don't want some random person going in and messing with settings :D
 
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