To Firewall or Not to Firewall

[aXoe]

Well guys ive just installed a new operating system (windows xp: pro) and was wondering what do you guys think about firewalls. Good or bad or do they get in the way all the freaking time :x I mean with most games they are more of a problem then a solution. Do you guys have them installed and / or do you use them

later
:thumbs:

 

[thehunter1320]

YES!!!!!! for the love of god yes! get a firewall! the best free one is zone alarm. you can find it at www.zonelabs.com
it's incredible easy to use, free, and doesnt affect online gaming. i still don't have the MSBlaster worm cause zone alarm is still blocking it, i haven't run the blaster patch, but i'm gonna do it now cause it's probably a good idea

 

[aXoe]

Thanks hunter, i might try that, i used to have NOrton Anti Virus

Although guinny is a fag, any luck getting a new comp. I need one too and in the same boat as you are with the father (cept mine isnt that dumb and i have to outsmart him on the topic)

thanks again

:thumbs:

 

[Hudson]

NO DO NOT GET ZONE ALARM. DO NOT. ZOme alaram even after you uninstall it lingers in your system files sometimes enforcing old settings, my internet didnt even work for a month until i tracked down the stray zone alarm files. And the exact same thing happened to my friend.

ZONE ALARM = EVIL

 

[thehunter1320]

it's not evil. and ya, he said yes, but i gotta spring (pay) for it 100%. so i'll have it in a month or 2

ZONE ALARM IS NOT EVIL! TECHTV ENDORESES IT AND THEY'D SAY IF IT WAS SPYWARE! AND IT'S A MAJOR COPORATION!!! THEY DON'T NEED TO SPYWARE IT! and the settings thing is sum what true, cause they get locked into the registry, it's not Zone Alarms fault, but once u get zone alarm, u won't want to uninstall it

 

[Guest]

argh norton firewall

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

why do you need a firewall?
If its just a basic home computer you shouldnt need one.
They cause a lot of trouble, and can prevent you from hosting a server or playing some games online.

Unless you have vital top secret info or are a web server you do not need one.

 

[aXoe]

well if you get zone alarm and dont want to uninstall it, then it sounds sort of dangerous. I would rather go un protected then. Ill think about it. Besides zonealarm do you know any others?

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

i uninstalled zone alarm once and it has some auto protect thing where it locked everything from acessing the internet.
I had to format.

i dont know of any other decent free ones.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Zone Alarms sucks. For MP games at least. I get this weirdo phantom lag from it whenever I play. My ping is OK, the FPS is OK, but it's like all my actions are 2 seconds delayed.

 

[thehunter1320]

thats really strange, i NEVER had any of those problems, ever... and i use it all the time

 

[Guest]

my firewall prevents about 30 trojans a day, thats the use of it. get norton i never had a problem with it. if you try to connect to a game or something, it will ask you to permit of block it and when you permit it thats the last time it will ever ask you again.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Desolate
my firewall prevents about 30 trojans a day, thats the use of it. get norton i never had a problem with it. if you try to connect to a game or something, it will ask you to permit of block it and when you permit it thats the last time it will ever ask you again.

I did do that, but the lag is still there. And it doesn't prevent trojans, it just blocks their communication ports.

 

[SidewinderX]

get a router or cable modem with a hardware firewall

 

[Washuu]

router firewall can be good - zonealarm built in on my linksys, is good
the trick is, u really need to know how to use ur firewall, and port knowledge, otherwise it will be kickin u in the behind, ALOT
- firewall is very good. did a port scan one day, there were like 3 ports opens, all of which were no problem

 

[aXoe]

I tried to play online games like soldier of fortune 2, jedi knight 2, and cnc generals. Didnt work the only one that did was Warcraft 3 and the expansions pack. DId not make sense even if i did permit the games and disable it. I might install Norton when i stop playing online (a period of 3 weeks until HL2 comes out). Oh by the way the system is a laptop

Thanks for the help
:thumbs:

 

[dawdler]

I am using both Zone Alarm and a Dlink router with built in firewall...
ZA has never given me trouble. I like the way it warns when something tries to access the net, then its just up to the user if it always should be able to... The only problem is that in some games, it cause a lockup cause all you get is a black screen (it halts and ask if you want the game to access the net, but you never see the dialog, its out in windows). Can easily be fixed by manually setting the application settings though. Never seen lags or anything of the sort.

Anyway, another one I can recommend, is one called BlackIce... But I'm not sure if its that name any longer (they changed it somewhere along the line)... It is specificly good for gaming.
Sidenote: http://blackice.iss.net/

 

[Patten]

I used ZoneAlarm for a while but when I tried to play online games it would lock up the computer on me.

I tried a ton of different ways to see if I could get it to work but it just wouldn't so I deleted it and didn't have any problems afterwards.