okay brain trust, here's the deal -- we switched to digital phone so we switched to roadrunner for broadband internet. previously we had DSL. When we hooked the DSL up, we upgraded to a wireless router/DSL combo and it came with its own firewall that seemed pretty good. our computers didn't have to be (or so I thought) loaded down with heavy anti-virus, firewall software like norton's or whatever. well, now, the cable modem has no wireless routing capabilities (or so it seems) and it appears to be worthless in the protection department -- especially seeing how I had two trojans and a bunch of other spyware crap on my laptop which appears to be related to the recent switch to roadrunner. I bought a netgear wireless router and hooked it up last night -- wireless problem solved. but the protection issue isn't. i bought the netgear router because it said it had a security component. bs -- it gives a free trial to trendmicro's crap which is set to expire anyway. I was redirected to an option to pay $50 for one year for a program that looked to be loaded up with more nonsense than I need. So, hornfans, what do I need and what provider should I use? I thought a killer firewall would lessen the need for everything else, so a firewall and anti-virus seems like what I need. I really don't want some program that's always flashing crap on the screen and using and abusing computer resources and telling me that hornfans is a dangerous place. I already know that. But if I really need anti-spyware, etc. fine. what shall I do?
the zone alarm free firewall works well for a home system I don't see why anyone would need more than that. the rest of the problems would have do with having virus and spyware protection
OK - A firewall works by only allowing certain traffic through the router to your computer. It's generally based on source and destination addresses plus the service port that is being requested. Basically, when you connect to another computer, you do not only specify which address to connect to, you also specify the port number. The computer you are connecting to knows which service you are requesting by the port number you are connecting to. Some example port defaults: http 80 ftp 21 telnet 23 In most situations, you will only have one routable address for your network - that one goes to your router. All of your computers that connect to the router are assigned private, or non-routable, addresses. That means that others cannot connect directly to you through the internet. Your router translates the addresses for you. If you want to set up a web server on a computer that sits behind the router, you configure the router to pass requests for port 80 to that computer's private address. If you don't have it pass that traffic through, it stops at the router. Thus the firewall. In the case of you initiating the request from your computer behind your router to a computer out on the internet, that gets passed through by the router because you initiated the request. Again, it keeps track of your private address and translates the address as the traffic passes through it. The computer on the other side of the router only sees the router's address. Now, you can get even more protection from a firewall using software that will examine the packets to make sure that they match the desired service request and are not malformed, but you don't really need that unless you are allowing others to connect to your computers from outside your network. You can also employ firewall software on individual computers to allow or deny different types of connections. Zonealarm is one such piece of software. This software will help you recognize when programs running on your computer try to initiate connections to other computers. I hope this helps, I tried to keep it simple.
so if a program on my computer (safe) communicates beyond the hardware firewall and then receives something back, that something back would still be reviewed and/or filtered? Seems to me then that the software firewall isn't that big of a deal -- so long as incoming is reviewed by the hardware firewall, and assuming netgear keeps it updated over time. As for viruses and really bad spyware (not cookies, but other crap), wouldn't that be picked up by the hardware firewall too? I download stuff from legit sites but I also do the occassional youtube, google video, stuff. What I don't do is take files from other computers and upload them onto my safe computers. So, I guess it seems like the hardware firewall would solve 95% of the protection issues and the other 5% relates to not being stupid with CD-ROMs, DVDs and other data from disks. Basically for 2+ years I had no issues with a DSL wireless router and no software protection. Now with roadrunner I got slammed. Now with the wireless router, I should be in a similar position I was with DSL, or at least that's what it looks like to me. Am I wrong?
No, if the program on your computer contacts another computer, the stuff coming back will not be examined or filtered unless you have extra software to do this. The router as a firewall is protecting you from others connecting to you on their own. When you switched to cable, you were assigning the routable address directly to your computer, so othesr could connect to you. That's why you got slammed. Now that you have the cable modem connected to the router, they are hitting the router and stopping there. So, yes, you are pretty much in the same situation you were in with DSL. That being said, I cannot stress the following enough: INSTALL ANT-VIRUS. This is vital protection. And it doesn't cost all that much. You want to get anti-virus software that updates automatically so that you are as current as possible at all times. You may have survived so far, but the odds are against you. It just doesn't make sense to leave yourself exposed to malicious attacks. I have used both McAfee and Norton's and have been very satisfied with both. You don't have to enable all the features if you are worried about it slowing things down on your computer, but the Anti-Virus is a must.
I'm late to the party, but LordHornAustin's advice is spot on. The router protects you from unsolicited hacks and attacks from the the public. It does not protect you from cooties you invite by reading infected emails or going to harmful websites. As you realize, you need firewall, antivirus, and antispyware software. I prefer an integrated product because all components work together, and you don't have to worry so much about false positives from one program detecting another. I use BitDefender. It isn't necessarily the best in all 3 categories, but it is very good in all of them, and the integration is tight.
well, I ran anti-virus on both the laptop and the desktop and after two years of only the hardware firewall, pretty clean. A couple of W97M viruses on a few old word docs on the desktop and two trojan horses on the laptop (I think they were recent). Anti-spyware found a bunch of cookies, but nothing else (second scan on the lap top, the first found some bad looking stuff which prompted the thread). I guess I have very, very boring internet habits.
not to hijack, but if i'm starting from scratch on a new laptop that will be connected to a wireless router, what do you guys recommend? i've seen avg, norton, and mcaffee, and bitdefender (as a suite) listed on here. 1. avg seemed to really slow down an old laptop (it was pretty ancient though) 2. i've used norton & mcaffee in the past and, while they did a decent job, seemed to absolutely chew up all computing power while they ran 3. haven't heard of bit defender what are the top rec's? i know there was a thread on this about a year ago and there seemed to be pretty unanimous opinions about certain software and i don't believe it was any of the above. or should i just check cnet reviews and download?
CaptainEd, your best bet is to read as many reviews as possible. What was best 6 months ago may not even be top 10 now. Everyone here will have a different opinion, and most will be convinced that what they are using is the best. The bottom line is that you should have SOMETHING to combat viruses and spyware/malware, and a more robust firewall product is a good idea too. Vista's built-in products appear to be better than what XP came with, but my personal opinion is that a third party app is still the way to go. CNet's complaints regarding BitDefender are based on tis slow scanning performance and uninstall procedures. Neither of these were an issue for me, but you may feel differently. Having an well-integrated product was high on my list of requirements, and I feel that BitDefender is the best in this regard.
eeye.com.... The head-honcho has been making the rounds in the webcast arena lately. The Link Here you can get an evaluation copy of their total AV solution called 'blink'. The overview tab gives all the Sales-speak. ... Supposed to be tightly integrated and very efficiently programmed, for the Windows world, I assume, but haven't had a chance to thoroughly check it out yet, even though it comes highly recommended. up until now, I have been running an oldversion of Zone Alarm, strictly for the egress (outgoing) firewall, which catches programs trying to phone home + AVG AntiVirus (free version), plus a hardware router/modem, which has a firewall built in. But I ditched ZA - my Internet habits are boring.
14 - I'm with you, given the scan results of my 2 year unprotected stint with just a hardware firewall, I can't believe I need anything more than anti-virus and spyware. The fundamental reason I went without it for so long is bloated aspects of norton's, etc. Those things were like viruses in and of themselves. So far, I like AVG, slow on the scan, but I also chose the scan option that took less resources, so of course its slower (1.5 hours for a full scan).
