I have the Avast 4.8 Home Edition; however, i am using the Windows Firewall. Can anyone please advise me if using the Windows Firewall is good enough protection along with this Avast 4.8 version?
I am a beginner learning this stuff! thanks … :-\
For a beginning, it’s not bad.
Windows firewall give up inbound protection.
If you want outbound one, choose one of the freeware firewalls 
Online Armour
PCTools
Outpost Firewall Free
Comodo
ZoneAlarm
Personal Firewall Tests & Results. Firewall rating:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php
About the leak tests limitations: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=29259.msg247460#msg247460
Freeware firewalls:
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php
http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml
Well for me i never having any problem with it 
But i can say mine is the Vista one so i heard its not that bad
Mr.Agent
Hi;
Good enough is a very relative term, indeed.
Inbound protection is the most important. A must.
Outbound protection is more optional, many don’t use it and many do.
Personally I like outbound protection and would not be comfortable without it.
My choice for firewall is ZA free.
Regards
HL
Hi Magena777,
it depends. A poorly set up firewall can leave you with less protection than a basic one which has no real setup involved.
What it depends on is how secure you want or need this computer to be, and how much you are willing to learn about internet security in order to ensure a low-risk environment.
If, for example, you are using the computer for banking or CC transaction, I personally would definitely want a two way firewall. (And a few other defense mechanisms, too.)
Vista has this protection. Just that it’s difficult to configure.
I blocked outbound connection of some giveawayoftheday programs (that I’m not allowed to update).
[i][i]I do my banking transactions online alot. Also, purchases online, too. So, what would be the best firewall to use and download that does not require alot of disk space, too? Also, that may be FREE!
Recently, i have been having alot of virus attacks called: Fake alert , trojan gen, etc., so i am worried about firewall attacks… also, some name pop up saying "securitydefender.com and it told me to click on it and when i did … avast made an alert of virus attack …
so i do not know if my windows firewall is really protecting me …please advise what to do here?[/i][/i]
See my reply above…
Magena777;
Are you on XP or Vista or…
Then read the replies.
Regards
HL
I have windows XP
With XP, you have no outbound protection. So, you will need a software firewall as has been suggested above.
Also, never click on links in such pop ups as you did. Close them.
OK … thanks …it seems these two are in the excellent category: Outpost Firewall Free
Comodo
Also, do i need to add a spyware protection to the avast 4.8 version, all i really have is avast & windows firewall. Thats it for protection?
The idea of having a two way firewall is to control outbound applications. So if something nasty is on your computer, and tries to phone home, you have the opportunity to stop it, because the firewall will alert you.
It’s possible you’ll get a lot of alerts at first, and progressively less over time as the firewall learns the rules you give it.
So you have a little learning to do, as to what is safe to allow, and what might not be, when the popups start.
I would definitely recommend a demand scanner. A good way to double check your system is not harboring trojans etc.
No one application can catch them all, all the time.
Try MBAM and/or SAS.
Both have free versions, both are very good. Download install update then run.
From you description, it sounds altogether likely that you may have the remnants of a rogue program on board, so don’t be at all surprised if either of those scanners find some weird stuff. (You should always quarantine anything found, rather than delete it,unless you know it to be safe in which case it can be ignored.)
A gram of prevention is worth a kg of cure. “Google” SpywareBlaster, and MVPS Hosts file. No harm in improving the odds a bit by blocking known bad sites. If you use IE, nothing wrong with increasing the default security settings a bit, too. At least have it prompt to run scripts.
The anti-spyware it an integral part of avast.
Though many forum members use one or both of these to compliment avast:
-
- MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later. - 2. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version.
PS, if you choose the Comodo firewall, know that the installer provides an included antivirus. This can not/should not be installed while Avast is installed. (2 or more AV’s conflict.)
So although you have to download the “package”, you can choose which of the components to install from it. Just choose the firewall. (Unless you want to change AV’s, in which case install the lot, but uninstall Avast first…although that wouldn’t be my choice.)
ASK LEO - firewall info
http://ask-leo.com/is_an_outbound_firewall_needed.html Is an outbound firewall needed?
Ask Leo! Search Results on firewalls
Me I’m biases, since I use the Outpost Firewall Pro and you get all the good elements in the free version that got the good results in the firewall tests, the other stuff is for the most part bells and whistles as I have much of them disabled in the Pro version.
See http://free.agnitum.com for a comparison of what isn’t in the free version. The anti-spyware and Web protection are taken care of by avast, so in conjunction with avast you almost have the full Outpost Pro version level of protection.
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I would definitely recommend a demand scanner. A good way to double check your system is not harboring trojans etc.
No one application can catch them all, all the time.
Try MBAM and/or SAS.
Both have free versions, both are very good. Download install update then run.From you description, it sounds altogether likely that you may have the remnants of a rogue program on board, so don’t be at all surprised if either of those scanners find some weird stuff. (You should always quarantine anything found, rather than delete it,unless you know it to be safe in which case it can be ignored.)
A gram of prevention is worth a kg of cure. “Google” SpywareBlaster, and MVPS Hosts file. No harm in improving the odds a bit by blocking known bad sites. If you use IE, nothing wrong with increasing the default security settings a bit, too. At least have it prompt to run scripts.
After downloading the two you mentioned above: MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and SUPERantispyware. Do i uninstalled them after before i download the SpywareBlaster? I really don’t need all three? Right?
you can keep all three. you just run them manually when in need. altough, if you use IE, you should update Spywareblaster regularly.
After downloading the two you mentioned above: MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and SUPERantispyware. Do i uninstalled them after before i download the SpywareBlaster? I really don't need all three? Right?You don't need any of them. But there is no harm in having all installed unless you are running very short of disk space. Both MBAM and SAS can be installed, and will only run when you command that, although SAS does start with Windows - a default recommended setting - that you can change with no ill effects. SpywareBlaster once installed has an icon like a Knights' head (representing armour) and doesn't run at all. What you do is open the program, update it, select "enable all protection", let that happen, and close it. It makes some registry changes to block known bad websites/cookies, and places some other websites into the Internet Explorer "restricted zone".