New trend - users think they do not need a software firewall?

General Topics
1

Hi malware fighters,

While analyzing hjt logs of users for malware, I have spotted a lot of users do not seem to have any active software firewall. Could be that some have a hardware firewall, that is all-right, but also that they only depend on the one-sided Microsoft firewall. People on the Internet both need one resident av-solution and one software firewall to be secure,

polonus

2

http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

and I have XP firewall
“but something turns it off all the time and I have to hand start it”

3

I liked this 10 minute interview with one of the MBAM developers:
http://www.besttechie.net/2008/08/20/malwarebytes-developer-interview

I discussed my observations about the interview here:
http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=17348

4

A couple of years ago I made the decision to abandon the increasingly tiresome ZoneAlarm firewall and just use the Windows XP one way firewall in conjunction with the hardware firewall I already had.

My web surfing is far from adventurous, I do use other weekly scans than avast and - I have to say - that to this day avast (and the other scans) have yet to find any malware that I did not deliberately place in their path.

I think we can - if you wish - engage in a discussion about what is reasonable to expect non-tech savvy users to engage in with any hope of commitment. I (and a number of users I support) are here to tell you, with a considerable number of aggregated years of evidence, that avast along with other regular scans and the one way Windows firewall and a hardware firewall can be adequate protection.

5

Strange… any other firewall remains?
Is there any useful information into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Events, specially ‘Errors’?

I’m using Windows Vista firewall… do not find a good Vista firewall (yet). Wishing for Alwil firewall… why do they take so long to have it? :cry:

6

I’m using Rising Personal Firewall Free Edition. I used PC Tools Firewall before.

Rising Firewall is excellent: low resources (5 Mb against 16 Mb PC Tools); it’s a firewall, not a HIPS app. like Matousec likes to test a firewall.

Rising works well in: Win 98 / NT / Win 2000 / Me / XP / 2003 / Vista

I wish that avast firewall will not should to be a HIPS app. We will see later.

7

I don’t know if Event Log Explorer™ works in Vista but I like it on my XP systems
http://www.eventlogxp.com

I see lots of Events for the anti virus application especially start and stop times but thankfully no errors.

8

Hi YoKenny,

Thanks a bunch for the link, I installed the EventLog Explorer on my Windows XP, and they have sent me the free license code. Start to try it out later,

polonus aka Damian

9

Nice find, Yokenny, and thanks for the link. :slight_smile:

Downloaded, registered, and runs just fine. :slight_smile: