Malwarebytes Pro (real-time scanning); Spywareblaster
My question is this: Given the current security software (as mentioned above) I have installed, is there any significant or otherwise, important reason to acquire a separate Firewall to use rather than the default Windows Firewall I’m presently using?
I’ve reviewed quite a few postings here for recommendations in this regard, as well as, clicked on a number of external links provided by some more experienced (& longer time) forum members. However, I haven’t yet been able to find any definitive information.
Do you connect directly to the Internet or through a router? Routers have built in features that filter out most of the unsolicited incoming traffic and make a lot of what a software firewall does redundant.
Why do you keep trotting out this statement, when inbound traffic isn’t the only thing you have to be concerned with.
I’m not worried about your own personal circumstances, just take a look at the viruses and worms forum and you will see exactly why this advice is dangerous as ‘general’ advice.
e.g. avast’s network shield blocking all these connection attempts to Malicious URLs.
So that is just those that the network shield has on its malicious sites list and that it isn’t only outbound traffic you have to worry about your user names, passwords, etc. could also be transmitted.
Windows XP’s firewall is better than no firewall but, it lulls you into a false sense of protection, it doesn’t provide outbound protection.
Whilst the windows XP firewall is usually good at keeping your ports stealthed (hidden) it provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential. Firewalls will automatically allow traffic requests back into the system if the request originated from the system.
Regardless of all that, what I said is still true. I never said the router did everything a software firewall does. I just said it takes care of a lot of it and it’s a good idea to be behind one even if you only have one computer using the connection. I’m fully aware that it’s possible for something new to slip by your AV protection.
Which is why the advice given in a publicly available support forum has to be tempered to who might be reading the topic as if they take your word a gospel then they could well get into hot water.
More so when the OP asks
“Given the current security software (as mentioned above) I have installed, is there any significant or otherwise, important reason to acquire a separate Firewall to use rather than the default Windows Firewall I’m presently using?”
Since the XP firewall has zero outbound protection and not just disabled, yes there are reasons why a 3rd party firewall should be used/considered.
I just installed Online Armor Free to test it out again. It works fine but tremendously slows down boot time unless you completely disable it and then go into services and disable the Online Armor helper service. Then turn OA back on or better yet, reboot. With that disabled, bootup returns to normal and the program still functions perfectly. Slow bootup is a known problem in all versions of Online Armor, especially on XP. I found the workaround in their forums and it was posted about two years ago. For some reason, they have never fixed the problem.
It also seems to affect systems with the Chrome browser installed.
If you’re aware of the danger, why only post a half baked answer. When you know that a software firewall is needed. ???
There are quite a few free ones available. ZoneAlarm Free, PCTools Firewall Plus., Comodo and some others.
I didn’t say that a software firewall was needed at all. In fact, I still say that for many people, it isn’t. When I said possible, I really meant remotely possible. The average home user will 99.9999% never encounter something that doesn’t already have detection signatures in the AV database
You didn’t and this answer was wrong.
Guys, before we continue this discussion, please let the OP reply…!!
Else, his confusion could even grow greater…
I would first like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone who has responded to my inquiry…and in such a rapid manner as well!(As a sidenote, my computer is a standalone, not on any domain/network, has no router, and I’m connected to the Internet via cable modem).
With regard to the responses everyone has posted, I noted a couple of forum members who responded are ones who I happened to have seen posts they made quite a while back (where they included those links to Cnet), when I was looking through the forums prior to posting this inquiry.
Although, I’m certainly not as computer-literate and experienced as everyone who replied to my post, I believe what I’ve read thus far isn’t really that confusing (even though I’m up in years now). My thoughts (after reading through everyone’s responses) are that I should definitely try to acquire one of the free firewalls currently available to use in place of the Windows Firewall.
I looked at the reviews of a few, such as, Online Armor, Private Firewall, & Outpost. (I’d have to admit that making sense of some of the reviews isn’t so easy). What I would be interested in hearing suggestions on at this point is - of the free Firewalls out there, which one(s) are the simplest to use (interface, settings, etc), AND also do not generally significantly slow-down one’s computer system?
Again…I thank everyone for your respective insight and enlightenment!
I can not recommend Online Armor Free if you have Chrome as the default browser on XP. I posted about my problem in their forum and this is a quote from there.
. Extremely long boot time after install:
I am on XP Pro SP3 and I also run the latest Avast free AV. Google Chrome is my default browser but IE8 is also present and fully updated. After installing OA and telling it to trust everything already on the machine, it ran the safety check which btw, seemed interminable. I then rebooted and it took noticeably longer to hit the welcome screen and my desktop picture. It then took at least two more minutes for the taskbar to show and at least another minute before all the icons were showing. I put exclusions for Avast in OA and vice versa and rebooted with the same result. A perusal of old postings suggested a workaround of disabling the OA Helper service so I shut down OA, disabled that service and voila!, my bootup was back to normal. That “fix” was posted a very long time ago so I’m surprised the issue still exists. The program functions normally without that service running.
Their response:
This has been known to occur where Chrome is the default browser. If for example, IE8 is set as default browser, the issue will most likely disappear.
No fix or even concern for a problem that has existed for more than two years. Not only in the free version but the paid one as well.
Hi Dch48…and thanks very much for the additional info regarding Online Armor! I only use IE8 as my browser on my XP here. I’m guessing (from what you’ve indicated), that perhaps I would not encounter that major slow-down in boot time since I do not have Chrome (or Firefox either).
One other concern which has occurred to me is will any of these other free Firewall products conflict with Malwarebytes Pro (real-time scanning) or Spywareblaster which I presently have on my computer? In looking at a review and description of the Armor Online (free), it would appear to me that it performs some functions similarly to what MBAM does.
Also, if I were to go with the Online Armor product, and it turns out that I need to disable that “helper service” you mentioned…how hard is it to do that?
If you don’t have Chrome you don’t need to worry about it. It does add a little to the boot up time with IE8 as default but any firewall will do that. Online Armor should work very well and might very well be the best choice. When you install it, if you’re sure there is no malware on the machine, tell it to consider everything as safe. It will then do a scan and automatically make rules allowing your installed apps to connect and otherwise function properly without any further interaction from you. (no pop up alerts). It will then only alert you for connection attempts and actions taken by new and unknown things. Online Armor (now EmsiSoft)maintains a large whitelist of safe applications , so many new things you choose to install that are on that list will also have rules automatically created that allow them to do what they need to do. Only unknown or suspicious things will give alerts. It seems to be the most user friendly Firewall with HIPS application that I have tried. I would recommend giving it a try, especially since you’re not behind a router of any kind.
If you’re a gamer, it might cause slight problems and it does seem to slow browsing down slightly as well. Not in IE8 though, only in Chrome. I guess OA doesn’t like Google. ;D
I think Online Armor is quite a decent firewall myself, quite simple if you know that your system is clean so that it can be set to trust everything on your system during install but it is a little heavy in its running.
If your after something very light and simple i would give PCTools Firewall Plus a try, i was only re testing this firewall again last week with there latest release that did fix some issues with windows 7 (even though your on xp) but i believe this is the firewall that would suit your needs but until you try it you wont know if it suits your system, the latest version is 7.0.0.123 http://www.pctools.com/firewall/download/
Not sure about compatibility with Spyware Blaster as i dont use but you only have to add the pctools program folder to the ignore list in your MBAM Pro and the file system shield exclusions in avast and your set to go.
Actually i dont think you could find any easyer or user friendly, have you tried there latest version ? many improvements.
The OP has there choices anyway
I really appreciate the follow-up information about the Firewall questions I have presented. Last night, I decided to try out the Online Armor firewall for a week or two and see how it performs.
The installation went well (I temporarily turned-off the Avast!, and MBAM Pro until after ensuring the download was successful). I also turned-off the Windows Firewall.
My observations thus far are the program seems to be adequately accomodated by my computer. The pop-ups are not very many, and the ones which I do see usually say something like, The database (or definitions) have been updated according to something called OASIS.
I have noted when playing the Star Defender 2 game (offline), the game will intermittenly “freeze” for 2 - 3 seconds, then resume. I’ve also noticed occasional sluggishness while on the Internet (e.g. after clicking to open my Favorites drop-down list…it may take 5 - 10 seconds for all the icons to display and my mouse cursor to be enabled so I can select a website to go to from the list.
Since I do like to play some games I have on my computer periodically, I’ll just have to observe for a while and see if the freezing (or sluggishness) worsens. If it does, then I will need to find a different firewall that doesn’t cause this problem.
Again…thank you both very much for the additional follow-up help!
