A good Fire wall

[The Wildcard]

Kenneth: wow, cool info. Where did you find out about this stuff?

 

[Kenneth]

"Where did you find out about this stuff?"

Here:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article.asp?aid=36418

and here:

http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

 

[GT1999]

I don't know if it does any harm, but I run Norton Internet Security v2.0 as well as ZoneAlarm (free) latest version. Together I have (2) firewalls with an add blocker program as well. I like it a lot

 

[Muckshifter]

NO ... NOT NORTON ... IT WILL LET ANYBODY IN

Zone Alarm ... from www.zonelabs.com

check this site ...

http://grc.com/

 

[Terrapin]

RE: Penetrating Zone Alarm by renaming a virus to an executable allowed.....

I remember reading that Zone Alarm was one of the few software firewalls that couldn't be fooled that easily by simply renaming a trojan/virus.

This concerned me greatly so I wrote ZA support and asked them. I received a long winded form response to which I asked them to answer simply. This is what they said:

Date: Thu Jan 04 16:33:30 2001
From: &quot;Support&quot; <support@zonelabs.com>
To: Terrapin
Subject: Re : Re : SecurityLeak
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Hello, thanks for your mail.

To answer your question, &quot;no&quot; it is certainly not possible to re-name an application and have it bypass ZoneAlarm. The practice of vandals implementing false applications is easier said than done. It does not happen against our products.

Thanks again,
Zone Labs Support

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
-----------------
From: Terrapin
Posted At: 12:17:54.977 01/04/2001
Posted To: Multiple recipients of list support_list <support_list@zonelabs.com>
Subject: Re : SecurityLeak

Hello:
Thank you very much for your response, however I humbly request you answer in a more simple manner so I'm absolutely clear. My question is:

Can a hacker get through the Zonelabs firewall by simply renaming the trojan/virus &quot;ieexplorer.ext&quot; since I have allowed that file to pass through the firewall given its the name of my web browser.

I realize you probably did answer this but I am not a technician and would greatly appreciate a more simplified response.

Terrapin

 

[Terrapin]

Curious if anyone refutes what ZA says. I hear this notion of renaming a virus and getting past a firewall as being easy all the time and here ZA says its BS.

 

[Soccerman]

I recently found a very kickass router/firewall program..

this aint our cheezy built for broadband type router, it is a REAL router, built out of a computer (using software anything is possible).

it's called freesco, and it's a linux os, which fits on a floppy, and can be configured for numerous tasks (server for example).

it requires a 386, 6 mb of RAM (more is recommended), doesn't require a hard drive (unless you have low RAM, or if you are running a server), and can also use 56k modems!

I suggest trying that out, before you ever try to get a 'router.'

and as the name suggests, it is free.

 

[dalfollo]

will ZoneAlarm work well on a Netgear RT314 Gateway Router hooked into @Home?

 

[paruhd0x]

I vote on the hardware router as a firewall

 

[azeker1]

As a couple of people have mentioned grc.com is a good site for info. about locking down your system security. The Shields Up! thing along with the port checker and such will help you plug a few really vulnerable holes in Windows (like NETBIOS). The author walks you through it step by step -- easy enough instructions for a novice. Then put up Zone Alarm (also mucho easy). It blocks stuff on my system all the time! Best of all, won't cost you a dime.

 

[TravisBickle]

how does someone learn to become a hacker, I wonder? a few sites I saw on the internet about it weren't very useful.
i suppose a knowledge of delphi isn't enough lol

 

[bobones]

If you only have 1 computer connected to the net, then ZoneAlarm or BlackIce might be enough. Any more than 1 and I'd put OpenBSD on an old 486 and use that as a firewall/router. OpenBSD is a very secure OS. Even in this scenario, a personal firewall like ZA or BI will be useful in preventing RATs (remote access trojans) leaking information out from your network. For high volume situations a Cisco PIX 515 with up to 6 zones is a good buy. Don't forget virus protection either. I believe InoculateIT is free for personal use and I have had good experiences with Norton AV.

 

[MSNY]

Black Ice Defender...

My Cable Modem ISP gave it away for FREE just for signing up. I like it, install and forget it.

 

[sharkeeper]

Steve Gibson's site is ok for general probing.

If you REALLY want to see how vulnerable your pc's and servers are you have to go here.

The really detailed scans aren't free. The free ones though are about the best I've seen on the web.

Cheers!