Asus A8N SLI Firewall, Windows or NV. Update, also Norton Firewall.

[Mudbone]

I am setting up my rig, Asus A8N SLI. During the driver install using the CD that came with the mobo, I have to chose between installing the Nvidia Firewall or staying with the WinXP fire wall or running WinXP firewall with the Nvidia antihacking features. What is the best option here?

 

[Siddy]

XP Firewall: ON
NV Firewall: Allow XP firwall, but use NV Anti-Hacking (option 2)
Norten Fire: OFF, but leave Virus Protection ON

IF you use these settings, you will get the best protection, and no have all the porblems that sum have.

 

[AVP]

Hey Siddy I dont doubt you in any way but I was wondering if you had any further knowledge about this or any sources... My A8n is coming next week, and I sorta remember reading that the XP firewall sucks...Thanks!

 

[Siddy]

AVP:
Hi, im using the A8N-Sli Deluxe, and those are my settings, after much porblems, and advice those are probably the best, becasue of the issuse with the NV firewalls.
If you search this forum ull see about 10 topics and many posts about issues with the NV firewall, i agree with you, the XP firewall isnt the greatest peice of software, but it is microsoft so that goes with out saying. Unforunatle if u do not use those settings above u get a lot of porblems with Updating windows, that is why you need to keep the XP firewall on, and the NV firewall with only anti-hacking.

In short, the NV firewall does not work very well with xp, it wont allow you to update, even it u add it to its exceptoins. So the best option is to leave it on Anti-hack only and use the XP firewall in SP2.

Hope ive helped.

(p.s. If you uninstall nv firewall then it is hard to get it back, ie, i messed mine up, and had to re-install it, but it is blocked so im gunna have to re-format)

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Are you certain about that in all cases Sid? I will have to go to a lot of trouble to change to that setup. But I need to resolve my FW issues, fast.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=36&threadid=1496896

 

[babyjocko]

NV Firewall sucks. Don't even load it. And that means that you won't load NAM either. NAM has way too much overhead. And that means that if you load the NV LAN driver then you would have limited settings because most of its settings is in NAM. But, don't worry because NV LAN sucks, too! Load the Marvell driver. The Marvell LAN works great!

nVidia needs to get their act together. They may make decent hardware, but I am not impressed with their software, including drivers.

 

[babyjocko]

BTW, niceguy, your sig says you have a 22" CRT? WTF????

 

[TheNiceGuy]

BJ- ya, pretty cool, huh? They sell new for about a $1000 here, but I picked up one for about $150 used on the auction. One good thing about living in Japan is that people don't like to buy used stuff, so its either free or really cheap. This monitor ROCKS for gaming, and is nice for everything else too because I can sit about 6 feet away and read fine.

Anyway, about the LAN - I'm confused. I don't need both installed? I thought I had to use the NV driver to access the internt directly, and the Marvell was for other LAN PCs? I am having trouble with bittorrent and getting my AV to update.

So I should uninstall the NV driver and both soft and hardware FWs, then install my own FW, then plug in?

 

[imported_slippy]

I'm running with the nvidia firewall only, and I really like it, though who knows what combination of drivers I have used to make it work without incident. My copy of windows xp is an oem version that already has sp2 built into it however. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

bump

 

[babyjocko]

Originally posted by: slippy
I'm running with the nvidia firewall only, and I really like it, though who knows what combination of drivers I have used to make it work without incident. My copy of windows xp is an oem version that already has sp2 built into it however. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm sure it does. I'm saying that it is unecessary. And it installs and works with Network Access Manager, which has a huge amount of overhead. IOW, it's not worth it.

 

[Mudbone]

Originally posted by: babyjocko

I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm sure it does. I'm saying that it is unecessary. And it installs and works with Network Access Manager, which has a huge amount of overhead. IOW, it's not worth it.

I am reading some conflicting reports here. I have been told that the NV firewall has less CPU usage because its part of the nvidia chipset. This seems to be the case because if you disable the NV port in the BIOS you lose the firewall all together. Why else do you think it seems to suck? Like AVP, I have been told that the XP firewall sucks. What about trashing them both and running the Norton firewall that is on the Asus CD?

Siddy, I am not sure what your exact situation is, but I have now spoken with a few people who are running the NV firewall alone without the update problems. I would seem that Slippy is right, everyone that is doing this is running SP2.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

bump

 

[mrscintilla]

nv firewall causd my apps to crash the system numerous ttimes. Once removed and xp firewall enabled, everything now runs fine.

 

[majmera]

I had the NV firewall turned on and did not see any crashes, but while playing pool at yahoo games, I got disconnected every few minutes. Even MSN messenger seemed to get disconnected often. The firewall logs also showed lots of warning about some port. Once I turned the firewall off things are working just fine. I guess I'll read more about the firewall settings and see if I can fine tune it to make it work.

 

[Mudbone]

When I set up my new machine I had some bad problems with trying to access the internet. I had installed windows and then basically installed everything on the Asus CD except for the RAID drivers and the Norton software. My mistake there. I chose the second firewall option, run with windows and use NVs antihacking features. (Another mistake?) Well, when I had problems with that I turned off Windows firewall and turned on the NV firewall. Still had probs. I had to wipe and reinstall Windows. This time I took it slow and only installed the driver for the Marvell port and the other Nvidia drivers. I turned off the Nvidia port in BIOS and did not install the Nvidia port driver. I haven't installed any of the programs under the utilities tab on the CD. So no NVFirewall, or AI Booster, etc. First time I launched IE, it loaded right up.

BTW, A public thanks to GuitarDaddy for helping walk through the above.

So, where am I at now? I still have to have a firewall. I do have a router behind my cable modem which rejects any incomming data that wasn't requested by one of the computers on the router. However, thats not really enough. I still need a software firewall. After doing some research, I am not happy with the Windows firewall. Its not the most robust thing to start with. But its biggest flaw, IMHO, is that it is one sided. It only moniters incomming traffic. So if anything does manage to get in and sets it self up and starts broadcasting crap, the Windows firewall won't catch it. (Or at least that's my basic understanding.) For those of you running the Windows firewall, I am not try to bust your chops, I just hope you are aware of the situation.

So that leaves the NV firewall, which I must admit I don't fully understand how it works. But it seems that a fair number of folks are having issues with the NV firewall because it is so agressive. Some were having issues getting windows updates when running NV firewall but that seems to be fixed if you are running SP2. But from others comments there are still other issues. GuitarDaddy seems to think the NV firewall is partially chipbased and is associated with the NV LAN port. Turn it off and you lose the firewall.

The other option is to run the Norton Personal Firewall which is part of the Norton Internet Security 2005 on the Asus CD. I am already running a suite of Nortons programs that include Anitvirus but not the Personal Firewall. So at this point I am leaning toward installing the Norton firewall. I still need to go to Asus and Nortons website to read up as much as I can before making a decision. Any comments or input on either the NV or Norton firewalls would be appreciated. At least I have made the decision to not use the Windows one.

 

[majmera]

BTW here is a document on the NVidia firewall incase anyone wants to read it and provide the not so network literate members like me with some useful info.

http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Fil...ech/tech_nvforcewarenetworkguide_e.pdf

 

[imported_slippy]

Originally I thought it was a hardware firewall, now I see that it is "hardware optimized"... anyone know the actual factual difference? Not a guess.

 

[Icepick]

I do not use the WinXP firewall at all. I use the NV firewall and ZoneAlarm. Works great. I never had a problem with Windows update. I agree with the post above that the NV firewall is tied to the Nvidia LAN port. When I enabled the firewall for the first time I wend to the Shilds UP web site
http://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2
and performed a TCP port scan. I checked the firewall log and could see it blocking traffic on numerous ports. When I moved my Internet connection to the other LAN port I didn't get any more log entries when this scan was run. When I moved back to the NVidia port I had firewall log entries again after running the scan. This tells me that the firewall can only monitor traffic on the NVidia LAN port.

 

[Steg55]

If you want the best performance from your system
WinXP SP2 Firewall - Off
nV Firewall - Off
Anything from Norton - Off
Anyother firewall/av - Off
Hardware Router NAT Firewall - On

You Firefox, don't download emails can't trust and don't download other crap you can bet will be virused

Guarenteed way not to get a virus

Software AV/Firewalls are just a way the industry can make a fortune out of the un-educated. Hell hardware firewalls arn't worth much, but its atleast piece of mind for those who has 'sensitive data' i.e. something that would be cost alot of money if someone get into your computer and stole - not 99% of users who only have illegal music and porn to hide

Steg

 

[runestone]

Running Sygate and NV with anti-hacking only. Working fine.

 

[mlc]

from a performance perspective.. as Steg55 stated...just use the nvidia port.. with no software solution for your firewall...
I did read in a prior review a while back that the active armor solution (nvidia) worked only for the nvidia port (i.e. no Marvell).. as it is somehow integrated along with the hardware as reported in the prior post. If using it, they recommended you turn off the xp firewall and enable the Nvidia software ... The overhead was very low.. something like 1 or 2% CPU....

In terms of "protection"... my take is that microsoft is always the number 1 target for hackers, etc...they really seem to enjoy figuring out ways to break Microsoft's code... So i would think their firewall would be the most vulnerable to future attacks, and opt for the nvidia solution.. (assuming you have no special sentiments towards the Marvell lan port). If you find you're having problems with the Nvidia software, then try softening the settings... nvidia has multiple levels of protection.. low, med, high.. or custom.. etc...

Another thought would be to download a free copy of ZoneAlarm. This is a tried and true product and one which many corporations use today. It's very simple to setup, and catches most anything you throw at it in either direction... and it should give u some piece of mind...

I would not recommend using multiple software firewall solutions and they tend to have issues coexisting... particularly if using VPN to sign into your office, etc...

 

[Mudbone]

Originally posted by: Steg55
If you want the best performance from your system
WinXP SP2 Firewall - Off
nV Firewall - Off
Anything from Norton - Off
Anyother firewall/av - Off
Hardware Router NAT Firewall - On

You Firefox, don't download emails can't trust and don't download other crap you can bet will be virused

Guarenteed way not to get a virus

Software AV/Firewalls are just a way the industry can make a fortune out of the un-educated. Hell hardware firewalls arn't worth much, but its atleast piece of mind for those who has 'sensitive data' i.e. something that would be cost alot of money if someone get into your computer and stole - not 99% of users who only have illegal music and porn to hide

Steg

That's an interesting opinion. I used to run nothing. I mean completely naked. Cable modem right into my computer. Never had any problems. (Read: Lucky) I have always behaved myself with email. I had a friend show me how to setup my filters so if I didn't recognize an email, it gets deleted right from the server without even downloading it. When I got second machine, I needed the router so I picked up one with a SPI firewall. It wasn't long after that, I got hit, hacked or something. They were using my machine to replicate spam. It was sitting there at night chugging out 1000s of spam emails. The whole world was pissed at me. It was a mess. It was on there for less than 48 hrs. I don't know how it got past the router. I will admit to still using IE. So it either came in that way or someone managed to hack the router. Anyway, that was the point that I decided I had to have some other type of protection. I realize that any software running in the background, firewall or antivirus is going to cause a performance hit. I'd rather take the hit than go through that BS again, IF the software does its job.

 

[babyjocko]

Originally posted by: Mudbone

I am reading some conflicting reports here. I have been told that the NV firewall has less CPU usage because its part of the nvidia chipset.

Who told you that? That may be true for ActiveArmor, but NV Firewall is all software.

Why else do you think it seems to suck? Like AVP, I have been told that the XP firewall sucks.

Because it is overkill, it is a marketing gimmic. Yes, it has more features than XP firewall, but XP firewall is sufiicient. As I have been saying, all this firewall stuff has gotten ridiculous. It is sold to the gullible public by way of scare tactics. Firewalls protect against hacking. 99.9% of hackers aren't going to give a damn about you or your measly computer. They go after the big fish. The other 0.1% track trojans that open doors to your computer. Of course, anyone who leaves their doors open are asking for it. That is why SP2 firewall along with good anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are all you need to protect your computer. A router with SPI is a good item to have also, which all ActiveArmor is really about. If you have a "firewall" router, then most likely it has SPI.

What about trashing them both and running the Norton firewall that is on the Asus CD?

Norton, IMO, is the absolute worst solution. I have taken all Semantec software off my list. They don't know how to write software that won't conflict within Windows.

This is my opinion, and I'm sticking by it. And, all of my computers like it.

 

[babyjocko]

One other thing, the RELLY bad part about NV Firewall is Network Access Manager, which is used to configure the Firewall and NV LAN. It has extreme overhead. Also, keep an eye on nsvcappflt.exe in your task manager. When I had NV Firewall and NAM loaded, that app had a serious memory leak. While you're at it, check out the memory used by NAM apps, including the runtime Apache.

Your computer would breath a lot easier without all that nvMarketing gimmic crap.