XP Built in Firewall VS Zonealarm or other 3rd party Firewalls?

[CrowDog]

Whats are the differences? I have done security scans and the XP firewall always seems to pass and do its job. Is there a reason to go to a 3rd party firewall?

 

[Moonbender]

Apparently, the internal firewall doesn't filter or control outgoing packets. Other personal firewalls don't let unauthorised programs access the internet. This protects against trojans and also stops programs sending out information about you or your computer without you knowing.
But there really isn't much of a point in running a personal firewall, anyways ...

 

[aircooled]

Zone Alarm or Kerio (Tiny) Personal Firewall are much better than XP's built in firewall.

I'm using Zone Alarm at the moment and it does it's job well.

 

[PC Freak]

I agree. Any 3rd party Firewall will be better than XP's.

 

[nord1899]

Just be aware that if you are an online gamer, ZA will pretty much kill your ping rates. At which point you will want to turn it off, which makes it less effective.

 

[TheWart]

using Kerio here, been to some forums where some gurus help out by posting rule sets (ingoing/outgoing allowances) so that rather than an application/by application basis (which can turn you back to desktop from a game if patched etc.) you basically do a one-time setup. i feel much more secure. some of my friends who live in the dorms here dont have a firewall and get a lot more freaky stuff happening (not all attributable to lack of firewall i realize).

 

[CrowDog]

Zone Alarm or Kerio (Tiny) Personal Firewall are much better than XP's built in firewall.

Why? Because they have more options? Im wondering if there is any reason for the average gamer to use anything but the built in firewall? And if so why? If not why?

Obviously I wanna keep hackers out but honostly what are the chances of that actualy happening?

 

[Rand]

Zone Alarm, Tiny Personal Firewall of Symantec/Norton Internet Security are IMHO the best software firewall packages.

XP's built in firewall is decent, but it's really rather basic and limited. Not to mention it does absolutely nothing about outgoing packets.

 

[pcmax]

As far as the outgoing packets thing, aren't the only things going to be doing that besides yourself are trojans and if your running proper virus protection this wouldn't be an issue at all, right?

 

[madthumbs]

I've caught trojans with "the cleaner" that weren't detected by Norton AV, so you cannot rely on Antivirus software for protection.

BlackICE was a lot of headaches for me. It basically caused instability which was noted on several friends PC's. I can't remember the exact problem, but BI Defender is long gone now.

Zone Alarm I've tried more recently, but with that I had connection problems with my ftp server, and DCC's with IRC even when it was still installed but not turned on at bootup.

I've been firewall free for a month now... who cares if someone downloads those nude pics of my sister?

 

[pcmax]

Hmmm, I have yet to see Norton properly updated not pick up anything, trojan or otherwise, but it's a big world out there, anything can happen. Oh and your sister is pretty cute

 

[TheWart]

as far as trojans, Moosoft's The Cleaner is much better than Norton in my experience, tho its not like i hope u get a trojan or something.