Firewalls

[locki433]

I was wondering which firewall would be better to run, or if I should run both of them. The Nvidia forceware or McAfee.

 

[Ste]

If I had to use a firewall I would use Zone Alarm, however running two firewalls can slow preformence and cause some connection problems.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Running 2 software firewalls is a bad idea. The Nvidia firewall is fast and doesnt use many systems rescources, but is not that secure.

I prefer hardware firewalls.

 

[DBD]

I thought hardware firewalls don't give you control over you programs accessing the internet and acting as a server?

I use Zone Alarm, I don't think the free version gives you program control, but I could be wrong.

I think its best to use a hardware and a software firewall together

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

I thought hardware firewalls don't give you control over you programs accessing the internet and acting as a server?

I use Zone Alarm, I don't think the free version gives you program control, but I could be wrong.

I think its best to use a hardware and a software firewall together

Hardware firewalls don't let you do some of the same stuff as software such as block individual programs.

However with my simple CBAC + Access list based hardware firewall solution (Found in most recent cisco routers) I have alot of control. I can block specific things such as Java from being accessed. I can block out entire ranges of ports and invididual ports. I also have packet inspection which can block a whole bunch of things while configured. So these are more secure.

If you know what your doing, it's extremely easy to trick a software firewall to the point where it's almost useless for blocking specific programs.