Jump to content

Firewalls, Is It Worth Even Installing?


555

Recommended Posts

I know for certain people and business it is ussually built into the router right? but what about for just a regular home user, say zone alarm.. seems like all it does is slow the pc down and gets annoying with all the pop up screens asking you to accept or deny connections. If someone really wanted to hack the persons pc they can get around a firewall like zone alarm right? What are your opinions? (remember for a average pc user)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

do you really need locks on your front door? i mean if some one wants to break into your house they are gonna do it regardless.

Now we are in to the ground of making your self the least attractive target ;)

If your computer is harder to brake in to than the next one, the attacker is going straight to the next one, unless they have a very good reason to specifically target you.

This is known as the 'low hanging fruit' approach to security (see pauldotcom.com). The attackers, most of the time, go for the low hanging fruit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Firewalls are good and they keep you safe to an extent. Especially in the event of zero days attack, when attackers are trying to exploit targets that haven't been patched up.

Zone Alarm used to be good back in the old days, but I now use Comodo Firewall always served me well. Firewalls can be annoying, due to the pops up and that's what I like about Comodo.

It has security modes that you can set to, and one of them is the Learning Mode, it studies and learns all the traffic patterns that flows through it and if it finds anything suspecting it will block, but it won't be displaying much pop ups in this mode.

It will still be protecting your computer but won't be much annoying. Alternatively if you don't want to install a firewall in your computer, go with Untangle. Untangle is a Linux firewall box that sits between your modem and your network.

It comes with IDS and the best AntiVirus on the house (Kyspersky).

http://www.untangle.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, not really. How would a firewall protect against a o day that targets adobe reader or flash (which they usually do -.-)?

I said to an extend, if the Firewall has IPS incorporated this attacks can be mitigated.

Edit: http://www.stonesoft.com/en/press_and_medi...0/17062010.html

Edited by Infiltrator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comodo is pretty good. Firewalls are pretty useless for a normal computer user though right? (besides windows built in firewall) If you are really worried about security everything would be monitored 24/7 with snort, virtual machines, sniffers and all that stuff correct? If I had an old computer box like 1/2 GB ram, 20GB HD, what would be the best way to turn that into a firewall box and do nothing other then be a firewall box? I agree with Sparda there are so many ways to get past the firewall, whats the point? unless it is a script kiddy attacking and you have a hole somewhere. (the low hanging fruit)

Edited by 555
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comodo is pretty good. Firewalls are pretty useless for a normal computer user though right? (besides windows built in firewall) If you are really worried about security everything would be monitored 24/7 with snort, virtual machines, sniffers and all that stuff correct? If I had an old computer box like 1/2 GB ram, 20GB HD, what would be the best way to turn that into a firewall box and do nothing other then be a firewall box? I agree with Sparda there are so many ways to get past the firewall, whats the point? unless it is a script kiddy attacking and you have a hole somewhere. (the low hanging fruit)

A simple firewall has no way of knowing what traffic is good and what traffic is bad, unless you specifically configure it to recognize the traffic.

Firewalls that incorporate IDS gives it the ability to detect a bad traffic or for example will alert you of intrusion attempt, and it is therefore up to you to deal with the problem.

On the other hand, IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) as opposed to Snort which does only detection, it has the ability to detect and at the same time block the attack.

If you want to give your home network a better protection against attacks, I would recommend Untangle if you are on a tight budget and want the best free firewall available.

Hope this helps

Edited by Infiltrator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is true even more so if the attacker is a meer skiddie which sadly is often the case, they'll use public tools to try and gain access to your network. if your secured even a little most skiddies wont know what to do to get in so... as stated they'll usually go for the "low hanging fruit" because its so much easier to get to.

That's why Script Kiddies they don't go too far.

Only the real hackers will go that extra mile if it worth for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...