or
Mostly I do not have ideas of my own, I read a lot on the WEB and most items on this site are from much more experienced people in their field than me.
I have not found a firewall program I felt comfortable with until a few days ago, after reading the article below by the author of LangaList, This is a 100% OPT-IN newsletter: See http://www.langa.com/info.htm.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020412S0009
Also you might check out postings in this discussion forum.
http://www.informationweek.com/forum/fredlanga
On 4-21-02 I installed the trial version of Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.0 and used the default settings, it has been running from startup since and to date have not had any problems. If I experience any at all (Good or Bad) or change the settings from default I will post them here immediately. The firewall so far (11-1-03) has caused no problems surfing (I spend 4-6 hours per day on the internet at home plus 8 at work) and has blocked hundreds (stopped counting due to time to log) attempts:
1.) Incoming from unknown IPs and many that were identified with well know advertising companies.
2.) Outgoing by Realplayer
3.) Outgoing by Realplayer, I assume these 2 are checking for updates.
As of 11-1-03 the only problem I have run into with Sygate is publishing this site to the server, I have to allow all until logged in then back to normal, Probably the servers authentication.
Check back for any updates as I will post as each happens.
Below are a few excerpts from articles mentioned above, any questions feel free to email me.
A tiny sampling:
I have just downloaded and installed the new Zone Alarm Pro
update to 3.0 and have been corresponding back and forth with
their tech. dept about the problem that is popping up. I have
lost my capabilities to run my streaming real time quotes,
when using the ad blocker: The page freezes up and I have to
close ZAP to get it to respond. I keep getting errors in
Outlook express email not allowing it to get authorization to
open my email account. I didn't have this problem with ZAP 2.+
. also if I leave my computer for awhile and stop all internet
traffic when I come back to open any website up it doesn't
find the page. I have to repair the network status close ZAP
log onto the site where I want to go and reopen ZAP than it
will be ok. I have tried all different kinds of settings on
ZAP and just can't seem to fix the problem.... ---Al
I upgraded to ZA Pro 3 last week and instantly started having
problems with programs that I personally make here. At first I
thought it was the programming language I use, but then heard
from a few other programming buddies of mine who use different
languages than I do, and they were encountering the same
problem or recently started getting complaints from their
users. Turns out, the one thing we all had in common is that
we either had a runtime dll or exe that was compressed with
Petite ( http://www.un4seen.com/petite/ ) and were running
ZoneAlarm Pro 3. After some testing, we confirmed that this
was fact. Both ZoneLabs and the author of "Petite" have been
notified.--- Garrett R. Hylltun
I tried the Sygate Free FW after reading Fred's firewall
tests, and like Fred said it was easy to install, configure,
etc. etc. BUT...and it's a big BUT for me.... My Inter Browser
[IE6 with ALL security patches, etc.] would only connect to
Sygate's site. Each time I tried to go to another site, it literally
'crawled' to it. I went into the Sygate folder and found the
Readme .txt file to see if anything was known. I found several
'conflict' issues revolving around certain programs with 'work-
arounds' that you may have loaded. My main problem was user's
of TrendMicro's PC-cillin anti-virus program had a 'conflict'
and the Resolved 'work-around' answer: "Uninstall PC-cillin"
CRAP. No way.... uninstalled Sygate, rebooted and all back to
normal. Pity, as it looked like a nice piece of software, but
not for this little black duck.--- Tassie.
There's tons more real-life info from your fellow readers in the
discussion area! Please read the main article (http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020412S0009 ) and then click
to the discussion area and post *your* firewall experiences, pro, con,
or otherwise.
Which ones have you used? Which ones are worth the price of an upgrade
to the paid or "Pro" versions? Has a firewall ever let you down, or
caused instability in your system such that you couldn't use it? Have
you had any experiences with tech support from any firewall vendor?
There's strength in numbers, so let's pool our knowledge: Join in the
discussion!
Good Cookies?
My comment in the last issue ("Bugs and Beacons: Bah!"
http://www.langa.com/current.htm#3 ) that most Cookies and "Web Bugs"
are actually beneficial brought some interesting mail, too:
Fred: About useful cookies. I'd been visiting buy.com for
months to check their price on Kodak's EasyShare DX3900
digital camera. The price recently fell to under $300. Then, I
deleted buy.com's permanently stored cookie from my hard
drive. When I returned to buy.com, the price of the camera had
shot back up by $50! I let the site place another cookie on my
hard drive & checked the price of the camera again it had
dropped $21 but still was priced about $30 higher than before
I'd deleted that cookie. I had no idea a cookie could be so
valuable to me. --- William G. Laine
One of the most common uses of Cookies is to track "returning visitors"
to a site: Depending on when you were last on a site, and what pages you
visited when you were there, you may be shown custom content that varies
visit to visit. For example, in this case, it appears that the site is
set up to reward returning visitors with an automatic markdown--- a kind
of private sale. Delete the Cookie, and you lose access to the automatic
markdown.
Other web sites use Cookies to display "getting started" info to new
visitors, and omit that info for later visits. Delete the Cookie, and
you never get past the "getting started" info.
Likewise, some sites that require a login use a Cooke as a kind of
ticket to let you back into the site at a later date. If you delete the
Cookie, you have to log in from scratch.
In fact, almost all uses for Cookies are either benign or actively
helpful. It's actually very hard to subvert Cookies to evil purposes---
although anti-Cookie fanatics make them sound like a gaping security
hole. They're not: Most Cookies are utterly harmless.
Ironically, in a misguided attempt to increase security, many users are
blocking all Cookies, "web bugs" and the like. Not only do they not
materially improve their security, but they do create another very real
problem:
I appreciated the review of desktop firewalls, however I feel
your criticism of ZAP3's privacy features is off-base....
Other desktop firewalls have this capability, too, e.g.
Outpost, and there are many standalone products that folks use
to kill banners, pop-ups, etc. I encourage you to address this
issue more generally and educate users about why they might
want to allow some kinds of advertising to appear in their
browsers. As is, many of us ruthlessly and indiscriminately
block as much advertising as possible. --- Victor Sacco
Victor's on to something: It's the law of unintended consequences. If a
site gets its revenue from ads, and site visitors prevent the ads from
displaying or being counted (the most common use for web bugs is simply
counting how many times and ad was displayed), the site owners don't get
paid, and the site will go out of business.
Don't get me wrong: Some forms of advertising are way too intrusive. I
will never, ever buy an X10 camera, for example, if only to punish the
X10 company for all those ridiculous pop-under ads they spawn. And if a
site has too many pop-up/pop-under/pop-over/pop-on top/pop-whatever ads,
I simply take my clicks elsewhere.
But wholesale blocking of *all* ad-related traffic is something else:
Blocking even nonobtrusive ads/Cookies/Bugs/etc is a sure-fire way to
help guarantee that even good ad-supported sites will go out of
business.
If you've read this newsletter for any length of time, you know I'm a
nut about security. But most of the supposed security issues with
Cookies and Bugs simply are a myth--- often promulgated by people who
want to sell you anti-Cookie/Bug/Ad software or services: These
individuals take a small matter, scare you to death by blowing it way
out of proportion, and then offer to provide you with the solution to
your (artificially-increased) fears.
Worse, in many discussions, anti-Cookie/Bug/Ad stuff is given equal
footing with anti-spyware or anti-virus tools. This blurs the
distinction between very real, high-risk threats--- like spyware,
viruses, worms, etc--- and very low-risk threats (like Cookies and Web
Bugs).
By analogy: It's as if domestic insurance policies were designed to
protect your belongings against fire--- and meteor strike. Isn't it
silly to put low-probability threats on the same footing as higher
probability threats?
But I know I'm swimming against the tide on this one. People *feel* more
secure blocking all Ads/Cookies/Bugs/Etc, and so they'll do it, even if
(1) it really doesn't do much to make them more secure; and (2) even if
it helps to kill off the free sites they like to visit.
I tried to explain this in
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010621S0030 , which shows you
what would have to happen behind the scenes for a Cookie, Bug, Beacon
(or what not) actually to be a *real* security threat to you. Once you
see what's involved, you'll know why I regard these things as a mostly
trivial matter, and not worth worrying about.
But I know that most people's minds are made up: "Cookies/Bugs/Beacons
are bad! They're just there to spy on you!" It doesn't matter that this
popular sentiment is simply not true. Oh, well.
I'll make this prediction with 100% confidence: As Cookie/Bug/Ad/Beacon
blockers become more pervasive, more and more "free" sites and services
will go away. Count on it. 8-(
Speaking of security: PC911--- a site we've discussed several time in
the past--- has just released an updated version of its how-to article
on "Securing Windows." It's at:
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/securingwindows1.html
That's primarily for Windows 2000 and XP, but there's other info in the
general "Safe computing" section of the site that's also applies more
broadly. Check it out!
Bookmark this page now and come back to see posts on my firewall experience, if it continues as is I will purchase this version at the end of the trial period (actually have now switched to the FREE personal edition with no noticeable changes in protection) and continue to post happenings.
