nVIDIA FireWall. Why is it so bad?

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Sort of touched on this in a previous thread last week, but I have been thinking about it recently.

I am currently using the nVIDIA Firewall on a couple of my NForce Mobos now for a short while... Not all NForce Mobos have it which I think is a shame, but there you go!

Now, I have tried a couple... ZoneAlarm, OutPost, BlackIce, WinXP's own, and they are all pretty good, but only recently I fancied a go of the nVIDIA one and why not give it a shot eh? after all, its free and its here.

Anyway, one thing I have found that I didnt like is that FileSharing did cause a few niggles mainly that other PCs on my network simply could not access its files, but thats cured now.

previously, P2P apps and torrents etc have been crippled badly, but thats sorted. and my average spyware infections has dropped off to a near ziltch compared to pretty much a couple of dozen a day before I used it.

This FireWall, like Windows own, shuts up and does its job. As I want it to.

And so far, its has been absolutely the best firewall I have ever tried to date...

Yet, so many people hate it so much...

WHY?
 
I installed it when I got my new Shuttle - never, never again!

To start with it seemed ok but then I started noticing strange problems:

- When I received a message over Jabber with a URL in, the firewall would block all traffic
- If I transferred > 20Gb over the LAN without rebooting, the transfer spoeeds would drop to about 35Kbytes/sec
- If there were more than 4 IM chats open, it would block all traffic

There were several more, but it was quite a while ago that I stopped using it.
 
Erm, ok, where do I start?

Well, the sites I visit, are many. I am permanently opened up to many forums, including this one... At this very moment, I have 17 pages open to 17 sites, 4 of which are things I am buying, I wont mention them as they are all a damned sight cheaper than OCUK, but also I have BitTorrent open, and I am currently downloading a few gigs of various tat including a couple of up to date Linux ISOs... I am never off downloading something in this way, and I have another ... Just check... Oh, about 20Gigs to come in the next few hours, so there is plenty of paths open for attacks.

Previously I was using a Modem, thats where I get the number of junk really, its not that long ago I started to use a proper firewall you see, previously I had none at all.

Where I get the number of infections from, is combining ADAWARE, SPYBOT, Spyware Doctor and NOADWARE, and even though you say you dont get any, try running all those and saying that. I bet you iwll find stuff you didnt know you had.

--

I have installed it on wired and wireless PCs and I have had no problems yet.

WOW? - I dont play that, but I do play other LAN and online games, of which I dont think I have had any issues... The Quake & UnReal series, COD, BF2, CS:S o name a few... Erm, actually to name them all really, oh and MotoX Madness 2 as well, but thats LAN not OnLine. They all seem to be ok for me?

---

Corrupt DLs?

Again, so far, I dont think I have had any problems?

Like I said, I am getting downlaods all the time, and so far, nothign has been problematic? All the Linux ISOS have all installed and run as properly as they should have.

--

Seems like you all hate it then?

Have you any good news?

This NV FireWall is supposed to both Hard and Soft Ware isnt it?

The FireWall on my router is too good you see... It pretty much blocks everything and trying to even get onto the net is bloody hard work, and I have given up on it...

What FW do you lot recommend then?
 
I highly recommend Fsecure (I use Client Security as it is free from my Uni under their corporate license) and it has AV and Spyware checkers. Very good program, easy to use and not a resource hog.

About the corrupt DL's - it's mainly small changes in bits of data, but these can build up - this is only from what I have read though! Everyone I know with an nV LAN port all say to not install ActiveArmour or nV Firewall as it is generally veyr bad.
 
With my ISO Downloads, and I have had a hell of a lot, I always check their MD5 sums and so far, I have not has a single issue, thankfully.

I am thinking that since at this time, I am very happy with it, so I will stay with it for a short while.

I think however, though, that I am soon to be getting a new Mobo, so I will do a few days run of my others before I do an F&R - No such thing as a 10 minute firewall run is there?

And I will take another look at how I feel about it, but like I said, so far, its been 100% perfect for me.
 
smids said:
Should be fine then - if you haven't had issues thusfar, then it's looking OK. Is it overclocked at all (your system/FSB etc)?
Click to expand...


Yes, my main system is a Winchester 3200 running @ 2.5, thats got it on.

I had heard summat about clocking, with it, but I dont seem to be affected.
 
Oh, thats just bloody great.

I just tried to install BlackIce onto the P4 and the system crashed.

Did the error report junk, and installed the Update... Went from 3.6 to 3.6???

Anyway, that also crashed the system

BlackIce looks like its in, but the service, while stopped, needs to be stopped to actually stop it, and I restarted it and I got another crash. I checked the settings to get a BSOD instead of a restart, and I got this:-

AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO EXECUTE NON EXECTUABLE MEMORY

Bad RAM?

Hardly, the RAM is brand new ( 4x512MB Samsung PC 3200 ) and its checkd out fine with memtest.

Sodding Firewalls eh?
 
Yes, you did warn me...

You warned me about the nVIDIA firewall.

The one thats gone silly on me is BlackIce?

nVIDIA one is fine.

( I am sure that I have already posted this? )

Anyway, somethigns come up!

My MSI Neo2 Platinum has 2 Ethernet ports. I am not actually using the nVIDIA one, I am using the Gigabit one!

Have I just realised something here... That I am thick?

I just ran the FireWall summary, and it says that the firewall isnt actually there, and I need to add it with the access manager, so I checked up on that and its in...

So, this is why the nVIDIA is working so well... Cos its not actually on for the Gigabit Network port jus the nVIDIA one?

Oh bugger!

I have now thrown anumber of Firewalls onto some of my PCs...

Zone Alarm, OutPost, BlackIce ( Works ok on the AMD ClawHammer 37 but fails on the P4? ) and I am going to re-try this one using the nVidia LAN instead, but the reason I took the nVidia LAN off, was that after I updated the drivers using Windowsupdate, it went silly on me, and the system would fail to start up properly, hence moving to the igabit one... I just forgot all about that.

Give it a few days then to see where it goes?
 
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