Windows firewall or McAfee Personal Firewall?

IggyStooge · 12 Oct 2006 at 09:43

Hello

Having uninstalled Norton recently due to it running about 50.000 processes in the background and gone over to NOD32 which is great, Ive been using Windows Firewall, not had any problems but being on AOL I can get McAfee Personal Firewall free apparently. Should I get it or stick with Windows firewall or is there a better free alternative to both of those? Does McAfee have a lot of running processes?

Thankyou

bledd · 12 Oct 2006 at 09:45

use the xp one, its fine

IggyStooge · 12 Oct 2006 at 10:19

Ok, thanks

Greenlizard0 · 12 Oct 2006 at 11:36

Another vote for the XP one. It's done well for my machine so far and is good enough so that I feel another stand alone program isn't required.

Cozman · 12 Oct 2006 at 14:39

bledd. said:
use the xp one, its fine

you gotta be kidding .. the windows one is so basic its highly unrecommended by most as being only slighty better than nothing

IMHO

go Kaspersky if you want anti-virus too and paying for a commercial product or there are plenty of good "Free" alternatives that work much better just do a search and many will pop up

use a "proper" 3rd party firewall if you want control over apps and outgoing connections and only use XP in-built as last resort or already behind a router with hardware firewall

Captain Fizz · 12 Oct 2006 at 14:59

Cozman said:
you gotta be kidding .. the windows one is so basic its highly unrecommended by most as being only slighty better than nothing
...
use a "proper" 3rd party firewall if you want control over apps and outgoing connections and only use XP in-built as last resort or already behind a router with hardware firewall

The built in one will do fine for 90% of people.
All they need is their PC protected from the outside.
If apps send out the way - Well, generally most people have decent anti-virus which picks up trojans etc.

The XP one is all you NEED.
Yes, it is basic - But it still stops incoming/unwanted traffic.

If you are behind a hardware firewall - No need for a software one IMHO.
A properly configured hardware firewall eliminates the need for PC based ones unless there are new PC's being conected to it regularly.

I have my software one turned off completely - All the traffic on the green side is trusted.
When I build PC's for people - I have them use the XP firewall.

Saves extra apps installed... Saves them breaking more things. :rolleyes:

bledd · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:00

Cozman said:
you gotta be kidding .. the windows one is so basic its highly unrecommended by most as being only slighty better than nothing

IMHO

go Kaspersky if you want anti-virus too and paying for a commercial product or there are plenty of good "Free" alternatives that work much better just do a search and many will pop up

use a "proper" 3rd party firewall if you want control over apps and outgoing connections and only use XP in-built as last resort or already behind a router with hardware firewall

only noobs need outgoing protection

-edit, and only noobs need antivirus

Cozman · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:17

bledd. said:
only noobs need outgoing protection

-edit, and only noobs need antivirus

dont wish to fight and i wont fight but

that has to be the worst advice ever

i have never seen such bad advice about pc security .. you dont have to be a noob to be sensible im hardly a noob and i wouldnt run a pc connected to the net without anti-virus and a firewall better than XP one

yes XP firewall is better than nothing , but it doesnt do enough for anything above average use.

and to say you dont need an anti virus .. well only if you never surf download read mail or install anything ever .. geee

if you cant post without insulting people by calling them noobs them i suggest you dont post at all

james.miller · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:20

the xp firewall is perfectly fine. whats wrong with it exactly? i dont use it myself, i use netlimiter as a firewall, purely because i can also limit bandwidth with it.

bledd · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:22

well

"the windows one is so basic its highly unrecommended by most as being only slighty better than nothing"

isn't exactly true

i use gmail for emails, so zero risk

anyone with pop3 email, do you really open emails from random people or blatanty dodgy attachments? -you deserve to get a virus if you do..

in my years of experience, the only websites that have viruses on them are crack websites and porn websites

if you stick to what you know, there's little need to venture far from a basic set of websites

Captain Fizz · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:28

I would say always have AV... As you don't know where the data will be coming from.

But...

Cozman said:
...i wouldnt run a pc connected to the net without anti-virus and a firewall better than XP one

yes XP firewall is better than nothing , but it doesnt do enough for anything above average use..

But 90% of users have "average use".

Play games, run P2P, browse the net etc.
If the OP was running IIS, or had sensitive data on the PC - One would also assume he would be taking steps to protect that.

OK, for g33ks/admins etc - 3rd party firewall apps would be recommended if they need them.
For the average person on their PC at home - I do not see the need for anything more than a firewall which does what it says on the tin.

Prevents any untrusted sources gaining access to the PC.
What benefit would an app which runs several processes, needs extra configuration etc be over the standard windows one? (For the standard user)

I could not justify advising to install a 3rd party app unless you would need the extra features.
The windows one even has port forwarding... So all the basic stuff is covered.

Yes, you may not like running the built in one - But as I said - It'll do the job perfectly for 90% of the peeps on these forums.

All IMHO of course...

Cozman · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:35

james.miller said:
the xp firewall is perfectly fine. whats wrong with it exactly? i dont use it myself, i use netlimiter as a firewall, purely because i can also limit bandwidth with it.

personally i could never live without outgoing protection .. but as i say that me personally , im shocked by exactly how much legit commercial software phones home , not good IMO if they do that without asking the users permission

the actual functions the XP firewall perform have been long berated by all the firewall commercial & freeware designers/companies/suppiers and i know you will say but the companies would say bad things wouldnt they , yes of course but they have been in the business longer and the MS track record on security isnt exactly untarnished with security flaw fixes on an almost weekly basis

my opinion ... would i trust MS word or a known established security company .. think you guess my answer

back on the anti-virus ... "if you stick to what you know, there's little need to venture far from a basic set of websites" ... umm thought the whole point of the web was going new places and seeing new things so guess im not normal if i surf all over and visit sites for first time

no disrespect but telling ordinary users or anyone not to use an anti virus is pure madness even if viruses are on the decline other forms such as root kits is growing .. it may well be good for you .. but to tell that to others :eek:

Cob · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:41

Well tbh the 'average' user will inevitability go looking for 'free' music, software or whatever at some stage. And a AV and a decent outward-filtering firewall will be needed then.

Even searching for something as simple as screensavers is fraught with danger. I wouldn't trust AVG or Avast to catch every nasty out there. I want as much protection as possible to stop my bank and credit card details being uploaded to someone else.

bledd · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:41

Cozman said:
ordinary users

they are the noobs

james.miller · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:43

my opinion ... would i trust MS word or a known established security company .. think you guess my answer

people who charge you money for their alternative, you mean? there's nothing wrong with the firewall. yes its perfectly fine if you wear a tin-foil hat and dont want programs to phone home - thats fine, get some outbound protection then. For everybody else, the standard firewall does everything the average user needs (and by average i mean 90% of the people who use the internet) . It is by no means inadiquate.

Cozman · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:47

"I want as much protection as possible to stop my bank and credit card details being uploaded to someone else" ... what he said really

never skimp on your pc security IMHO as you will regret it sometime , may not be tomorrow or next week but sometime something will happen to make you regret not doing everything you could have

ok ill shut up now .. dont have a flame suit so better run :cool:

Uhtred · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:53

outgoing firewall protection is more trouble than it's worth. I get so fed up having to allow things and trying to fix random problems all firewalls cause. Saying that, i did have to install one for a day when i got a trojan and couldn't be bothered to fix it as i was going to the pub, should probably have turned the whole pc off but nm

I installed zone alarm on my parent's pc but got fed up of them ringing me all the time asking what this and that meant. They wouldn't be able to tell what was a valid programme and what wasn't so what's the point? they would just click allow and not know a trojan from a valid xp system process.

If you're not a noob you can tell if you're at risk of getting a trojan and know the signs of being infected (high CPU usage and high outgoing traffic which i have displaying on my desktop). Couple that with AV/browser updates and you will be fine.

Cob · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:54

But anyway, since the OP asked between the Windows firewall or a FREE copy of McAfee Personal Firewall, there should be very little debate.

McAfee for the win.

Captain Fizz · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:56

Zap said:
I installed zone alarm on my parent's pc...

Oh - One thing about Zone Alarm...

Even when it is turned off... It is still active.

You can right click the system tray - Turn the firewall software off...
You'll still not be able to LAN game on that PC until you uninstall Zone Alarm. 0_o

So steer very clear of it IMHO.

Uhtred · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:57

Captain Fizz said:
Oh - One thing about Zone Alarm...

Even when it is turned off... It is still active.

You can right click the system tray - Turn the firewall software off...
You'll still not be able to LAN game on that PC until you uninstall Zone Alarm. 0_o

So steer very clear of it IMHO.

Don't worry, i got rid of that terrible thing a long time ago

Most firewalls seem to hate being turned off. My mate at uni used to use norton, that was shocking