Ron Schenone

Firewalls – Hardware vs Software – Which Type Do You Use?

Posted by on Sep 17, 2007 | 4 Comments

On one of the forums I belong to a question came up from a poster involving Zone Alarm and the problem they were having with the software. Seems that the person wasn’t able to get ZA to work properly with their network, and once uninstalled the network worked just fine. Which in itself is not entirely unusual since many people may experience problems with any of the software firewalls, so it is not limited to ZA itself. I myself after trying Comodo twice, had to take it off since it went bonkers on my system. Yet others praise Comodo and recommend it highly.

over the years I have learned to accept such problems, since they seem to plague all of us from time to time. I recall always hearing that ABC software works on Aunt Mildred’s system, but it won’t work on mine. Then the world famous question. ‘Why?’ If I knew the answer to that question I’d be a multi-billionaire! :-) The basic answer is because the computer gods have willed it and your machine is possessed by evil demons. Which I am sure some of us will agree that this is the case on some machines we have worked on. LOL

What I found interesting were the replies, two of which were from very well respected people that know there computer stuff.

Opinion #1. Use a router and the built in firewall for Windows XP-SP2.

Opinion #2. Use a router and ZA because the Windows firewall doesn’t block outgoing traffic.

So my question is this. What would be your suggestion?

Comments welcome.

[tags]firewall, router, software, hardware, windows, zone alarm, [/tags]

  • http://www.goretsky.com Aryeh Goretsky

    Hello,

    Is a third opinion acceptable?

    If so, I would suggesting contacting Check Point’s technical support department and see if they can help resolve the issue. It could be that the reason for the conflict is well known and requires a quick settings change, or perhaps they are already aware of the problem and just waiting for a customer to contact them to test a version which solves the problem.

    It is important to contact technical support when having a problem with a product because the company may have a fix or workaround in place, which they can then provide to the customer. Another possibility is that the problem is brand-new and has never been reported before, which means the technical support department needs to get as much information as possible about the issue so they can forward it to the development or QA teams in order to investigate the problem and solve it. By not involving the company in the process, you miss out on the opportunity to get a fix. Also, ome companies will provide customers with a free upgrade to the next version which fixes a customer-reported problem or extend the subscription of a product (for those which follow a subscription model) to make up for the inconvenience.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

  • Geoff

    The combination of a hardware+software firewall is obviously best, but it becomes impractical on the road with your laptop. There are many good, free software firewalls (ZoneAlarm, Comodo, Sunbelt-Kerio, etc.). And it is likely that your system will have conflicts with at least one of them. If you have a problem, just keep trying another until you get one that “plays nice” on whatever system you have. At a minimum, at least get an old copy of Tiny Personal Firewall, which does a decent job.

    Whatever you use, it won’t do any good unless you stick to “safe surfing” whenever you are online.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hello Aryeh,
    Your expert opinion is always welcome here. That is a good idea about contacting TS as well. Thanks for your comments.

    Hi Geoff,
    Safe surfing habits are very important.

    Thanks, Ron

  • http://brian.magierski.com Brian Magierski

    Thanks for the great write-up Kelly! Funny, I just caught that movie again last week while testing our alpha release of Group{in}. You nailed the value of Group{in}.

    We are putting our application for the app into the Apple App store within the next week, and version 1.0 should be available in the iTunes App Store within two weeks. People interested in the app, can sign up for an email when the app is available here – http://www.appconomy.com/apps/