Haskell, Paul (Contractor) wrote:
> Check out ZoneAlarm at:  http://www.zonelabs.com/zap26_za_grid.html
> It works well.
> 
>    Paul
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 2:06 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Personal Firewall
> 
> 
> Good Afternoon...
> 
> This is my first post to this list, so I'll keep it sweet and simple.  I'm
> looking for a good firewall for my home PC that isn't expensive (free would
> be good).  I just got a DSL line and there is the worry out there that when
> you're connected to the internet most of the time, you could get hacked.
> 
> Any info would be appreciated.

May I quote Felix von Leitner about those "personal firewalls"(I can't 
explain better):

"You can't improve security of an untrusted system by installing 
another untrustworthy piece of software. You don't have the source 
code for the operating system or for the new piece of software, so it 
is impossible to verify that it does anything at all, let alone 
improve security. In the contrary, adding software increases the 
system's complexity, increasing the probabilty for undetected bugs and 
possible new security problems.

A firewall is a computer security concept, not a piece of software. 
Vendors selling you a piece of software (or even a piece of hardware) 
under the label "firewall" are defrauding you.

If you seriously want to improve security on your machine, you have to 
reduce the code size, not increase it! And no matter how much software 
you remove, as long as you don't have the source code for the rest, 
you are still not even remotely secure. Consider dropping Windows and 
switching to a more secure operating system." http://www.fefe.de/pffaq/

And a second quotation (Bruce Schneier): "Security is a process, not a 
product."

You might try ZoneAlarm, but don't cry if your machines get 
compromised or do things you don't want to.

Read some FAQs and HOWTOs and build your own firewall/ssecurity system 
setting up a linux box and use ipchains or iptables. Or try OpenBSD 
using pf. All software mentioned is free, but you got to know what 
you're doing.

If you think you cannot do that, hire someone that _can_ do this part 
for you.

GTi
-- 
This is my personal point of view and might differ from the one of my 
employer.

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