OS is XP-h, Browser is Netscape 7.1, and Firewall is Zone Alarm Pro.
Made the big mistake of letting Microsoft install XP service pakck 2.
The uS Firewall locked up the browser and internet connection. Shutting down ZA permitted browser to connect but also allowed popups.
After locking down the uS Firewall, Zone Alarm was reset and operation was normal.
uS couldn’t even ‘copy’ a firewall properly.
The same old MO. Get someone else to develop a program then hijack it for Win.
Its the same old attitude toward users. SET Options to suit uS not the user.
All too many programs come up by default not choice.
I don’t want to defend MS more than necessary, as I believe Bill’s Empire is pure evil… but here’s the deal (at least, as I see it). MS aren’t in the business of developing fully-fledged “add-on” applications as part of their core OS. For that reason they haven’t developed antivirus software, or firewall software etc as part of the OS. The OS is designed to give you enough capability to install 3rd-party apps that do whatever you need them to do. So your “same old MO” argument really doesn’t hold much water.
The intent was never to “copy” a real firewall. The intent was to stop people getting infected from blaster-style worms by putting up a shield between the PC and the outside world. MS recognised that their product, by default, was not locked down enough to stop people from getting caned by certain worms. There’s a lot of people who *don’t * know they should install a firewall. There’s a lot of people who don’t know you should not only install antivirus software, but that you must also keep it updated. So it’s intended as a first line of defence.
MS set the firewall to on by default because people were jumping up and down complaining that the OS’s insecurity led to the Blaster debarcle. Programming stupidity notwithstanding (ie allowing a buffer overflow condition in the first place), I think that MS actually did a very responsible thing by providing a firewall and by enabling it by default. In the time it takes for you to connect to the 'net, unprotected, and download a firewall from wherever, your machine could be compromised. The on-by-default configuration is there to protect users (who often don’t know any better).
Meanwhile, I will join in your rant by saying that MS should’ve built some basic checks into their software: If third-party firewall exists, do not enable windows firewall. Seems like a simple enough task, doesn’t it?
Max.
I too don’t want to defend MS, but I worked on an application that needed to detect the presence of a software firewall. I found it pretty hard to determine definitively if there was a software firewall. You can try pinging a system, but what if that system isn’t reachable? You can scan the registry and file system for installed firewalls, but you can only find firewalls that you have been programmed to look for. You can walk the task list to see if an installed firewall is running, but again, you can only find the ones you are looking for. Granted MS should have enough muscle to “encourage” firewall vendors to support discovery, but even if they all agreed, it wouldn’t help until they upgraded their software to do it.
I could see why MS would just leave it on by default and then deal with the massive customer support related to conflicts. Since that is still probably less work than dealing with the super massive customer support issues caused by leaving it off for the next virus.
Agreed. Also, with regard to your previous point about discovery - I can appreciate that one might not be able to discover ALL firewall products. But hey, there are some firewalls out there that have a big market share… eg zonealarm, mcafee and norton’s offerings - it wouldn’t be that hard! Hell, they can do it for the antivirus stuff, it can’t be that much of a stretch to do the same for the firewall!
Early in the DOS thru Windows uS let developers do the creative work and then bought them out, scammed them out of their work or duplicated the salient features to use in the uS OS of the day.
The user today does NOT have a choice to enable/disable a change in features/settings made by SP2!
Would not be online today had I not reverted to OS config. of a week ago. Had to hunt for text documents entered since then.
SP2 screwed up the broadband modem access. The uS setup wizard handles dialup settings!
I had heard enough complaints about SP2 but took a chance. :smack:
