One of the many unwelcome “helpful security additions” is the windows firewall. But do I need it? It’s interfereing with some of my programs. Is it keeping me safe from anything significant? Am I at any greater “risk” if I have it turned off?
It’s keeping you safe from worms and trojans, which are a far greater threat these days than viruses. And your anti-virus package (assuming you have one) is definitely NOT performing that function.
Curiosity - what applications is the Windows firewall interfering with?
coughso*lseekcough.
Where would I get worms and trojans, other than through auto-scripts and such from e-mails? I use a web-based email system, so no downloading messages…
Worms, in particular, do not arrive in email or in downloaded files. Worms can attack any PC that’s connected to the web, whether broadband or dialup. They simply keep trolling IP addresses until they find an unprotected PC (i.e., one without a firewall), then wriggle in (hence, “worm”). I use ZoneAlarm, and there have been stretches when the log of intercepted “probes” was showing several hits a minute.
You can be downstairs making a sandwich, and your machine can be infected - it doesn’t require you to do, or not do, anything. You’re at a greater risk with an “always-on” broadband connection, simply because your machine is always connected to the Internet.
As far as your specific application problem is concerned, I’ll leave that to someone who’s familiar with it (doesn’t ring any bells with me at all, I’m afraid).
You should definatley have some firewall running on your computer.
But not necessarily the built-in Windows XP one. Every review that I’ve read says that this is a pretty mediocre firewall, and that other (free) ones are better. Like the free version of ZoneAlarm (Available here), which I use.
But don’t have 2 firewalls running at once – that will really cause problems with them interfering with each other and with your application programs.
If you are connected to the internet through a broadband router then you are already protected by a passive firewall.
As another poster mentioned, ZoneAlarm is a really good personal firewall. ZoneAlarm is an “active” firewall, so it can prevent an unauthorized program from accessing the internet (protection against certain trojans such as spywares). The cost of this is that you have to train ZoneAlarm on which programs are authorized.