[dba-Tech] AntiVirXP08 Anybody Know About This?

Thanks John,

I CA's internet suite, and also tried Comodo.  Comodo just about killed me
with it's constant, "Do you want to do this?"  I would have had to do to go
back to school to learn how to answer that question every time.

Now I'm using BitDefender Internet Security.  It's a firewall, spam catcher,
disc scanner, all built into one.  It's settings are easy on the outside,
but can be tweaked a lot on the inside.  The price was good - $40 for 3 pc's
for 2 years.  

The one thing I really like about this program is the little window it puts
up to graphically show me how much relative activity is taking place on my
PC and how much Internet traffic is occurring.  Not much of a security
feature, but now I know more!

Thanks!
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Bartow
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 9:42 AM
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] AntiVirXP08 Anybody Know About This?

Hi Dan,
I use a number of software firewalls with various clients and test various
others on my network PCs (of course you can only use one per computer). 

Most of the popular firewalls are good, in paid mode anyway, there are
advanced settings that do most everything. Its how easy it is to set those
that counts in my experience. Most people get totally confused with
firewalls so out of the box, no settings required is usually the most
important aspect for SOHOs. My all time favorite was Sygate Personal
Firewall but alas Symantec bought it and killed it. Then I moved to Kerio
Personal Firewall and shortly thereafter they were going to discontinue it.
Sunbelt bought it to save it (and acquire their technology I suppose) and it
is now called Sunbelt Personal Firewall which is good in free mode. It
doesn't ask the end user a lot of questions that they don't know how to
answer but still does a pretty good job. The paid version has very fine
control settings. Eventually, Sunbelt will incorporate this technology into
Vipre. Vipre was developed with this in mind (was written to allow for new
functions to address new threats) so that it can be incorporated for the
next major release. When the time comes we'll see how that pans out... (I'm
kind of a skeptic ;o)

I use Sunbelt PF on my wife's laptop and she doesn't complain ;o)

Zone Alarm is probably the standard and is very good when paid for but the
free one isn't very good out anymore.

CA's Personal Firewall is a royal pain in the but. They used to have a nice
Security Suite (they rented Zone Alarm) but they parted ways with Zone Alarm
and bought a different firewall and incorporated it into their suite. It can
be tweaked to death for fine settings but is just not very intuitive.

I try Comodo Firewall every now and again because I would like to find a
good free without limitations firewall for home users. I need to again - its
been about a year now - but in the past I've found it to be less than
intuitive.

Of course, if you know what you're doing with firewalls the intuitiveness
isn't an issue.

So, long answer short, I don't have a "favorite" I think they all need work
on the GUI. 

In Business clients I use network hardware firewalls or "security devices"
as they are actually much more than firewalls now. The software firewall is
then the second layer of defense and most of them can perform that role well
enough.


John B.


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 2:01 PM
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] AntiVirXP08 Anybody Know About This?

John,

What do you use for a firewall?

Dan

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