John Bartow
john at winhaven.net
Mon Aug 4 14:19:52 CDT 2008
Good stuff too. Not used much in this area though. BTW I didn't mention price but most have a 3 pc deal now and Sunbelt has an "everything in your home" for $49.95. If I wasn't constantly testing different apps I would make out like a bandit with that deal :o) John B. -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 10:20 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: Re: [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 _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com