Get a FIREWALL?

I just had a scare with StorageProtector and had to go all the way to ComboFix to get better. Whew! This on the heels of a dang mechanical hard drive failure :)

Brand new computer, too, lot of money! Man.... thank God i've got better things in my life cuz this is apparently fragile business ;)

ANYWAY i'm ready to go firewall. I want something i can trust that doesn't suck. Would be willing to pay, but prefer not to of course ;)

Is there any security software that isn't corrupt?

Thanks! Little more info?

I'm running WinXP (sp2) on a brand new machine that's a performance behemoth.

What prompted this whole thing was how freaked out I got with this whole d*** StorageProtector garbage....

A firewall alone will not totally protect your computer. Firewall only protects against attacks coming from the network. And with almost everyone behind a NAT router these days, network attacks are increasingly rare.

Nor will an anti-virus alone.

These days you need a whole lot more than just a virus protection. Only about 15% of all malware is viruses. The rest is worms, trojans, phishing schemes, spyware, etc.

Here's some ideas to "roll ya own" Internet Security Suite for free. Free is always the best.

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1. For your Anti-Virus......(Always use only 1 A-V...You must NEVER use more than one anti-virus, Even an expired anti-virus can cause a major conflict)


For your anti-virus needs, I would suggest Avira AntiVir庐 PersonalEdition Classic. It has excellent heuristics, a virus detection rate that is better than many of "paid-for" anti-virus programs and is light on using your computer's resources. And did I mention that it's free!

Download here:
http://www.free-av.com/

Avoid an anti-virus called AVG (free version). It is wildly popular but has poor virus detection rates.

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2. For your Anti-Adware and Anti-Spyware needs...............(use at least 1 anti-spyware, but 2 is OK):

SUPERAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/

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3. For your Firewall..........(Always use only 1 software firewall)

A decent free firewall is PC Tools Firewall Plus. One can either choose "Normal User Mode" Or "Expert User Mode"'depending on the detail of alerts and application custom rules desired.

It is one of the few free firewalls that will work (and work well) on Vista as well as XP and 2000.

http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

4. And to help protect your computer from ever getting infected with malware in the first place............ (use them both)

SpywareBlaster helps to immunize your computer again certain selected malware.:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareb...

SiteAdvisor warns you when visiting a potentionally malicious web-site:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/

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5. And always keep your Windows and all your installed software 100% updated and patched with all critical and security updates from the vendors THIS IS A MUST! In Internet Explorer just click Tools then Windows Updates.

Here is a little online (no download) security tool called The Secunia Software Inspector, that scans a computer for un-secure, un-updated and un-patched apps that may be installed on your computer.

The Secunia Software Inspector checks for possibly vulnerable programs like Adobe, Winamp, Java, Windows, Internet Explorer etc. and notifies if critical security updates are needed. !

Will work using IE, Opera or Firefox.

Use it once a month.

Pretty cool and free at:
http://secunia.com/software_inspector

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Everything here is 100% free!!!!!!

Great luck! Enjoy!

ZoneAlarm is great and free. Make sure you search for the free edition.

Just switch on Windows Firewall. That is perfectly adequate.

What OS are you using? Do you want a free one (Zonealarm, PCTools, Comodo.com) or to pay for one (Norton, McAfee, Etc). Any firewall you use will take some resources and can slow down your system. You will have a learning curve. You can also get a hardware firewall (most routers have that built in),

Yep, you need rather more than just a firewall, but as you asked about a firewall, have a look at these leak-test results:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows...

As has been said, if you're connecting via a router then you're behind a firewall but mostly these only block incoming hacks attacks.

There's lots of different ways you can get malware on your pc, what you need is to make sure your personal details (bank a/c details, etc) don't get leaked out to the 'mothership'. Hence you need a firewall that doesn't leak. These two freebies are about the best, pick either one:
OnlineArmor free firewall: http://www.tallemu.com/
Comodo free firewall: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/o...

Secunia Software Inspector is great but Secunia PSI is even better: https://psi.secunia.com/