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Firewall other than Zonealarm


khunsanuk

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Hi,

 

Can someone recommend a good firewall other than ZoneAlarm?

Now I have a fast connection I tend to do a lot of downloading, usually using torrents, and ZoneAlarm has a tendency to out of the blue totally lock the machine.

The connection stays open and I keep downloading, but I cannot do anything other than do a hard reset. Seriously annoying of course.

 

So, any suggestions?

 

Sanuk!

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2 questions I guess KS

 

Why run a firewall at all. ?

I run spysweeper and AVG in the background along with Spyblasterware to stop active x programs. Naturally I do NOT run IE, so I see no reason to run any firewall. Haven't for over a year. I have no problems with resident programs going out for updates, so I wonder what the 'firewall' is accomplishing.

 

As to the bit torrents, you need to patch XP if you have installed SP2 as it restricts the number of connections ........... not a good thing for we leechers. :neeners:

 

If your torrents hang too much try uninstalling and reinstalling the client. Only takes minutes and usually fixes balky torrents. (unless of course your isp has already figured out which port they use and has throttled it back already.) :banghead:

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most definately. some of them are just not good seeds, or too few seeds (sometimes none.... that will stop you in a hurry) Most however are pretty decent although the decriptions are not always the best. (Anyone want a copy of several programs in Romanian :banghead: )

 

One great thing is you can NOT get a virus through a bit torrent. :up:

 

Skip the firewall KS, no need IMO

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Skip the firewall KS, no need IMO

 

Why do without it? It helped me track down a couple of spyware programs that went unrecognized by spybot and adaware. I probably picked up these pests using Kazaa. I always check these files for viruses, but these came up negative, but contained spyware. If it weren't for my firewall informing me these little pests were trying to phone home, I would have never discovered them. After doing a google search, I only came up with one (!) discussion where people reported the same exe-file active on their PC. There are lots of spyware out there, and all anti-spyware programs are always lagging behind. I see no reason to drop it.

 

Cheers,

 

soongmak

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LaoHuLi, I have to disagree here,

I guess you are behind a hardware firewall like the ones included in a broadband router. That way you stay unattacked and hidden from the outside world most of the time. Don't know if KS has a hardware firewall. If not a software firewall is mandatory!

About outbound traffic I am with soongmak, for sure I wanna know which progs are calling home. This is not mandatory of course, one can do without controlling outbound traffic. I am usong Sygate personal firwall even though I am hiding behind a broadband router with hardware firewall.

I am not familiar with torrent so no idea what causes your computer to freeze. Have you checked in task manager if one of the running applications uses all your CPU?

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Hi,

 

Would tend to agree about the firewall as well, and no I am not behind a hardware router.

 

"Have you checked in task manager if one of the running applications uses all your CPU?"

Not yet, but think I should, as I was just playing a game (not downloading anything at the moment), and it locked up a little from time to time as well.

 

Sanuk!

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