The Problem with Firewalls
Personal firewalls will never be install-and-forget software, at least not any of the good products. They have several problems, including the sheer number of alerts, false-positives, inherent vulnerabilities, and the denial of legitimate services. The biggest drawback with firewalls is the number of alerts or event-log messages that can pop up. First-time firewall users often are excited to see their first attack alerts, but after a few days of seeing hundreds of messages, users can become numb to them. Many firewall users stop reading their logs or simply switch off logging, which means the users lose half the benefits that firewalls provide. Many alerts will be false-positives from legitimate Internet traffic and services. No matter how good the firewall is, it can’t effectively determine the difference between good and bad traffic. The firewall only makes a guess, which means allow and accept decisions are left up to users, who often aren’t knowledgeable about security.
Like any other application, a personal firewall sits on an unpredictable OS. The firewall is vulnerable and buggy just like the applications it’s designed to protect. Some firewalls I reviewed were vulnerable to specific types of attacks, including attacks that disable or bypass the firewall. Software that doesn’t have a publicized weakness probably does have weaknesses. Intruders might eventually look for (not avoid) machines with firewalls, then exploit a known vulnerability to take over the machines. Keeping your firewall updated is important.
When the firewalls do the job they’re designed to do, they end up blocking some of your legitimate activity. Many new firewall users complain that their browsers no longer connect to a particular Web site or their browser add-ins (e.g., RealNetworks' RealPlayer) no longer work the way they did before. Other common complaints involve email problems or disappearing drive mappings. Unless you get lucky, the firewall doesn’t tell you it’s the culprit.
Which Firewall to Choose
Out of the six personal firewalls I reviewed, McAfee Firewall, Norton Personal Firewall, and ZoneAlarm Pro are great choices. These three firewalls are feature-rich and integrate well with antivirus and privacy tools. Norton Personal Firewall is the most secure, but McAfee Firewall is the easiest to use. Tiny Personal Firewall and BlackICE PC Protection aren’t in the same class as Norton Personal Firewall and McAfee Firewall but are still very good. (See Table 1 for details about each product.) Each of the five firewalls configures with minimum help, contains a lot of features, and significantly increases your PC’s protection. These five firewalls are routinely updated and usually automated. Go ahead; install one of these firewalls if you haven’t already done so. Like every other firewall user, you’ll probably be surprised how often the software will alert you to cracking probes.
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