Re: Zone Alarm & Wireless LANs

From: Thomas Hertel (Thomas.Hertel_at_gmx.net)
Date: 01/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 20:56:22 +0100

itafran2002@yahoo.com (Itafran) schrieb:

>I've set up a Lynksys wireless router, and in the process of making it
>all work, tech support demanded I uninstall Zone Alarm, as, they said,
>all firewall software interferes with LANs and especially wireless
>access.

I am not really a friend of personal firewalls, but this is simply BS.
A personal firewall is a packet filter and there is no reason at all
why it should not work with any networking equipment. You got to
configure it, though.

>Now, I'm not too comfortable letting go of any firewall protection
>(Linksys claims the firewall is built into the router already).
>Given all security issues around wireless access,

These do not have anything to do with firewalls or personal firewalls
in the first place. The problems with wireless are that your neighbors
or anybody else can easily intercept whatever you let go on air if you
do so without precaution. The solution to this is encryption, not
firewalls.

> I'm sticking to
>plain ethernet cable into my DSL modem when it comes to performing
>sensitive transactions with credit cards-- but now without Zone Alarm
>there is no protection in this mode either! (I know Windows XP 's
>firewall is next to useless).

It does at least block unsolicited inbound traffic, and thus it does
everything any other personal firewall does with any reasonable
reliability. However, your Linksys should really be able to do that as
well.

Thomas 

-- 
"The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice"
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