Re: sygate personal firewall over cautious

From: Steven L Umbach (n9rou_at_n0-spam-for-me-comcast.net)
Date: 02/05/05 

Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 12:56:35 -0600

I have two networks. One is protected by my Netscreen 5XP [$100 on Ebay]
which also blocks outbound access to only to ports/protocols I authorize. I
can check the firewall logs of it and it will let me know if one of my
computers is trying to access a suspicious port/protocol. My secure "test"
network is a Windows 2004 ISA firewall behind the Netscreen 5XP which can do
deep application filtering and will log attempts at unauthorized
ports/protocols/url's/domains/url filters/etc. I can check it's very
extensive logs and if need be configure it to send me email alerts of
suspicious activity. The family computers use Windows XP SP2 and I enforce
Internet Explorer security settings with Group Policy. This has worked out
very well and I have not had any problems in quite a while [last couple
years]. I occasionally check the computers with some free tools from
SysInternals such as Autoruns, TCPView, and Process Explorer to see if
anything suspicious process is running and/or using a port on the
computer. --- Steve

"Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:36j54sF53tv6rU1@individual.net...
> Steven L Umbach wrote:
>> Though I have had good luck with Sygate, Zone Alarm, and others I
>> don't use any personal firewall on my computers
>
> How will you know when something malicious tries to call out?
>
> Teach your family how to use the firewall.
>
> --
> -bts
> -This space intentionally left blank.