Re: Outpost firewall prob when shutting down PC (XP SP2)

Leythos <void@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <4nlbsvFakbroU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, usenet-2006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
says...
Leythos <void@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
No, the entire point was, on a default installation, is there
anything that protects a user better than the Windows Firewall.

Of course there is. Not using an account with admin privileges for
day-to-day work for instance.

I understand that, but, unless you've been asleep for the last 10
years, most every home user running Windows is running as a local
admin, not to mention all the small businesses that are also running
as either a domain admin or a local admin on a workstation.

Which is exactly what needs to be changed.

You won't get users to change their settings, to change that they
use an Administrator account, etc... At least not for most of them.
So, it stands, can ZoneAlarm and other products protect a user more
than Windows Firewall can?

No.

Besides, if you can get them to install %SOFTWARE%, why do you
believe you couldn't get them to use restricted accounts?

Because they will have problems running applications as limited users
- QuickBooks, POGO games, some reporting tools, many online FPS
games...

You DID notice the boatloads of people popping up here and elsewhere
having problems caused by running personal firewalls, didn't you?

The simple fact is that as long as Microsoft installs with users as
admins, with the inability to run common apps unless an administrator
level account, etc... users are going to be exposed to all sorts of
threats.

Most applications can be run as normal user nowadays. Most applications
that can't can be configured to run as normal user by minor changes to
file or registry ACLs. All you need to do is create a freakin' normal
user-account.

Windows Firewall COULD have been a proper firewall, blocking
in/outbound PORTS, ignoring applications, and providing a real-time
interface to show traffic, but, as it is, it fails to protect user at
anything other than a very basic level, and is less protection than
most of the major PFW solutions on the market.

*sigh*

One more time: as long as an application is run by an admin user there
is NO way ANY software (not the Windows Firewall and not any personal
firewall) could enforce control over that application.

cu
59cobalt
--
"If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you
don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology."
--Bruce Schneier
.

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