Re: Opinions on the following articles?

From: Bjorn Randell (Bjorn_at_AlphaMale.me.uk)
Date: 06/25/03 

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 16:41:32 +0100

"Zarggg" <ditmarst@enter.net> wrote in message
news:uU9Ka.2351$x35.1414198@newshog.newsread.com...
> I'd like your opinions on the following articles, if I may:
>
> A) http://samspade.org/d/persfire.html
> Article on SamSpade.org describing why "personal" (i.e., software)
> firewalls, in the webmaster's opinion, are useless. (In the referring
> link of the site, it labels all users of software firewalls as "idiots".)
>
> B) http://samspade.org/d/firewalls.html
> Article on SamSpade.org describing why software firewalls are "snake oil".
>
> C) http://cyberpunks.org/display/356/article/
> Article referenced in (B) as justification for his argument.
>
> The reason I am asking is that since reading those three articles, I
> have removed my software firewall. I currently have all the ports that
> www.GRC.com's ShieldsUP! references closed (or non-existant, in the case
> of Finger). I just want to make sure that I can keep my precious 128MB
> RAM free and still be secure.

There's some sense to what he's saying, as far as how firewalls report to
you in terms of "alerts" and what they alert about in the first place, but a
software firewall is something that should be on every homeusers Windows box
as far as I'm concerned.

Just do what I do, install ZA or whatever you do, and turn off all the
alerts. It never bothers me, and I don't bother it, works like a charm.
All that I need intervene with then is program controls for access to the
net. 

-- 
Regards,
Bjorn Randell
Bjorn@AlphaMale.me.uk or ICQ #137732

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