Re: Are you using the Windows Firewall?

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Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 13:35:50 -0800

Michael Surkan [MS] wrote:

> If you can spare a few minutes I would love to find out if your
> organization is using the XP SP2 Windows Firewall, and what (if any)
> kinds of improvements you might like to see in the future. As we make
> plans for the Windows Firewall we would like to see if customer
> deployments, and needs, may have changed now that it's been shipping
> for a while.
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=47602838938&c=nssec
>
> I would still be eager to hear from you weather or not you plan on
> using the Windows Firewall.
>
Hi, Michael. Here are my several cents:

I don't use the Windows Firewall on my XPSP2 boxen because I prefer a
third-party firewall that monitors outgoing traffic, too. The Sygate
(free personal version) caught some malware trying to phone home on my
son's machine yesterday. Without that warning (and he's trained to come
running to Mom the Tech of course), I wouldn't have cleaned up his
machine and it would have definitely gotten worse.

I do freelance computer repair/tech support with most of my clients
being home users, and some small businesses. What I think is good about
WF is that:

a) it exists and is better than nothing, which is usually what these
people have;

b) it doesn't ask the user any questions about whether a program can
access the Internet, which a lot of my clients can't handle. The ones
that can handle dealing with this (and of course I "pre-teach" the
firewall before the client gets back their clean box) get a lesson on
what to do when the firewall asks them something. Sometimes this works.

Since the majority of XP is on home and "regular" users' machines, I
don't really see how MS can reconcile a) and b) unless you create a
really clever wizard that walks these folks through setting up the
firewall and then when an alert comes up it also triggers a wizard to
help them make the decision. Most people's reaction to a firewall
question is, "How the h*ll am I supposed to know if this is OK to get
out?"

Bigger organizations, like my son's school (I help the person in charge
of the school's computers) get a dedicated hardware firewall and
filtering software.

HTH,

Malke

-- 
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

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• In reply to: Michael Surkan [MS]: "Are you using the Windows Firewall?"
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