Re: Use of firewall software in desktops

From: Andrew Mitchell (amitchel_at_removecasey.vic.gov.au)
Date: 03/29/04 

Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 02:53:59 -0800

"WH" <whtoh@global.com> said

> Hi,
>
> I have a group of avid travelling users in my company. They will
> normally connect to the internet from a hotel or internet cafe
> connection and VPN to access internal resources.
>
> I figured out the best way to prevent trojans or viruses from spreading
> when these users connect the same machines when they are back into the
> office LAN, is to ask them to turn on some kind of personal firewall
> when they are connecting from a hotel or internet cafe.
>
> Can someone advise me the best way to approach this, and what kind of
> firewall software should I use???? I think Windows XP firewall is good
> enough,

Correct. The Windows XP built in firewall should be sufficient.
Some of the third party products are better for computer literate users, but
the majority are confused by messages like 'Application xxx is trying to
connect to host www.domain.com on port 384. Do you want to allow this' and
just click Yes anyway, so the additional safety is negated.

> but it gives problem when I tried to use VPN over the
> Internet........

What VPN client are you using? Maybe try using a third party firewall on your
own machine so it can tell you what ports are being used by the VPN client
and open those specific ports on the built in XP firewall for your general
users.

Andy.

Relevant Pages

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