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I use Agnitum's Outpost and have never had a problem with it, until I upgraded it. The new version of Outpost has a problem with windows 98. I had to uninstall the new version and wait for Agnitum to send me a link by email to get the old version back. Looking at the Outpost forum, I saw several others had the same problem as me with the new version not working with windows 98. So beware of Outpost if your running windows 98.
Been quite awhile since i've looked at this thread. I have to say, i don't care to rant as long as some do regarding an opinion. But i have to say, i discovered very quickly when first getting involved with computers back in 97'( no,,i am not an ol' DOS monkey:p ),i was too busy running my rig across the US and parts of Canada to get involved with these boxes. But,,i digress,,,when i finally decided to find out what it was all about because of disability, it didn't take long to discover the need for protection on the net.
After looking at several firewalls for my Win95,98FE and then 98SE OS's, i found Zone Alarm. It was the 2.6v that garnered my interest because of all the action it blocked. Now that i have cable and a router with NAT, good ol' ZA has very little to do. Every time i go to Steve Gibsons site and shut down the NAT, all the ports checked show "stealth". I also use his "call home" test occasionally and ZA blocks it every time.
As far as uninstalling,yes,i had problems the first time i tried. Didn't take me long to figure out that a program that has to integrate itself so solidly into your system to do what it has to is not a simple add-remove situation. As others have said,i went to ZA's site and printed-out the uninstall instructions and it took very little time to do the next time.
IMHO, bottom line is: to each their own. But when someone asks for my opinion on what's a good program, i'm going to give them the best one i know of from experience. I would not want someone suggesting i use a program when they have little or no personal experience with it. And if i wasn't sure of something as important as system security,, i'd keep my mouth shut and try to learn from those who do know...:)
best free personal firewall comes with a router ... no questions hands down
on my dmz'd machine ive run tiny/bi/za/internet guarddog
all were fine
and yes you can run 2 at the same time ... i ran tiny and black ice for over a year
currently i am running zone alarm on the dmz'd machine because its free and i didnt feel like setting tiny up (even tho the footprint is about a 1/4 of the size)
inho the only good thing about a firewall is monitoring outbound traffic
i would imagine so ... you effective have no computers connect to the net after you do this ... gibson was probing your router at that timeQuote:
Originally posted by Ridgerunr
shut down the NAT, all the ports checked show "stealth".
you dont need a firewall if you behind a router because the router serves as a firewall
only time you need a firewall is if you set a computer into a dmz or want to monitor the outboud traffic
just my 2C
Perhaps i wasn't clear? The NAT makes you invisible to the internet. So,,it looks like your "stealthed" at GRC if your router is running. "false positive". To involve your firewall in the test,you should remove the router from the line. also, be aware the NAT only makes you "seem" to be invisible. You can be random pinged and possibly entered if running a NAT. And to me, a basic function of a "good" firewall is to stop traffic both ways and notify you. NAT is a good "daisy" in the "chain",but not a reliable firewall as such...:)
IMHO ZA is about the best. I have given up on BI.