This site has been briefly mentioned on odd threads in the past but I'll toss it onto the forum again for anybody who might have missed it.

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

ZoneAlarm blocked everything :thumbsup:

BTW, I wonder if the Steve Gibson of GRC is the same person as Steve Gibson of RetouchPro?

I've run the shields up test with both Norton and Tiny firewalls and they performed well but have no experience of ZoneAlarm or the Black Ice programs. Black Ice got a very good report in our computer press recently.

I'm using Sygate Personal Firewall (http://soho.sygate.com/products/shield_ov.htm) (freeware) and this is what it said on my reports after testing:

"YOUR computer has DELIBERATELY CHOSEN NOT TO RESPOND (that's very cool!) which represents advanced computer and port stealthing capabilities."

"All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.)"

The port probe listed my status as STEALTH in all categories, and said, "There is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that a port (or even any computer) exists at this IP address!"

Well that's 2 happy customers ! I think I must have been lucky J I've been using the net for years without a firewall only started using the Tiny one a few months ago.

Chris - I checked this out the first time you mentioned it and was pleased to discover that my network router was providing "stealth" protection in all categories. I sent the website to my father though and his computer failed miserably. So, he's now setup a network router and is a very happy camper!
Thanks! :)
Jeanie

J,

Good Good Good ! Shortly after setting up Norton E mail protection our ISP's membership was bombarded by malicious e-mail attachments the program did a good job of killing them. I run Norton in parallel with the Tiny firewall and between them they do a good job. Thats it I'm off to the pub !!

Though I've had Zone Alarm running since I got DSL about a year ago, running the check against it and getting "ya done good" results was especially reassuring.

Another "Thumbs up" from me, Chris.

Thanks much...

~DannyR~

I've tried that test before on Tiny personal firewall, and it worked great.

- David

Here's another testing site with what seems to more comprehensive security tests than the GRC one posted at the start of the thread.

http://scan.sygate.com/

Thanks for the links Chris.

The first link told me I was safe, and the second one told me I had some open ports.

What to do.

I use an iMac, OS 9.2, connected via DSL.

I was lead to believe that the Mac OS had a built in firewall.

Do any of the Mac gurus know it this is true. If not, what do you use for protection?

Thanks, Margaret

Heres a series of checks aimed specifically at Internet Explorer....



http://browsercheck.qualys.com

I've run this check on my computer a number of times over the past year -- with and without using my Zone Alarm firewall -- it's totally STEALTH with Zone Alarm and at risk when there's no firewall.

I never had any problems during all those years when I didn't use a firewall (or even know what a firewall was), but I'm betting that the net is a LOT more dangerous now than a few years ago. A lot of malicious folks out there just thirsting for a vulnerable computer :bandit:

Looks like my norton firewall is not doing it's job properly. The scans found ports open :bawling: Looks like I'm going to have to look at the security of my system.

I tried the test in "stealth" mode and Tiny Personal firewall blocked everything! I'm really impressed, considering that it's a free program.

- David :)

I did the tests and found that after a re-install of 2K I'd forgot to upgrade from IE5 to 6. I installed 6 and added the suggested patch and all seems well.

I received the same "Stealth" results as JAK, but I'm not using any second party software, only Windows XP's firewall. I'm happy with that!

I use Black Ice - it blocks everything (sometimes too well :) )

Vikki, I use the native firewall in XP but on the 2K side of my dual boot setup I use the Tiny firewall which has saved my bacon a couple of times. I've only seriously started using firewalls in the past few months.

Just updated my security settings now I'm happy with the results. Full stealth, great :) thanks for posting this thread, it' woke me out of my complacency.

:bawling: :bawling: I though I should reopen this thread to warn others.
On Saturday my hard drive began to act strangely. Not allowing me to save to it or print from it. So I shut the computer down and restarted, upon restarting I wasn't able to get back in, the only way in was through safe mode. I tried backing up some of the data to floppy disks but that didn't work. Even though it said the files were saved they were not.
So I took the computer to a repairer. After looking at what was going on the repairer said he was sure I had been hacked , in my control panel my systems icon was gone. Apparently some of my hardware settings had been changed and every way he tried to reset them was being blocked. I told him I was running both virus software and a firewall. With the firewall set on paranoid I though hackers would have been blocked. He asked how old the software was and when I said about 18months he said that was my problem, apparently hackers can find a "work around" for most firewalls and anti virus software and I should have replaced (not updated). Personally I can't see what is wrong with updates but the repairer insisted that I needed to buy new software at least yearly. Has anybody else heard of this?
Now I don't know what to do if I have to get a new firewall and virus software I'm not sure what to get.

Sorry to hear about your problems Sanda. In cases like this, I usually have an old harddisk with a minimal operating system on it which I use to boot the system. I can then use it to store data from the infected disk (or to access a cd-writer) and even kill viruses. Once I've removed everything I want, I can reformat the bad disk or kill the windows directory and support files.

What firewall software are you using Sanda? I'm pretty happy with ZoneAlarm, which is free and it informs you when a new upgrade is available.

I've been using Norton for both the virus software and the firewall but since the disaster I'm running black ice but it's annoying the life out of me trying to get it set up the way I want it. I think I might try Zone Alarm and see if I like that any better.
Norton was preventing me using the mail washer program so maybe with a different firewall I can use that program. I get a terrible lot of junk mail sent to me.

I think there may be some truth to the comment about updates to the virus software not doing everything - but you should not have to buy totally new software.

Some virus packs have TWO update features - on is the virus definitions file, the other may be the virus softwares scanning engine...which may not be updated as often as definition files.

I have tried, use and like the freeware 'Tiny Personal Firewall' from tiny software for PC, which was mentioned earlier in this thread (but have not tried others).

Stephen Marsh.