Is my firewall really working?

ZA free edition

[eljefe3]

I was just playing around with anonymizer's free snoop tools and it appears that my firewall isn't doing too good of a job. The tools were able to identify all my win.ini files as well as a bunch of other stuff (cookies, clipboard etc.). Isn't my firewall supposed to block all of this?

[Mardi_Gras]

Absolutely. Have you tried going to the Gibson Research site :

[grc.com...]

That's the URL to the "Shields Up" section of the site, where you can test your firewall. Lots of other security-related information.

Let me know what your "port probe" shows. Sounds like whatever you are using now is not working, though.

[Mardi_Gras]

And don't post your IP address anywhere around here for a while ;)

<added> Just went to the anonymizer site. Everything it pulled from my machine is just standard stuff - cookie retrieval, browser/OS, clipboard - no win.ini files.</added>

[Big_Balou]

eljefe3, what do you have the securtity levels set at?

I use dial up through a proxy server so for the most part I use a medium setting except when in "not so nice" communities and have no problems.

Using the tools at anonymizer and shields up neither could pull anything but basic stuff unless I went to low for security using the free ZA3.

[jatar_k]

I use zonealarm pro and after a few serious attempts it has been exceptionally reliable.

I set my internet security level to high, seems to work well.

The anonymizer couldn't get at anything important.

<added>That sheilds up thing gave me the full pass as well

[msgraph]

scan.sygate.com has a wealth of free scans too.

[eljefe3]

Ok thanks everyone. I did the grc test again (did it about 6 months ago) and the shields up and port probe came back fine. Also tried the sygate site and everything comes up fine. I'm still curious as to how my win.ini file showed up using those anonymizer tools. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.