Do I trust XP's firewall or install another?

[steve]

I'm about to install XP Pro SP2 on my laptop. Up until now I've used W2K Pro with ZoneAlarm.

At work I'm behind a hardware firewall, but at home and out and about I rely on the s/w one on my laptop.

As I see it I have 4 options:

1) Use XP's firewall
2) Disable XP's and install ZoneAlarm
3) Use both
4) Install another suppliers firewall

Which is going to be the most secure?

Am I right in assuming most hackers spend their time trying to find ways past MS offering?

[steve]

Done a bit of searching found the answer here: [webmasterworld.com ]

Looks like ZoneAlarm wins the day.

[walesrob]

If your talking about a personal firewall here, then I would say the Windows Firewall does the job. Look at it this way - a hacker ain't interested in your personal documents or spreadsheets, he's after the big fish. My computer contains stuff that would probably not interest anyone but myself.
If however your pc contains critical data, yeah by all means secure it with a better firewall, but otherwise, its a waste of time.

[Woz]

I prefer third party firewalls myself, if you know what I mean. :)

I was researching firewalls a while ago having used Tiny Personal Firewall for some time and wondering whether I needed to upgrade or not. I was pleasantly surprised to find the TPF was considered the best at the time, so I have stuck with it since with no complaints. The free version is still available if you have a hunt around, or the current commercial versions now trade under the name of Kerio.

Onya
Woz

[steve]

If your talking about a personal firewall here, then I would say the Windows Firewall does the job

From what I've read the Windows firewall, only works in one direction, to prevent people getting in. While ZoneAlarm also stops programs sending information to the internet, which would stop keyloggers etc.

[iconpomona]

Here is something that people might like.There is a program out there called deepfeeze, which when installed you can freeze up/lock the data on your system so that when viruses come in and do there work, all you have to do is turn off your system and restart it....the virus is gone and everthing works like it did before because deep freeze prevents writing to the hdd, unless you unlock it, and for hackers...good luck at trying to break the program because its virtually impossible....thought id tell you folks that..take care

[Alioc]

Great one. Thanks.