Do I need software firewall with a hardware firewall?
Discussion
As long as youre hardware firewall is properly set up then I would have though you'd be ok, but you can never be too sure...
Your ZoneAlarm problem is a setting thing. By default the firewall blocks everything. Go to the zones section and enter the IP address range of your PC's into a trusted zones. This will allow the whole file copying thing to work fine.
Your ZoneAlarm problem is a setting thing. By default the firewall blocks everything. Go to the zones section and enter the IP address range of your PC's into a trusted zones. This will allow the whole file copying thing to work fine.
warmfuzzies said:
I say you do, Hardware might stop intrusions, but if you have something on your PC wanting to get out, then the software should assist, that's why I have both.
Belt and Braces
kevin
Thats true enough, I was just coming from the point of view that average joe bloggs tends to just click OK on everything anyway, either that or spends all night in chat rooms asking if its OK for realplayer.exe to access the internet
Belt and Braces can be a good thing ......
However I would use zone alarm to audit what is coming through your ADSL router.
It is worth comparing the results with the hardware firewall on and off - your zone alarm log will certainly show a huge difference.
You should be able to get your LAN working with zone alarm, but if you are sure the hardware firewall is configured properly and working, then I don't see any problem with turning zone alarm off.
Be aware that a firewall will have no effect on virus's, so you still need to have update protection on your PC.
However I would use zone alarm to audit what is coming through your ADSL router.
It is worth comparing the results with the hardware firewall on and off - your zone alarm log will certainly show a huge difference.
You should be able to get your LAN working with zone alarm, but if you are sure the hardware firewall is configured properly and working, then I don't see any problem with turning zone alarm off.
Be aware that a firewall will have no effect on virus's, so you still need to have update protection on your PC.
guydw said:
Belt and Braces can be a good thing ......
However I would use zone alarm to audit what is coming through your ADSL router.
It is worth comparing the results with the hardware firewall on and off - your zone alarm log will certainly show a huge difference.
I consider this to be unlikely. Very little (no!) unwanted traffic generally makes it through NAT gateways - the originating host needs to be able source route packets through your NAT box into your RFC1918 space, and will never see the return packets because the hosts inside the NAT scheme won't know where to send them. What you have to worry about is attacks on servers that are specifically allowed through the firewall - dictionary attacks on SSH seems to be the flavour of the month.
(Mind you, I run an external firewall *and* have the Windows XP firewall switched on, nonetheless!)
>> Edited by zumbruk on Monday 23 January 11:26
aldi said:
Nah, you don't need ZoneAlarm if you're allready behind a router. I'd use a software firewall if you go to another public access point/cafe though.
Just to be pedantic and to avert problems through misunderstandings, please note that a router doesn't necessarily have a built-in firewall, although some do.
I agree with what you say Zumbruk, however if you connect a PC to the internet using broadband, and just use Zonealarm, the ZA logs will show up LOTS of possible exploits (not all relevant I agree). Once you turn on your hardware firewall, pretty much all of the log entries should dissapear. I'd say based on this is how you can decide how far you trust the firewall on the ADSL router.
To be honest, in a corporate environment, you don't tend to put software firewalls onto services, as a proper firewall will do its job properly (if configured correctly). You can sometimes use two flavours of firewalls, but this is a second layer, and isn't supposed to stop traffic that gets through the first layer.
Netscreen and Cisco both do home versions of enterprise stand firewalls that can be had on ebay for a reasonable price.
>> Edited by guydw on Monday 23 January 16:09
To be honest, in a corporate environment, you don't tend to put software firewalls onto services, as a proper firewall will do its job properly (if configured correctly). You can sometimes use two flavours of firewalls, but this is a second layer, and isn't supposed to stop traffic that gets through the first layer.
Netscreen and Cisco both do home versions of enterprise stand firewalls that can be had on ebay for a reasonable price.
>> Edited by guydw on Monday 23 January 16:09
pdV6 said:
Nah, you don't need ZoneAlarm if you're allready behind a router. I'd use a software firewall if you go to another public access point/cafe though.
Just to be pedantic and to avert problems through misunderstandings, please note that a router doesn't necessarily have a built-in firewall, although some do.
We're talking about broadband DNAT devices here, which to all intents and purposes are an incomming firewall weather they say so on the box or not. Allthough I do agree in that some but not all allow you to control outbound traffic as well.
The tasty bit in Zonaalarm is the application level firewall, but I contend that it's of very limited use to an average non-technical user and more likley to cause problems through misconfiguration than it is to help you by letting you know that you've just been infected.
john_p said:
I wouldn't bother.
Fair enough if you trust the anti-spyware etc to protect you all the time, personally I don't think any protection will ever be 100% perfect. I prefer to install ZA and teach it to permit the network applications that are installed at the time, and leave instructions not to approve any other outgoing connections unless a new program is being installed/used for the first time and you're really really sure that you trust it.
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