|
||
 |
||
|
| Fight Fire With Firewalls |
 Email This
 Print ThisView My Personal Library |
|
Reviews February 2005 • Vol.16 Issue 2 Page(s) 21-23 in print issue |
Fight Fire With Firewalls Firewalls Keep Data Secure & Intruders Out | ||
Jump to first occurrence of: [NORTON] [INTERNET] [SECURITY] [2005]
Personal firewalls are programs, hardware devices, or a combination of the two components, that are used to protect Internet-connected PCs from crackers. Good firewall software is like the vigilant border control guard: It alerts you to attempted intrusions and keeps out unwanted visitors. And it's especially important to employ your own "border patrol" if you use a broadband connection to go online because these always-on connections are especially vulnerable to crackers. There are several high-quality programs out there just waiting for you to install them; here's a look at three such solutions.  How We Tested We narrowed a list of about a dozen fee-based programs to ones geared toward the home user, home office, or small business. (For details about free firewalls, see our "Firewall Freeware" sidebar.) We installed each program on a Windows XP Home PC with a 1.28GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor, 128MB of RAM, and 60GB of free hard drive space. This PC met the minimum system requirements of each program we tested, was not connected to a home network, and was running both antivirus and antispyware applications. Before each installation, we disabled WinXP's Windows Firewall, which WinXP SP2 (Service Pack 2) turns on by default. Also, even though several firewalls list Internet Explorer in their system requirements, we didn't use IE as our primary Web browser and still received comprehensive protection. We considered many criteria in evaluating each program, including ease of installation, ease of use, provided protection, the quality of alerts, and additional features. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus $39.99 download and annual subscription ($49.99 for package, includes one-year extended download service) (801) 772-1891 http://us.mcafee.com Scorecard Performance: 4.5 Ease Of Use: 4 Installation: 5 Documentation: 4 Price: 4 Overall Score:4.3/5  As one of the top companies in home PC security, McAfee probably is best known for its antivirus software. Given the excellence of Personal Firewall Plus, we predict the firewall software will soon give VirusScan some competition for that distinction. Personal Firewall Plus is designed for home or home office users who access the Internet via dial-up or broadband connections. The 5.84MB file took two minutes to download from the Web via our DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection, and it installed just as quickly. After installation, the program runs in the background, and you don't need to launch it to know that it is working. The software includes an easy-to-understand McAfee SecurityCenter interface that lets you view a nontechnical summary of the firewall's activity, take a look at a list of applications the firewall blocks or allows, access a detailed event log, review the software's configurations, test your firewall for vulnerability, and trace the origin of a suspected attack. When Personal Firewall Plus detects a possible attack, either in the form of a program on your PC requesting online access or an Internet program requesting access to your PC, it sends a small alert containing details in a pop-up dialog box. Via this alert, you can choose to grant or block access or learn more about the application through HackerWatch.org (http://www.hackerwatch.org), a McAfee-affiliated site. As with most firewall products, Personal Firewall Plus requires a bit of training at first. For instance, we had to instruct it to accept a cookie from the Smart Computing site and let several of our applications, including the Mozilla Firefox browser and a competitor's antivirus app, connect to the Internet. But the training is quick and easy. Behind the scenes, Personal Firewall Plus uses a mixture of firewall technologies. Like most firewalls, it uses packet filtering to examine the headers of incoming and outgoing IP (Internet Protocol) packets (small chunks of data). It also performs what it refers to as "firewall by application," where it considers the data within the packets. Norton Personal Firewall 2005 $49.95 annual subscription ($59.90 for backup CD, includes one-year extended download service) Symantec (888) 366-5432; (408) 517-8000 http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/npf Scorecard Performance: 5 Ease Of Use: 4.5 Installation: 4.5 Documentation: 4 Price: 4 Overall Score: 4.4/5  Another top company in home PC security is Symantec, the manufacturer of the popular Norton line of security software. Although you can purchase all of the home user products—including antivirus, antispam, and firewall software—in one suite, the Norton Personal Firewall 2005 also is available as a standalone product. The software weighs in at 20.54MB and took about 10 minutes to install and activate on our test computer, a noticeably longer amount of time compared to the other two programs we cover in this article but still perfectly acceptable. And it was well worth it. Norton Personal Firewall 2005 offers comprehensive ingoing and outgoing protection. The software's intrusion prevention technology monitors known attackers, such as Blaster and Sasser, and automatically blocks such attacks once the software detects their signatures. The LiveUpdate feature ensures these protections are up-to-date, and the ad-blocking feature keeps banner ads, pop-up ads, and other unwanted Web intrusions from your display. In the other direction, Norton Personal Firewall 2005 protects a wide range of outgoing traffic. It keeps confidential information from being unknowingly transmitted through email, prevents you from sending confidential data to untrusted sites, and notifies you when your PC joins new or different wireless networks. One aspect we're particularly impressed with is the feature that automatically turns the firewall back on after a set period of time, so that if you need to turn the firewall off temporarily, you won't be without protection indefinitely. We'd like to see more details when the software sends an alert (at first we blocked some useful apps because we didn't recognize file names and couldn't find revealing details through the alert), but we're glad the 2005 version eliminated the feature that sends an alert when you send personal details to a site you've already designated as trusted. On the back end, Norton Personal Firewall 2005 relies upon a hybrid of firewall technologies, says product manager Kraig Lane. In basic terms, these include packet filtering, inspecting IP headers, inspecting the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) handshaking process, and application gateway screening of information contained within packets. ZoneAlarm Pro 5 $49.95 (one year of updates) Zone Labs (877) 966-5221; (415) 633-4500 http://www.zonelabs.com Scorecard Performance: 4 Ease Of Use: 4.5 Installation: 5 Documentation: 4.5 Price: 4 Overall Score: 4.4/5  You may not be as familiar with Zone Labs as you are with the other two companies we've covered, but don't let that stop you from considering ZoneAlarm Pro. It's a powerful and effective program, all wrapped up in an extremely user-friendly package. We downloaded and installed the 9.44MB program in less than three minutes with the help of the welcoming setup wizard and tutorial. The wizard and tutorial let you customize several features, including Privacy Control (which helps you manage Web site elements, such as blocking cookies and pop-up ads) and Cache Cleaner (which empties out your browser's temporary files), and then explains ZoneAlarm Pro's four lines of defense: firewall protection, program control, privacy protection, and identity protection. When we first launched ZoneAlarm Pro, it took an inventory of our system and asked us about a few programs requesting Internet access, including Mozilla and our videoconferencing software. We were able to view helpful details through the alerts and, unlike the other programs we reviewed, ZoneAlarm Pro recognized a competitor's antivirus software and gave us information on its status rather than recommending that we block it. Along with protecting our applications' outgoing connections, ZoneAlarm Pro monitors outbound email for potential viruses and quarantines suspicious incoming email attachments. On the external side, ZoneAlarm Pro tracks and blocks cracker attempts and lets you report them to the appropriate ISPs (Internet service providers) anonymously. The firewall examines IP packets and allows or denies access based on the IP address, the source of the port numbers, and the flags and header options within the packets. The Best Of The Best It was Delmore Schwartz who said, "Even paranoids have real enemies," and when it comes to PC security, it's difficult to be too paranoid. These days, no Internet-connected PC should be without a firewall, and we can heartily recommend each of the three programs we reviewed. You can't beat ZoneAlarm Pro for its user-friendly and straightforward approach, and McAfee Personal Firewall Plus' detailed alert system is at the top of the class. And even though Norton Personal Firewall has the same overall score as ZoneAlarm Pro, we think that Norton Personal Firewall combines superior technology with terrific features, which gives it a slight edge, and that's why we're awarding it this month's Smart Choice award.  by Heidi V. Anderson
|
|
Home Copyright & Legal Information Privacy Policy Site Map Contact Us