firewall for xp?

is there a better free firewall for XP besides the one that comes with the OS?

i see no way to monitor c:\windows\pfirewall.log!

much prefer a free firewall i can monitor in realtime and it would rotate my logs.


scarecrow

I like Zone Alarm personally. There's lot's of them out there BlackIce, etc (most aren't free) -- but Zone Alarm always worked well for me.

I have used Norton in the past. I like it. Now I have a hardware firewall. There are ways to "purchase" said programs. All one needs to do is look.

I've never used a firewall with a windows box. I'm just very careful about what I run, don't install 99% of the spyware/exploitable crap that most people have on their systems, and I've never had a problem in 11 years on the net.

My Linux box, however, now that's a different story

I followed the same method for almost two years without both a firewall or virus scan. When I did finally get both and ran Adaware, I hadn't picked up a single virus or spyware/adware program even though I recognized I was being emailed at least a half dozen virii a week at one point using the same methods you described.

The odds of you not picking something up in 2 years is slim to none.. Consider you self REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky. The thing is that "usually" it's not what you download. It's what you DON'T know you downloaded. I have seen some REALLY good people put viruses on there sites that download directly to you system without so much as even a download dialog. There are many ways to force people into downloading things that they don't want. Sure, you can do pretty good by being super careful about what you are doing and what you download but it's just too much work and worry.

I do agree with Zone Alarm for a firewall.. Great program..

I do run an anti-virus, and always have, and made sure to keep the definitions as up-to-date as possible, but I've never felt the need for a firewall on a Windows box. But then, I never keep anything THAT sensitive/important on my windows box. If it needs to be secure, it goes on my Linux box, or gets burned to CD (if the CD isn't in a CD-Rom drive, nobody can access it - the ultimate firewall, lol)...

If it's work, it's backed up daily either onto a CD or onto my Linux box.

It's not really that much work and worry to not get infected by simply using common sense - it's much harder (for me at least) to be neglectful and let those dialog boxes trick me into thinking I need to click on "Yes" and allow them to do anything they want to my system.

Yes, as Heart pointed out, there have been (are?) exploits in versions of Internet Explorer, and other applications which allow exploits to do certain things to your system without your knowledge, and without any dialog boxes popping up. In this case, I simply restore from my Norton Ghost images that I created when I set the PC up, restore my work from the latest CD or Linux box backup, and do the Windows Update thing (usually, if an exploit is this big of a deal, it's patched within a few days).

As I stated, I've never ran a firewall on a windows box as a standard practice, although I have tried a few out just to see how they operate. I've found that almost all of them have slowed down the speed at which I can do things on the net, and having ZoneAlarm pop up a box for pretty much every byte that's sent and received through my NIC really cuts into my productivity - although, people who've had more experience with it than I say it works pretty well (although most of them don't know HOW it works, or WHY it works - so I don't know how they can claim that).

Personally, I just found it more of an annoyance and would rather go with a Linux box with IPChains/IPMasq/Forwarding and 2 NIC's

I'll be the first to agree with you Heart, I was really, really lucky. I don't recommend my approach to anyone. Especially novices. I think the thing that didn't bother me was that I had no qualms about wiping my system and starting from scratch, since all my important files are stored elsewhere where they were protected. I wouldn't recommend it, but I do think people with anti-virus and firewalls, could enhance their protection by following similar good practices.

Okay so I know I sound like a broken record with this - personally speaking I run XP - and use only ZoneAlarm.

There are also good security tips and progs here:
http://www.grc.com/default.htm (home of ZoneAlarm)

And here is somewhere you can safely test your computers security & current firewall:
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2