Question about Firewall

[whoisurdaddy 0]

I have a question. Is Firewall necessary for home users? From what I've been told, you install Firewall for security reason like to keep someone from hacking into your system. I think that a hacker is more likely to hack into some computers in a corporation or something than into a home user. So is it really necessary to install Firewall on home computers? Is there any other benefits to Firewall than the one I listed above?

[Igor 0]

Nope. Firewall is what it say in the name. A wall against outside intruders.

It slows the network a bit because it scans packets and some programs or firewall need special confing so they (programs) can work properly. (Ex, Internet games, ICQ.. etc)

If you don't have anything important on ya system then a regulay back up is better then firewall

Even firewall doesn't protect against HD failure.

[Bursar 0]

If you just have a dial-up connection to the net, I wouldn't bother a firewall.

 

If you have a permenant connection (Cable, DSL and so-on), then I would suggest one.

 

The main reason is that with a dial-up you are likely to get a different IP address each time you connect. An always-on connection is likely to leave you with the same number for a long period of time. Your machine is then more likely to become a target.

 

If you're good about anti-virus updates on your PC, then you probably won't have anything to worry about with remote control programs like BackOrifice.

 

What you will have to worry about a little bit more is denial of service attacks where your computer is just flodded with packets.

 

Free firewalls like ZoneAlarm don't affect performance much, and when an application tries to access the Internet, it asks you if it is allowed to. You say Yes to stuff like IE and Outlook, and No to applications you don't want to get out.

 

Games are the same. As soon as it tries to connect, ZoneAlarm stops it, asks if it is allowed to, and then carries on when you click Yes.

 

Backups are all very well, but if you have something like BO on your machine, then restoring the drives will also restore BO.

[nagual 0]

actually a proxy is quite enough if u use www.openbsd.org, on second thought id trust it a lot more than those proggies like blackice, norton personal fw, or zonealarm, but on the other hand it requires another comp w. 2 nic`s