A firewall filters network traffic according to a set of rules. (Most
modern software firewalls come with a pretty good default rule set, and/or
are smart about learning the rules you need as they go along (or both).)
Firewall coverage is definitely more important for a machine on an "always
on" connection (DSL, broadband, etc) than dial-up, simply because your
dialup connection is only active for a fraction fo the time. But recent
articles report that an unsecured Windows PC may get successfully attacked
in as little as 15-20 minutes on-line, and the Internet shows no sign of
getting much safer anytime soon.
If your ISP (a) owned the PC, and (b) was taking steps in their network to
firewall your traffic, then it might be appropriate for them to instruct you
not to install one. Since neither of these is likely to be true, I would
assume that their advice is based on time wasted trouble-shooting "not
working" connections, only to discover that the connection was fine and just
a misconfigured firewsll was blocking traffic. The recommendation is in
their interest, not yours.
There's a free version of Zone Alarm which is a pretty good place to
start.
David Gillett
On 6 Sep 2004 at 0:21, Cameron wrote:
> I would like input on whether or not I need to install a firewall. I have
> been told "No" by my ISP, a small local telephone company, but everything
> I've read seems to say "Yes".
>
> I live in a rural area with old phone lines capable of handling only about
> 33.6 dialup connection , even though I have a 56K modem. I have an OLD
> (Ancient) computer that is slower than molasses (200mhz), with 32MB RAM.
> I'm running Win98SE.
>
> Your opinions, and the reasons behind them, please. If you think I need to
> install one, can you recommend a free program that would serve my purpose?
>
> Thanks any and all.
> Mary Cameron
> Henning, MN
> [log in to unmask]
>
> PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download
> visit our download web page at:
> http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml
PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download
visit our download web page at:
http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml
|
