While a router that includes firewall functions will give better
protection than one that does not, it typically won't be quite as good as a
full-blown firewall.
  The combination with ZA *should* give you good coverage against purely
external threats.  (Note that each *can* be configured to provide no
protection at all!)  SpyBot S&D and AdAware should give good coverage
against things that piggyback in on legitimate use and then attempt to
tunnel their way out.
  Each of these only provides as good protection as the vendors knew to
detect and you've configured to check for.  A newly-created hacking tool
might not be in the repertoire of any of them, and so waltz right past them.

  Also, none of these tools offers you any protection from someone who has
physical access to the machine -- a houseguest who needs to check their
email, or a burglar who walks off with the whole machine.  Measures which
protect strongly against one threat may provide less protection -- or none
at all! -- against another.

  I would say that if you're going to store that information on your
machine, the more layers of protection, the better.

David Gillett


On 30 Jul 2004 at 16:55, a fennell wrote:

> David, I have a Linksys router firewall and Zone Alarm (as well as
> SpyBot S&D & AdAware, neither of which has found anything since I
> started running SpyWareBlaster.  Are you saying I SHOULD still
> password information that could be used to steal identity or money?
> -Ann Fennell
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Gillett
>
>   Firewalls are devices/programs that apply a filtering policy to network
> traffic, and come in two main forms:
>
> 1.  Network Firewall - a device (could be a computer running specialized
> software) inserted into the network to monitor and filter traffic; often
> also serves as a router.  The software could be free if it's Linux plus some
> utilities; a fully assembled solution can run anywhere from $200 to $20K
> depending on capabilities.
>
> 2.  Host ("Personal") Firewall - a program running on and protecting a
> single machine.  Black Ice and Zone Alarm are both examples of this class of
> firewall; the firewall included in Norton's "Internet Security" started life
> as a shareware program "AtGuard" which is also in this class.
>
>   Note that if your only firewall is a host firewall, configured to show
> "attack attempts", you're going to see some because there is malicious or
> inappropriate traffic on the Internet all the time.
>   This should not worry you -- these programs are showing you stuff they're
> blocking.  It's the stuff they DON'T block, usually because they don't
> recognize it as an attack, that is the problem....
>
>   (Ideally, a given network should be protected by BOTH kinds of firewall,
> in which case the host firewall should only be seeing (a) attacks that
> originate on the local network, and (b) stuff that is somehow able to make
> it past the network firewall.)
>
>   A few final comments:  A firewall implements a policy, so simply having
> one isn't good enough -- you need a good policy.  Generally, the products
> intended for home use provide a pretty good policy by default, although some
> versions of Black Ice have been lacking in this area.  A host firewall has
> access to some information about what the user is doing which allows it to
> adapt a bit in ways that a network firewall can't.   -David Gillett
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > At 12:44 PM 7/27/2004, you wrote:
> > >Additional question - follow up - IF a hacker got access to my PC remotely
> > >(how would he do this?) could he also access my CD drive and my second
> > >hard drive as well as my C: drive??   If I could safely keep sensitive
> > >identity/credit things on these without zipping/passwording them, it would
> > >be great.   Thanks,  Ann Fennell
>
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