Got XP SP2 shall I now uninstall ZoneAlarm

SP2 comes with a software firewall, is ZoneAlarm still needed, as in, is it any better?

 

No the windows Firewall is still pretty poor, it doesnt stealth all ports, nor the DCOM service. It doesnt block outgoing data at all. Stay withy ZA its a millino times better

 

Which Windows firewall are you using?

Because besides Microsoft apps, I am asked if I want to allow my apps to have access to the internet.

 

Don't do it. The XP firewall upgrade is nowhere near ZA, or even Norton, for that matter.

 

Go to http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm and use their "leaktest" Firewall tester. Also Sygate ahve a similar app on their site, as does the Zonelabs site. It appears to fail the blocking outgoing data tests, application hijack tests, and the DLL run ans an app outgiong test.

Ill have more info when i get home. At work at present.

 

the worst kind of security is a false sense of security.

 

I'm pretty sure the new firewall in SP2 does block outgoing data...I wouldn't recommend using it over ZA, but it has improved. I still don't trust any new MS junk.

 

I tried the above test.

Its not blocking jack squat.

Thinking back I was playing Far Cry online and the SP2 firewall prompted me (in RC2).

Thing is, I never allowed Far Cry access, yet, it did anyway.

Not that I care, I just assume not have outgoing access blocked on my machines.

 

That figures...like I said, I don't trust anything by MS unless somebody else shovels through the crap first and MS gets about 6 months of production use and fixes the bugs.

Speaking of outgoing access being blocked, I'm gonna post another thread about a trojan that I had on another system.