A little puzzled

[Redfield]

My friend said 2 me it aint worth having a firewall if u use a 56k dial up connection..but i dunno weather 2 belive him or not..i guess its safe to have one anyhow but is this true?..56k owners dont really need firewalls?..i know its vital 2 have a firewall if ur on broadband or cable...but i have a 56k connection and i dont have a firewall do u guys think i should d/l 1? if so where do i get 1 from zonealarm i herd is good but i dont no where to get it from..anyhow get back people

[SomeUserGuy]

i used to have one for 56k, but then it wasn't necessary since i was online for no more than a half hour.

[Sephires]

Some poeple seem that think that it's not neccisary because you ip is supposedly different everytime you log on. But in my case that isn't so. But I don't use one anyway. To me firewalls are just for over-cahsous people who worry to much. Most of the time when some ones computer is hacked into it's because the pissed off the wronge person.

[Laguna]

Do dynamic IPs "prevent" chances of hacking? I've seen quite a few web-sites that refute that statement, and I really don't know enough about computers to make a reputable statement regarding that.

People with high-speed access (DSL, ADSL, etc.) tend to leave their internet connections going longer than 56kers, and that's where the potential "danger" lies. Some people with high-speed access leave it going for 24 hr.

[grantu2]

i'm on 56k but currently I don't use a personal firewall just the default one in my xp o/s.

For 56kers it's an iffy question as to wheter to use a firewall or not. If you frequent non-reputable warez, hack, irc sites I would use a firewall if your just a ordinary user I would care to use a firewall, if someone is trying to hack you system it would be a pain to do somethings with a person who can only upload at speeds up to 3.6kbps. Another thing if your into any online gamming it good to run a firewall to keep people from pining you that way you get the best ping connection while playing online games.

As far as a dynamic ip helping prevent hackers; to put it simply yes it sorta does. But like I said if you frequent "bad" sites then your ip is being recorded or scanned anyhow every time you visit some sites.

Firewalls mainly keep out local network scanners out, things I use to do because I thought it was "fun" to get different ip's I could use to "visit" some sites I didn't trust.

[SomeUserGuy]

Originally posted by Laguna
People with high-speed access (DSL, ADSL, etc.) tend to leave their internet connections going longer than 56kers, and that's where the potential "danger" lies. Some people with high-speed access leave it going for 24 hr.

yea, and it's cool to see yourself being online for 7 days.

[Magus]

Regardless of the benefits, 40% of all PC owners (oblivious consumers or not) do not use a firewall. Many people do not know what it is and what it does. Hackers are not out to get you. That is just paranoia. Is it good to have a firewall: like grantu said, if you are an avid online gamer or you surf warez and IRC it would be a good idea.

[Mason]

Only 40%? I would've thought it'd be much higher, like 60 or 70. I guess the firewall companies are doing a good job of scaring consumers.

[gannondorf]

ok i will get some things straight about firewalls now :

1. it's not bad to have one running in background. it doesnt chew much memory or cpu on average system, and it doesnt take any bandwidth.

2. kiddie script attacks. lots of you are talking about "hackers", but you are actually thinking about lamers who are in posess of certain tools. example : DDoS attack. simple program can be downloaded off from hundreds of "security" sites. once downloaded, you just type your victim's IP adress, and the program attacks. if the machine of that IP is vunerable to DDoS attacks, it's system will crush down. firewalls prevent this (with maybe 95% efficiency), because they scan all the incoming and outgoing traffic on all software ports that are currently active on your internet connection. if someone wants to make port scan on your computer, he does it by typing your IP in certain program. if you dont have firewall running, his scan will be sucessfull, and he will know certain information about you (eg. if his program detects that port 21 is avaible for outgoing packets, he knows that you have FTP server on your comp). if you have firewall, once he tries to make port scanning on you, your firewall will detect him, and will block/ask/do nothing, depending on how you configure it. now you can ask yourself, why would anybody try to crush down my system with DDoS attack? simple. you once go to IRC/ICQ/other chat. attacker picks you up randomly, digs up your IP, and off he goes...

3. good for ad-ware programs. those are the ones that are "free", but show ads inside of them, like KaZaa. they can install "spyware" with them, applications that stay in backgrounds and send your personal info, they dig it out from your local hard drive, to their server. then it's owners know your potential interests and other stuff, so they can send you spam mail. firewalls can be configured to block this.

4. when you visit certain web site, if it has several scripts running on it, it can figure out certain data about you : your country, your isp, your computer name, your operating system&version, your internet browser&version, active background processes....and you dont know it. firewalls block this, so all information that websites get is your IP and hostmask, witch is useless (if you dont make some attacks on that site, in that case they can use it to report you to authorities)

5. dynamic IP-s dont prevent much damage, if someone has pinch against you. in this case i will be talking about real hacker, not "script kiddie". if he is trained and serious enough to murder your comp, he can break into your ISP's routers, where IP logs are kept, and he can get out your new one, that was assigned to you when you connected to the internet.

6. if someone is dying to get you, and he has knowledge, no firewall on planet earth is going to stop him.

7. permanent connections (as SL, cable, sattelite, WAN (T1,T3)), are in fact more liable than dial up connections (normal 56k and all other dun modems including ISDN), because your isp is surely running some proxy server on his level. hardware based proxy and firewall solutions are way better than software ones, but they cost much more. normal private user hardly needs them, but all ISPs have them. the thing is, DSL and cable and other types of fast 24/7 connections have better and faster infrastructure and they are limited to small area (like one part of the city), not like dial up (in some cases, whole state or country), so its easier to maintain the security issues.

conclussion of this horribly long post - firewalls are always good to put on, they can only prevent damage, and i would put it in your place, no matter what type of connection i had.

[Redfield]

Cheers alot of interesting thoughts there..still aint downloaded 1 yet tho lol.but gannondorf very good post tho alot of things i didnt no..maybe i will just stick a firewall on anyhow

[gannondorf]

glad you are accepting my ideas

[Redfield]

Hey gannondorf what do u thinks the best firewall then?..and do u have anylinks i can download one from? maybe zonealarm?

[violineb]

Does this mean I should get a fire wall? Would I know if someone is hacking my comp? I'm on 56k but might get DSL soon. IF I d/l roms all night I guess I should get one. Like he said which is best?

[gannondorf]

i personally use Sygate Network Firewall Pro. there are Sygate Personal Firewall, and Sygate Network Firewall, normal and "pro" versions. if your computer isnt part of network, get "personal" one, if it is, get "network" one. and you should try first the normal version, once you get it configurated, if you want more options then go for pro version.

both are avaible for download from http://www.sygate.com . they are trial versions, so you need to pay for registration. since forum rules permits me to give you straight download link for crack, i'll just say that you can find it anywhere, on every bigger cracks site.

[gannondorf]

and violineb, i just said all the facts about firewalls, so it's up to you to make the choice. yes, you'll know when somebody is attacking you, and you'll be able to block the attack with one click of the mouse.