Is windows 7 firewall good enough, compared to special programs ?

[mj2000]

Hi all.

There are some good free antiviruses like avast or avira.

Can i use them with windows 7 firewall together ?

Because i wonder to know if there is a much difference between it and the firewall of internet security programs.

How much good is this firewall ?

Thanks.

 

[ShamrockRig]

I would recommend AVAST!, running windows firewall on its own will never be enough, it is old and not very effective.

 

[LMiller7]

The Windows 7 firewall is quite good and unless you have special needs there should be no need for any other.

 

[ShamrockRig]

The Windows 7 firewall is quite good and unless you have special needs there should be no need for any other.

I disagree to a point, Windows firewall is fine if you a very careful and have a few on demand scanners not to mention also knowing what your doing.., The average user who just clicks on anything and installs all the goodies that come with programs will end up ridden with adware and virus's etc, a good solid AV is a good way to go, less hassle and more protection.

 

[LMiller7]

We need to be clear what is being discussed here, Windows firewall or an AV product.
My post was in regard to the Windows firewall only. Of course a good AV product is necessary but that is a different matter entirely.

 

[ShamrockRig]

Well thats an easy question.

Answer: Av product.

 

[DavidE]

Hi all.

There are some good free antiviruses like avast or avira.

Can i use them with windows 7 firewall together ?

Because i wonder to know if there is a much difference between it and the firewall of internet security programs.

How much good is this firewall ?

Thanks.

Avast and Avira work fine with Windows Firewall.
Some AV programs have issues with some 3rd party firewalls.
You could check the AV forum if you want to use a 3rd party firewall and see if people have issues.
If you have a Router that should have a built in firewall.

 

[mj2000]

Thanks for the replies.

And just want to mention that my question was only focused on windows 7 firewall and to know if its good enough or not.

 

[Jonguy30]

I use the Windows firewall only and I have no problems with it. I dumped my 3rd party firewall (Comodo) some time ago. But then again I don't visit that many sites and only download trusted software from trusted sites and only when I need them.

 

[LMiller7]

It bears emphasizing that a firewall and AV software are very different things. They serve complimentary functions and you need both.

The purpose of a firewall is to prevent unauthorized contact with your computer from an outside entity. It does this by examining the incoming data to determine if it is as a result of outside action or data that was requested by your computer software, such as the browser. It may also block access to the Internet by unauthorized processes. But the firewall has no interest in the data itself and has no means of determining if it is harmful or benign. Once a download has been initiated you are in exactly the same situation whether you have the ultimate firewall or none at all. It might be the most evil software imaginable but the hypothetical ultimate firewall will let it pass.

Once data has entered your computer it is the turn of the AV software which attempts to determine it's nature. But malicious software has become extremely sophisticated in later years and this determination is by no means foolproof.

The above is of course an enormous oversimplification intended to emphasize a point and should not be taken too literally.

Is there a better firewall than Windows own? Absolutely, and it may even be free. I have not made a detailed examination of every firewall available so am not in a position to know what it might be. But I maintain that Windows firewall is more than good enough and unless you have some special requirements it will serve you well.

 

[Alejandro85]

I'm using the Windows Firewall for a long time now, and I find it to be reasonably good. It can successfully block both incoming and outgoing connections, and used it to keep a strong control over internet activity.

Its most notable drawback is that it does NOT provide notification when it actually blocks an outgoing notification, not even as an option. It's important because while it still protects from possible malicious programs, it doesn't warns about that. It also difficults somewhat the proper configuration for legitimate programs. It also prevents it from "learning" from usage.
Another con could be that it's widely know how to add rules to it though the registry, which makes it vulnerable to being tampered by 3rd party programs if you're not aware of it.

Anyway, with Windows or any firewall, the most important aspect of a firewall is what rules do you put on it and its configuration. Do not stay with its defaults, as they provide little to no protection, but once properly setup is made, it can be quite good.

 

[m256997683119]

Personally I do not use the built-in Windows firewall because there isn't much control for my applications. (I use Comodo firewall / Emsisoft Online Armor / Outpost Firewall Pro). Applications today have the tendency to circumvent your setiings and call home without your permission much less silently doing their stuff without you knowing.

You might wanna check these links below. The opinions there might give you ideas

Taking a leap, going to Win7 built-in firewall: anything to be aware of? - Wilders Security Forums

Why you don't need a firewall (article) - Wilders Security Forums

 

[melen001]

I would recommend AVAST!, running windows firewall on its own will never be enough, it is old and not very effective.

As a matter of fact Windows 7 Firewall is an EXCELLENT firewall. You can see what 7Tutorials.com has to say .... see here >>>>> 5 Reasons Why the Windows Firewall is One of the Best Firewalls <<<<<

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I agree Win 7's firewall is very good and recommend to most people to use it instead of a third party firewall because runs in the background and doesn't require any action of the part of the user. I use ZoneAlarm's free firewall (I also use Avast free for my AV but not their firewall) but it does require that the person using it be knowledgeable enough to know how to respond to the alerts ZoneAlarm pops up from time to time (how many one gets depends on how ZoneAlarm has been set and will decrease over time), which is the reason why I don't recommend it to most people (not to mention many people have no tolerance for any kind of pop-up, no matter how infrequent or beneficial).

 

[groze]

I agree Win 7's firewall is very good and recommend to most people to use it instead of a third party firewall because runs in the background and doesn't require any action of the part of the user. I use ZoneAlarm's free firewall (I also use Avast free for my AV but not their firewall) but it does require that the person using it be knowledgeable enough to know how to respond to the alerts ZoneAlarm pops up from time to time (how many one gets depends on how ZoneAlarm has been set and will decrease over time), which is the reason why I don't recommend it to most people (not to mention many people have no tolerance for any kind of pop-up, no matter how infrequent or beneficial).

Lady Fitzgerald do you know ZoneAlarm installs a tool bar in Firefox without asking even if you do a custom install. I tried several software during my experimenting phase. I know how to restore from backup. I would use ZoneAlarm if it was not for the toolbar installation. What I am currently using now is Avg free virus, Windows firewall and Bit defender traffic light plugins.

Bit defender traffic light plugins works for Firefox, Google chrome and SeaMonkey browser. To use the plug in SeaMonkey you will need to use the online plug-in converter. There might be a work around to use this in Opera since it based on chromium. Not sure if the plug-in will work on other forked Firefox builds.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Lady Fitzgerald do you know ZoneAlarm installs a tool bar in Firefox without asking even if you do a custom install...

No I didn't since I don't like FireFox so I don't use it. The toolbar is offered when using IE but one can opt out of it during installation. The one time I got careless and let be installed, it was easy to remove.

 

[LMiller7]

Notification popups as in ZoneAlarm can certainly improve security. But I think it would be a mistake to have this as a default in an OS designed for the mass market. The large majority of computer users know nothing of firewalls and such and don't want to learn and will resent the need to know any more than is absolutely necessary. Software designers have known for a long time that error messages and popups are seen by most users as a distraction form their work and will be dismissed unread by the most direct method available. Even developers and other advanced users frequently do this as well. To most users firewall notifications would be nothing but an annoyance and confirm their belief that computers are difficult to use.

If someone install a firewall such as ZoneAlarm or something similar they are voluntarily taking on the responsibility to make informed choices when notifications occur. Intelligently done this will improve security

For the large majority of users Windows firewall is more than adequate. For those who need or want better security and options there are third party firewalls. But be sure to remember that security always has it's price.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Notification popups as in ZoneAlarm can certainly improve security. But I think it would be a mistake to have this as a default in an OS designed for the mass market. The large majority of computer users know nothing of firewalls and such and don't want to learn and will resent the need to know any more than is absolutely necessary. Software designers have known for a long time that error messages and popups are seen by most users as a distraction form their work and will be dismissed unread by the most direct method available. Even developers and other advanced users frequently do this as well. To most users firewall notifications would be nothing but an annoyance and confirm their belief that computers are difficult to use.

If someone install a firewall such as ZoneAlarm or something similar they are voluntarily taking on the responsibility to make informed choices when notifications occur. Intelligently done this will improve security

For the large majority of users Windows firewall is more than adequate. For those who need or want better security and options there are third party firewalls. But be sure to remember that security always has it's price.

I totally agree! That's why I normally do not recommend third party firewalls, such as Zone Alarm, to most people. Even many geeks are unable to deal with the pop-ups. I personally find them only mildly annoying and feel the benefits far outweigh the annoyance. Then again, I'm one of the weird people who have UAC set to maximum protection.

 

[groze]

...Lady Fitzgerald do you know ZoneAlarm installs a tool bar in Firefox without asking even if you do a custom install...

No I didn't since I don't like FireFox so I don't use it. The toolbar is offered when using IE but one can opt out of it during installation. The one time I got careless and let be installed, it was easy to remove.

Lady Fitzgerald
You can opt out of that one, there is another sneaky one that installs in Firefox. You can uninstall it from add/remove program. I don't know if anything remains after removal.

I also don't know if that toolbar collects any information on what you browse or if it is just basically a dumb search bar that collects nothing. I always worry about toolbars, because I use firefox for my banking. I have 3 different firefox profiles. Two for banking and one general browsing. This way I can keep the cookies for my banking. I read some toolbars can do real nasty stuff.


Malwarebytes didn't flag-it and neither did other spyware protection programs.