Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Testing Your Firewall/Good Firewall?

Thanks for the reply and the link
I tested my firewall at the Shields Up website and it said my computer was in Stealth.
Does that mean my cmputer is safe?

I'm getting the stealth readings at Shields Up and I'm using the firewall that's in Windows 7.
I thought windows firewalls weren't safe.
Should I get another firewall????

It only test something getting into your puter. You need to test what can get out to. They have a leaktest program that is good but still will not tell you what is going on. If your running Win 7 firewall or any of the other firewall in auto mode your letting the developer make the decisions for you on what can and can not get out and phone home. Trust me everything you install wants to phone home and report on your puter.

The sad thing is that all firewalls today are setup to run in the auto mode because the real money made today is spying on the user and his puter usage and internet surfing.

The W7 firewall in stock form is input only........it works fine.
If the Shields Up "all service ports" shows stealth........that's good.

Folks will get a two way firewall....input+output....but then they get all these popups......do you want to allow ABC or XYZ access to the internet?

Since they don't know what their looking at they click "allow".
The output firewall becomes useless.

The W7 firewall is a layer of protection it is not designed to protect you from being a Bozo.

All it takes is a little time reading on the web and the user can educate himself on what should be allowed to access the web. It is well known that allowing anything to get out of your puter is a very bad thing to do.

To help out the original poster, there should be just a few programs that need access. If you do this right and somehow get bit by a very bad or just a mild piece of malware your firewall will alert you to it. Your antivirus can not and will not protect you from everything. My 2 way firewall has saved my sorry rear end on multiple occasions. Your firewall, if setup properly, can be a life saver. The only programs that should have open access to the web are svchost, that is your internet connection, your browsers, chat programs, antivirus for updates and that is it. If you set it up that way and you get that pop up, which is not annoying but trying to alert you that something bad might be happening, take the time to check it out. You can save yourself from a small spyware program that is just reporting on what you have on your hard drive to a banking password stealing program that is going to make your life pure miserable.

Those who push this idea that you do not need 2 way protection are not looking out for your best interest.

There is nothing wrong with an output firewall.......as long as it's set up proper.
Adds a layer of protection.

As for>>>>>>>>"My 2 way firewall has saved my sorry rear end on multiple occasions."

Perhaps you should look into your products and procedures.......you might have a hole.

I have 3 glaring holes but so does just about everyone reading this. First one is I use Windows. It is the most attack OS because it is controls close to 90% of the market. While those who use Mac puter claim it can not be attack, it can, it is just simple numbers for the reason it is not attack more. Mac OS only has 9% of the market share so script kiddies to the big boys go for the greater chance of success. That is Windows. The second one is that I surf the net. No matter how good your protection is, your going to come across things that are going to launch an attack on you. That is just a fact of web surfing. I remember back in 05 or 06 ASUS web site got cracked and a Trojan was inserted on the site. I just happen to need to access their site before it was discovered. If it had not been for my 2 way firewall I would have been bit and lost control of my puter. That covers the product side of your statement and like I said in the beginning, just about everyone reading this have the same problems. That is why everyone should have a good 2 way firewall.

My 3 third and biggest hole is one that I could correct by simply being a passive person. That I can not do. If you want references on that fact just ask some of the moderators or forum members, they will tell you I do have my opinions and tend to express them. So from time to time I poke the bear. That leads to, some day you eat the bear, some day the bear eats you. That is when my 2 way firewall comes into play and saves my sorry rear end. lol

The one thing about firewalls today is that there is no good 2 way firewall left. The major players in the market wanted to be able to use what I consider spyware. (I am going to poke the bear now) They wanted to see what you had installed on your puter, know how you surfed the web, collect and keep for ever information on you. So they decided to kill the firewall as we knew it. They came up with the idea of Internet Suites. They convince the user that those pop up where just to annoying, to hard to understand, and they should turn over control of their puters to them so they could make the decision for them. They knew best not the user. My favorite way of describing this is to ask you or anyone else this one question. If you had a home security system installed in your house would you turn over the keys to your house to them? Would you let them make the decisions for you about who can enter and leave your house? I think not. It is the same thing today with these Internet Suites being peddle to the unsuspecting user that give them a false sense of security. It is my believe and I have no real evidence to support it, that companies pay to get on some of the white list. I know of one company that brags openly that they have 15,000,000 pre approved programs to access the web. That is such a mind blowing number I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. My challenge to anyone who is using a Internet Suite or a firewall in the auto mode is to try to find out what programs are being given access to the web. IF you can, I think your going to be surprised just who is being allowed to collect and phone home the information without your knowledge.