WinMX and Norton Personal Firewall

[MVDU]

I've noticed that on the Shields Up! test, my Norton firewall is only stealthing a couple ports. All the rest are closed, but visible. I did the test a while ago, and everything was stealthed. Could the problem be caused by the port forwarding settings on my router? If so, can this be fixed?

[zaphodiv]

Connections to any ports that are _not_ forwarded will be handled by the router. The router probably sends back a port closed response rarther than dropping the request.

[MVDU]

Thanks! So the firewall is still doing the job?

[ATLien]

I thought the same thing, but i did find the certain netport scans

can still get threw this if you doing keep your router software

updated.

[MVDU]

With my router, the correct IP address is not given in the scan - so maybe my computer isn't even being scanned?

[ATLien]

Originally posted by MVDU
With my router, the correct IP address is not given in the scan - so maybe my computer isn't even being scanned?

To be on the safe side, you might want to try, "Perrguardian"

http://xs.tech.nu/pg/PeerGuardian_v1.95b.zip

[MVDU]

That's a neat little app. - thanks! Doesn't hurt to have it, even though I have 2 software firewalls running on my computer (Norton and Sygate,) and my IP address not being given out.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by MVDU
That's a neat little app. - thanks! Doesn't hurt to have it, even though I have 2 software firewalls running on my computer (Norton and Sygate,) and my IP address not being given out.

\

You do, have your firewall that built in XP, on? If you do that mades three(3).

[MVDU]

I turned that one off because it's not supposed to work well with Norton or indirect connections - but I do have my router firewall.

[g l i t c h]

I will stick with good old NAT.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by MVDU
I turned that one off because it's not supposed to work well with Norton or indirect connections - but I do have my router firewall.

I run Norton, and have no problem with XP's firewall running, too. Plus my router.

[nasrules]

Personally, I hated NPF. My favourite for a long time now is ZoneAlarm Pro. It works great, total stealth. But, getting a 802.11g (notice the g not b, 54mb/s instead of 11mb/s) wireless router, will it act as a firewall itself? It would save me a whole 2.1mb RAM, that's all.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by nasrules
Personally, I hated NPF. My favourite for a long time now is ZoneAlarm Pro. It works great, total stealth. But, getting a 802.11g (notice the g not b, 54mb/s instead of 11mb/s) wireless router, will it act as a firewall itself? It would save me a whole 2.1mb RAM, that's all.

Yea, i see the "g". Tell me, does that work pretty good? Been thinking about getting the same, but was concerned about speed and security issues.

[Ken17625]

I heard running more than 1 software firewall may actually confict and make you more vulnerable. I would think two firewalls (not counting XP built in firewall) might fall under this accusation.

I use Kerio Personal Firewall. Its free for individual/home use. It loads and runs fast. Doesn't bog down my system either.

But of course all this doesn't mean much as software firewalls only give about 1% protection, or so i've heard. If someone with enough knowledge wants in, they will get in.

[MVDU]

For some reason, my XP firewall interfered with my WinMX.

So far, my firewalls have not conflicted - but if anyone has any bad stories, please say.

I think I'm pretty well protected. I don't really need any more.