I would like input about FWs and related. I currently run Black Ice and a dual hardware router clone series. Spoofing 7 series MAC addresses. I just like to play and keep my hand in the know. Anyone have anything hot from mad cow or other locations?

I'd like to answer your question but I only read english.

:-\ Can you clarify what you are asking? Because I can't figure it out. Sounds to me like you are just some wanna-be hacker who is trying to "talk the talk" and maybe impress the "leet" ones. If thats the case, you BLEW IT big time!!

On the other hand, maybe your mastery of English isn't quite there yet (and if this is the case, my apologies for the above line about being a wanna-be hacker).

I have no idea what a "7 series MAC Address" is. I know what Spoofing is, and I know what MAC Addresses are. But you lose me with the "7 series" part. So I can't help you there.

Same thing for a "

Bomberpilot (imported) wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2008 9:19 pm dual hardware router clone series

". I have no idea what you mean there.

Also I don't get the reference with the "anything hot from mad cow" line. Are you maybe refering to TUCOWS ( www.tucows.com ) ?

As far as Firewalls go, you really only need one hardware Firewall. Thats it...

Since pretty much any "Router" you buy in the Electronics stores today has a Firewall built into it, most people already have a hardware Firewall.

The only thing a software Firewall (such as Black Ice) is really good for is to tell you which program(s) are trying to access the Network (notice I said "Network", not "the Internet"). Software Firewalls are generally NOT recommended, because they often cause more harm than good:

1. They often make even a modern fast computer run really slow.

2. They are almost worthless as protection against true threats, because the first thing a good hacker (or virus/worm/spyware created by a good hacker) will do is DISABLE common software protections. They know the holes, and how to exploit them.

3. Software Firewalls often interefere with other programs, even programs that DON'T try to access the Network at all. (Want proof? Next time your computer acts strange or some program doesn't work, try un-installing Black Ice... Or Norton Internet Security. Or McAfee Internet Security. Or ZoneAlarm. Or whatever... Wow, amazing how everything else suddenly works right, huh?)

4. Software Firewalls warn you about every little insignificant thing, after a couple dozen pop-ups people start to ignore them.

5. Most Software Firewalls don't explain in plain English what they are telling you. For example, a paranoid friend of mine kept getting all worked up because his Software Firewall kept telling him "Spooler Service is trying to access 192.168.1.14". He called me up because he couldn't print, swearing he had some piece of Spyware called "spooler service"... THAT is one of many classic examples of how Software Firewalls cause problems.

(For those of you who don't get it, "Spooler Service" is the part of Windows responsible for printing. "192.168.anything" is an INTERNAL address of some other computer or device ("internal" meaning in your house, NOT on the Internet) -- in this case it was his printer. By stopping "Spooler Service" from accessing "192.168.1.14", he was stopping his computer from printing... And he was CLUELESS because the stupid Software Firewall he was using didn't tell him what "Spooler Service" was!! He assumed, that since it was triggering an alarm, "spooler service" was obviously bad and had to be stopped!!!! Then when he couldn't print, well, that was just the proof that his computer was infected with something!!!! If he wouldn't have had the stupid Software Firewall running in the first place, this whole thing would never have happened).

Thats just one situation that comes to mind right away... If I stopped to think about it, I could probably write up dozens of similar situations like this where the Software Firewall ended up being the CAUSE of the problem.

Simply put, nothing beats a hardware firewall and it doesn't put the load on YOUR operating system.

I use the MS builtin firewall and then a hardware firewall built, which is built into the router.

At work we have a Sonicwall TZ170, I'm just waiting for them to stop supporting it so we can upgrade but so far it has worked great aside from the log files I get everyday... too many damn bastards out there in the world trying to find weak spots.

Not really directly related to firewalls, but we use a outside service to filter out our spam (currently MessageLabs). We use Sophos for antivirus. The enterprise console doesnt work too bad but the clients themselves really gobble up the computer performance. Once the agreement expires I'll probably look into NOD32, although I dont think they have a server console but at least the users will be happier about the performance increase. 50mb of memory is the norm, sometimes more. Just another reason to avoid software that likes to hog the memory.

In stead of a firewall i use a fire hose.

Get's just messy with the water.

A fence around the house, and in my puter nothing. Just using Linux.

Tclosetgirl (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:20 pm Simply put, nothing beats a hardware firewall and it doesn't put the load on YOUR operating system.

Sorry, TCG, but I have to disagree with your sweeping statement about hardware firewalls.

I'm assuming that what this discussion refers to is the "firewall" that is a part of wireless routers. That's not truly a firewall at all, but merely a means of directing traffic from the router to computes that make up the network. What that means is that malware cannot "see" an individual computer, and therefore will not be able to infect it unless the user actively approves the infection, by accepting malicious downloads, etc.

However, a router can do nothing to prevent an infected computer from sending information to the Internet, since it's configuration controls inbound traffic only. In other words, if a computer has been infected, a hardware firewall will be of no use.

Since many households have networked computers that are used by children who download everything in sight, those machines will not be protected by the router. The only solution is to have a software firewall installed on each one of them.

If all computer users are savvy folks, and are careful in their surfing habits, then the hardware firewall will be sufficient. Otherwise, use software.

Shortie (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 23, 2008 7:26 am I'm assuming that what this discussion refers to is the "firewall" that is a part of wireless routers. That's not truly a firewall at all, but merely a means of directing traffic from the router to computes that make up the network.

If all computer users are savvy folks, and are careful in their surfing habits, then the hardware firewall will be sufficient. Otherwise, use software.

I didn't say anything about wireless, I'm talking say, about a Cisco or Netgear ROUTER....

Nothing g ets through it, not to date an yway and plenty have tried.

Now if you got malware or spyware that's an internal th ing brought IN on port 80 from a website you visited and NOTHING will help there except good antivirus/anti-spy and common sense.

Putting a software firewall to block OUTGOING is just a band-aid on a cut artery.

For one, I have a piece of code that *I* wrote that will simply disable most software firewalls - so if I was to incorporate that into a piece of spyware your software firewall would do NOTHING to stop me from outbound traffic.

Thus, run good anti-spyware, keep a good HOSTS file of known bad sites to route to null so you can't access them, and keep a good hardware firewall to stop intruders.......

Big difference...

I'm an old school IT girl.....been doing this a long time and was not always on the good guys side.

If I am understanding your question correctly, I will answer with a bit more generic type response. What works best (for most situations) is where the protection is between your computer(s) and the big Internet land. To say a hardware firewall is appropriate, and the previously mentioned manufacturers (Cisco and Netgear) are good ones, but not necessarily the only good ones. The "generic" part of this response is that you want to ensure that you utilize a gateway/router/firewall that has "stateful packet inspection" technology (aka SPI). For the really curious, I have utilized a Netgear FVS318 VPN firewall router for years, and although a bit more expensive than others, it never fails. Doesn't win any cosmetic/aesthetic design awards, but does what I need it to do, and does so very reliably.