Windows Vista Firewall for Vista

Anybody know of a firewall that will work with Vista. I've tried a few but so far none are accepted by Vista.

Not a full fledge virus protection system, just a simple firewall that can be set to allow or decline any program trying to connect out.

giles

 

Hi giles,

Your question is of interest because I'm going to get a Laptop (with MCE installed) right after Christmass and will dual boot it with Vista.

I take it that you're not satisfied with Vista's Firewall. From the description of it, it is a two way firewall which would seem to fit the bill as a "simple" firewall.

First, is that true, and second, if it is, what is it that you don't like about it?

From what I've read, the outbound option has to be turned on - not a default setting.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Charles.

Yes, you are correct in all comments.

I prefer to get a separate firewall rather than use the one in Vista. Using the one in Vista is something like having the prisoners guard the prison. In XP I prevented Windows Explorer from accessing the internet. That shut down IE along with help and a host of other built in stuff in XP from accessing the internet. It seems that most anything you clicked on in XP caused an access to the internet.

The further down the road we get with operating systems the more they take over your computer and the less control we have. In Vista all the media and player programs downloaded a wide variety of stuff, most all from Microsoft. Of course a lot of this goes on in XP too. I prefer to run my own computer and when I click on a program to play my MP3s I would prefer that it play my MP3s rather than downloading everybody elses stuff from movies to music and pictures.

I'm not paranoid but I do see a lot of outgoing from my computer with Vista.

When I get all those things shut down my computer runs faster and more reliably and I enjoy it more and can actually accomplish more.

I've tried to install about 6 firewalls so far and none are accepted by Vista. When I force their installation, Vista will not load and I have to default back to the "last know good configuration" to boot up and uninstall. Some of these firewalls are rated for Vista. I've shut down all the Vista protection in "Services" but still no joy. Strange. I'm getting the feeling they don't want their system blocked from the internet.

Giles

 

In VISTA click Start, and type "firewall" in the search box.

You will see that natively VISTA has two firewalls to choose from. The default is close to the XP SP2 model. The second choice is one with enhanced security features.

This includes granular controls over outbound traffic as well as stateful inspection of inbound traffic.

I have a feeling if you play with the "hidden" second firewall choice, you will not likely need a third-party software.

 

I'll certainly give it shot before I try any 3rd party firewall.

Regards - Charles

 

I'm sure that Vista has a pretty good firewall. I don't believe that a firewall included with Vista would block all of Vista itself from accessing the internet unless specifically authorized by the user. Therein lies the problem. A third party firewall would and therefore return control of the computer back to the user, if one can be found that will work with Vista, hence the original question.

If anyone runs across a firewall that will install and work with Vista that simply allows control over which programs access the internet please let me know.

Thanks all.

Giles

 

Hi Giles,

I'm looking forward to exploring this issue

As an FYI, there are apps that are outbound blockers only - although probably not Vista "ready" at the moment.

One that I use is System Safety Monitor, a process/app "firewall ", and in the latest version, added an outbound only firewall: http://syssafety.com/

I'm currently testing it on one of my XP installations in conjunction with SP2's inbound firewall in place of ZAP. Since SSM is a HIPS/Behavior blocker, it substitutes well for ZAP's latest version in that regard.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Charles.

Thanks for the pointer. I'll check it out.

When the final version is on the market it may be a bit different than the one I've been playing with but so far all the comments I've seen says it is the same as these betas, etc.

I'm off to the country for the holidays. A very merry Christmas to everyone. As Spock says, "Live long and prosper. "

Giles

 

The latest beta version of the Comodo firewall works with Vista - but it still has a few glitches in it. FWIW - here's a link to a wiki with Vista compatability listed: http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.p...ware_Compatibility_List#Firewalls_.2F_IDS.27s