download at your own risk. Jammed up ma putah real good. Grr.

Should I wait for an update fix or try some other firewall?

I recommend you to try another firewall. What OS you're running?

Zonealarm :bananadea

XP

Wais ZA :bananadea ?

I recommend Kerio 2.1.5. http://www.lauspalo.com/freewarehouse/#keriofirewall

It's free and works fine. Xp dosen't detect it cause it's so "old". But that dosen't matter

Mind if I ask why the hell are you even running a 3rd party software firewall in the first place?

The appropriate question would be "why not?"

I'm not really sure nowdays when I have a hardware fw as well.

I did download the big update for zonealarm a few months back, and it killed my pc. It wouldn't boot and i kept getting the BSOD, "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL" error message on startup.

This meant i had to boot up in safe mode and uninstall zonealarm completely.

I then tried again and got into windows fine. So i downloaded the whole newer zonealarm (instead of just the update) directly off their site and it worked fine.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Mind if I ask why the hell are you even running a 3rd party software firewall in the first place?

I'm wondering what kind of solution you've got on this thing. How do you protect your computer or how do you manage your internet traffic?

Mind if I ask why you are using ZoneAlarm's Firewall? All I heard from it is that it's totally destroying everything, seems like the Starforce of Firewalls.
But Avira Antivir makes a good protection, dunno if you can call it Firewall, but anyway. Leave your hands off ZoneAlarm.

Quote from Naamavelli :

I'm wondering what kind of solution you've got on this thing. How do you protect your computer or how do you manage your internet traffic?

how about he doesnt?
do you actually believe firewalls are protecting you of anything when they bombard you with all the good they have just done to stop the pesky scanner pinging you on ports your pc wont answer on anyway?

Quote from Shotglass :

how about he doesnt?
do you actually believe firewalls are protecting you of anything when they bombard you with all the good they have just done to stop the pesky scanner pinging you on ports your pc wont answer on anyway?

Well if he isn't running no firewall at all and he isn't interested of any internet-traffic on his computer, i'm very curious to know how he manages those things.

Seems like you don't like firewalls either So i want to ask you the same question.

And if something "bombards" my computer , my firewall always reports it.

Rest of your sentence ( all the good they have just done to stop the pesky scanner pinging you on ports your pc wont answer on anyway? ) was pure hebrew for me.

God bless NAT

Quote from Naamavelli :

Well if he isn't running no firewall at all and he isn't interested of any internet-traffic on his computer, i'm very curious to know how he manages those things.

how about... he doesnt
the only people whod consider attacking a home pc are those who have no idea how to do it and rely on your stupidity... if youre not stupid enough to install trojans you wont need a firewall

Quote :

And if something "bombards" my computer , my firewall always reports it.

Rest of your sentence ( all the good they have just done to stop the pesky scanner pinging you on ports your pc wont answer on anyway? ) was pure hebrew for me.

exactly that... all they ever report on is script kiddies running port scans hoping theyll find a pc with trojans or os bugs that have been fixed for months on them

A router/computer/IP address on the net is subjected to 4 scans per hour on average, and at peek times as much as around 15 times per hour.

Do we need protecting from these rogue access attempts? Actually, suprisingly 'not really'.

Most are opportunist wide scans looking for a particular vulnerability in your system and are scanning a wide range of IP addresses in the hope of finding somebody who is vulnerable.

Most vulnerabilities are patched out in OS updates or are only there because of virus' that have gotten out into the wild.

Protecting yourselves against these threats is quite easy, either install the latest Windows updates by A) Having a legitimate copy of windows or B) Having a copy of Windows sufficiently well hacked that you can run all the updates.

You might also try having some form of anti-virus protection, anti-virus software is a bit crap but some of them are at least not that intrusive on your system. I recommend AVG with a regular scan, you can set the scan settings to slow so that it doesnt interfere much with your computer.

Additionally those of us with a router already have the perfect hardware firewall and need no further protection from remote access attempts. Installing a software firewall in addition to your router will have the grand effect of protecting you from other computers in your house/network location, and prevent you from file sharing/printer sharing with your other PC's.

Routers are great because whilst all computers on the local side of them can go out to the internet and grab information, conversely anyone on the remote side of the router - should they attempt to port scan you - only reach the router which then doesnt know what computer to send the request too and discards it. Routers exceed software firewalls in all regards.

For best protection therefore:
* Run the latest Windows updates, or if on a Mac run the latest Apple updates, fix drive permissions, boot into single user mode and fsck -f, and hope your fonts are not corrupt.
* Run an anti-virus program regularly, if on Windows use AVG it's free and unobtrusive. If on a Mac dont bother most of the anti-virus tools for the Mac where on sale years before the first Mac virus appeared, does that tell you nothing?
* Use a hardware firewall (a router) and disable all software firewalls.

I just use Windows Firewall, has worked fine for two or three years now. I don't bother with a virus scanner, I've forgotten the last time I got a virus.

Quote from hyntty :

download at your own risk. Jammed up ma putah real good. Grr.

Should I wait for an update fix or try some other firewall?

zone alarm is a piece of crap.try comodo firewall its free and awesome.It's best of the best.

Nat is a satan's tool. Whatever, i'm not using any hardware firewalls.

Quote from Becky Rose :

...

1. nat is not a firewall
2. antivirus software doesnt serve any pupose other than to scan the odd file from untrustworthy locations
3. even apple themself tell their customers to buy antivir software these days

Quote from Shotglass :

...antivirus software doesnt serve any pupose other than to scan the odd file from untrustworthy locations...

Sorry, What!?

Get a PC, delete all the firewall and antivirus products off it, connect it to the internet, then see how long it takes before it is totally f--ked. It won't take long.

Quote from deggis :

God bless NAT

mmhm! I love my router. Windows firewall is on just for peace of mind. Does the bloody job!

Quote from Naamavelli :

I'm wondering what kind of solution you've got on this thing. How do you protect your computer or how do you manage your internet traffic?

Pretty much just common sense.

Both of my comps have an official windows license so I'm up to date with security patches and the Win firewall with a D-Link router (with a firewall and NAT enganged) has kept me 100% safe so far. Downloading only from trusted sources and having zero pirated software means I don't have to worry about outgoing connections calling home to big corporation lawsuit sections. If you worry about your OS X/Windows sending some information home, you should be scared shitless how much your government agencies collect much more personal data about you.

Can't remember ever having a virus or other malicious software so I don't even bother with active anti-virus or such. Once-a-month cache and temp crap cleaning is enough.

Fear is good business, don't forget that.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Sorry, What!?

Get a PC, delete all the firewall and antivirus products off it, connect it to the internet, then see how long it takes before it is totally f--ked. It won't take long.

Official Windows would update itself, engange light-weight Win firewall and then you'd get a hardware failure sooner than the PC would get forked.

If you want to compromise your data, nothing can stop you. Common sense is the key.

Aaaaaaaaand avoid the use of public networks at all costs!

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Sorry, What!?

Get a PC, delete all the firewall and antivirus products off it, connect it to the internet, then see how long it takes before it is totally f--ked. It won't take long.

i dont run any software security measures on my computer (no anti vir, firewall or that), have the perfect hardware firewall, and anti-vir just isnt needed unless your clicking on "SEXY-LADIES.EXE" like a retard.

Quote from DeKo :

i dont run any software security measures on my computer (no anti vir, firewall or that), have the perfect hardware firewall, and anti-vir just isnt needed unless your clicking on "SEXY-LADIES.EXE" like a retard.

You're right mate. As a mature and sensible "internet user", I'm pretty sure that I could disable my AV and etc, and browse quite happily for many weeks before I get so much as a bit of spyware.

It's incredibily rare my AV so much as alerts me, and that's normally only to a stray virus in one of the "system restore" thingies.

...There is no such thing as a secure PC. The only way your data is secure is when it is off the network and in a metal safe. It is a waste of time cleaning and maintaining, simply wipe and restore