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 RESET32one
journeyman
Registered: 01/13/01
Posts: 21
Loc: chicago area
Last seen: 22 years, 11 months
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 a good firewall? 
#341148 - 06/15/01 12:50 AM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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Should i have a firewall for my personal computer? and wut do you guys think is the best one?
** hung like Einstien, smart as a horse **
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** hung like Einstien, smart as a horse **
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egghead
veteran
Registered: 04/25/01
Posts: 1,054
Loc: Milky Way
Last seen: 23 years, 1 month
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 Re: a good firewall? [Re: RESET32one]
#341287 - 06/15/01 07:47 AM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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If you have an old system laying around (p100 or so, 32 meg ram) you can put two network cards into it and make a linux firewall/router. It's cheap, effective and you can use the linux box for other things too (mail, ftp, www, nat). This way you don't have to clog up your pc w/ firewall software..
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Where there's skill, there's a better way..
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 Lana
Head Banana
Registered: 10/27/99
Posts: 3,109
Loc: www.MycoSupply.com
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: RESET32one]
#341296 - 06/15/01 08:09 AM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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Firewalls, good topic.
Depending on what you want and how "in depth" you want to go, you have a variety of options when it comes to firewalls. As egghead said, you could setup a firewall using an old machine and linux. I've been wanting to do that but use OpenBSD instead of linux....
But if you don't want to configure network cards, or if you don't have an old machine laying around:) You can go the software route.
An aclamined program is Zone Alarm http://www.zonealarm.com/. It's one of the top, some think its the best, firewall for personal use. I have it and like it. Its different then most firewalls in the fact that it closes all of your ports. Whats that mean?? Well. your computer may have open "ports" when you get online. They may be open and you probably wouldn't even know about it. Alot of firewalls OPEN all your ports then if something comes through (like an DOS attack or LEO planting a keystroke recorder) on your machine. It starts going off and the alarms are sounded!!!! It would be like you opening all the doors and windows in your house THEN waiting for someone to break in.
ZoneAlarm actually closes all the ports and if something comes through it will ask you if you want to allow it to pass through onto your machine.
Now for commercial use you could look into a program called Checkpoint-1 Firewall. This is what the big boys use. If for some reason someone happens to have it, PLEASE PM me, I'd love to get an "evaluation version" of it:)
Checkpoint-1 is very large and is very strong. So big and strong that you can acutally be certified in Checkpoint!
I think that regardless of if you are at home or work. You should always use a firewall. If you have a DSL or cable modem connection. You'd might as well put yourself in front of a firing squad if you don't have one setup!
As much as I like firewalls, encryption is better in my opinion.
Most people can use computers.
Some people can hack into computers.
FEW can crack a 128-bit encrypted algorhthym!
If you have something on your machine that is encrypted, even if someone does hack into your machine. All they'll get is encrypted data. Now if someone cracks your encrypted data.....you'd better run!
Hope that helps,
Lana
Distributors of Mycological Products
http://www.MycoSupply.com
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http://www.MycoSupply.com
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Visit us online or call us toll free
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egghead
veteran
Registered: 04/25/01
Posts: 1,054
Loc: Milky Way
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: Lana]
#341323 - 06/15/01 09:00 AM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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lana.. yes, linux is just a personal preference. OpenBSD would also be a good choice for firewalls and basic net services. In fact, if you're using the most recent versions of linux, you're using the same IP chaining code as BSD. As I understand it, they borrowed the whole kit & kaboodle from BSD to use in linux.
It works very well and with the ipmasqadm code installed you can do packet forwarding/port forwarding. So if you have an 'internal' machine that is a web server, you can have the firewall forward all requests on port 80 to that machine at it's internal address. It won't check to make sure that it's web traffic, though. So you still need to make sure your web server software cannot be hacked. Also, don't forget to install tripwire (which also runs in the Windows env).
I do these installations commercially. Setup is one day (usually 2-3 hours), maintenance (remote) is 2 or less hours per month if any. It's an easy buck w/ residuals for the maintenance. Leaves lots of time for writing code and feeding monkey.
How much do proggies like zonealarm drag down a system? Seems like it'd need to have some sort of disk logging going on to be effective.
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Where there's skill, there's a better way..
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Shiznitz
addict
Registered: 04/19/01
Posts: 623
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 23 years, 5 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: RESET32one]
#342045 - 06/16/01 08:41 AM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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I use the free and easy to use ZoneAlarm...
It's great.
LEGALIZE...
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LEGALIZE...
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3DSHROOM
loon
Registered: 04/19/99
Posts: 2,878
Last seen: 12 years, 2 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: Shiznitz]
#342484 - 06/16/01 09:18 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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Norton Internet Security seems to do a good job at blocking all unwanted attempts to access your computer. If you have a DSL or cable connection you can get an all in one firewall/router/switch box with 4 ethernet ports(for sharing internet connection) for a good price.
________________________
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http://www.shroomery.org
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soco
newbie
Registered: 04/26/01
Posts: 33
Loc: your window
Last seen: 23 years, 7 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: 3DSHROOM]
#343064 - 06/17/01 08:46 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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strange I was just talking to a friend about these...... ummm maybe I should beware.
Lana, this friend said he really liked Black Ice Defender, is this a good one? Or is the Zone Alarm the best? Also how can you encrypt your "computers info", I have the cable, here they call it "Road Runner", and want to learn about this, and how to go about doing this. Would that make it hard to track your internet use, or like someone tracking you, from what you use the net for? I am very intrested in the protection. Its strange we have to work so hard to protect our privacy.
Peace,
SoCo
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Lana
Head Banana
Registered: 10/27/99
Posts: 3,109
Loc: www.MycoSupply.com
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: soco]
#343150 - 06/17/01 10:56 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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Oh yeah,
Black Ice Defender is good:) I've never heard anything bad about it but I just prefer Zone Alarm becuase thats what I use. I've never really played much with Black Ice Defender so I can't give an opinion of it, although I have heard that its good.
You're are so right when you say "Its strange we have to work so hard to protect our privacy". Actually its not strange as it is so much disturbing.
Anywho!
To encrypt infomation on you computer you need a program that will encrypt info:) Doesn't sound too hard does it:)
One that I use for a wide variety of reasons is PGP Desktop Security Version 7.0.3. Its effective and easy to use. PGP has made the program very user friendly over the years (I got PGP for the first time with their 3.5v.) Point is, say you have a text file, or practically any file for that matter...
You can simply right click on the file and you'll see and option to "Encrypt File" Hit it and the file is encrypted. I can get technical with you but if you're just starting off it might get a little confusing:) Another nice thing with PGP is that you can create a volume on your computer and encrypt that!!!
A volume is kind of like a drive on your machine. If you use Windows98/95/2000 etc, and if you go to Windows Explorer you'll see all your drives. Well you can make and encrypted drive!!! So ANYTHING that you put in that drive is encrypted! The nice thing about that is, to decrypt a file you need to type in a password/paraphase. Then you have access to everything on that drive. So you don't need to keep typing in your password/paraphrase.
Here's a link to PGP that you might want to check out.
PGP info - http://www.pgp.com/products/default.asp
Here's some basic info that I've cut and pasted:)
Hope it helps, if you have any questions just ask.
Lana
Encryption Basics
What is encryption?
Encryption is the transformation of data into a form unreadable by anyone without a secret decryption key. Its purpose is to ensure privacy by keeping the information hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended, even those who can see the encrypted data. For example, one may wish to encrypt files on a hard disk to prevent an intruder from reading them.
In a multi-user setting, encryption allows secure communication over an insecure channel. The general scenario is as follows: Alice wishes to send a message to Bob so that no one else besides Bob can read it. Alice encrypts the message, which is called the plaintext, with an encryption key; the encrypted message, called the ciphertext, is sent to Bob. Bob decrypts the ciphertext with the decryption key and reads the message. An attacker, Charlie, may either try to obtain the secret key or to recover th e plaintext without using the secret key. In a secure cryptosystem, the plaintext cannot be recovered from the ciphertext except by using the decryption key. In a symmetric cryptosystem, a single key serves as both the encryption and decryption keys.
What is authentication? What is a digital signature?
Authentication in a digital setting is a process whereby the receiver of a digital message can be confident of the identity of the sender and/or the integrity of the message. Authentication protocols can be based on either conventional secret-key crypt osystems like DES or on public-key systems like RSA; authentication in public-key systems uses digital signatures.
In this document, authentication will generally refer to the use of digital signatures, which play a function for digital documents similar to that played by handwritten signatures for printed documents: the signature is an unforgeable piece of data as serting that a named person wrote or otherwise agreed to the document to which the signature is attached. The recipient, as well as a third party, can verify both that the document did indeed originate from the person whose signature is attached and that the document has not been altered since it was signed. A secure digital signature system thus consists of two parts: a method of signing a document such that forgery is infeasible, and a method of verifying that a signature was actually generated by whome ver it represents. Furthermore, secure digital signatures cannot be repudiated; i.e., the signer of a document cannot later disown it by claiming it was forged.
Unlike encryption, digital signatures are a recent development, the need for which has arisen with the proliferation of digital communications.
What is public-key cryptography?
Traditional cryptography is based on the sender and receiver of a message knowing and using the same secret key: the sender uses the secret key to encrypt the message, and the receiver uses the same secret key to decrypt the message. This method is kno wn as secret-key cryptography. The main problem is getting the sender and receiver to agree on the secret key without anyone else finding out. If they are in separate physical locations, they must trust a courier, or a phone system, or some other transmis sion system to not disclose the secret key being communicated. Anyone who overhears or intercepts the key in transit can later read all messages encrypted using that key. The generation, transmission and storage of keys is called key management; all crypt osystems must deal with key management issues. Secret-key cryptography often has difficulty providing secure key management.
Public-key cryptography was invented in 1976 by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman in order to solve the key management problem. In the new system, each person gets a pair of keys, called the public key and the private key. Each person's public key is published while the private key is kept secret. The need for sender and receiver to share secret information is eliminated: all communications involve only public keys, and no private key is ever transmitted or shared. No longer is it necessary to trust some communications channel to be secure against eavesdropping or betrayal. Anyone can send a confidential message just using public information, but it can only be decrypted with a private key that is in the sole possession of the intended recipient. Fur thermore, public-key cryptography can be used for authentication (digital signatures) as well as for privacy (encryption).
Here's how it works for encryption: when Alice wishes to send a message to Bob, she looks up Bob's public key in a directory, uses it to encrypt the message and sends it off. Bob then uses his private key to decrypt the message and read it. No one list ening in can decrypt the message. Anyone can send an encrypted message to Bob but only Bob can read it. Clearly, one requirement is that no one can figure out the private key from the corresponding public key.
Here's how it works for authentication: Alice, to sign a message, does a computation involving both her private key and the message itself; the output is called the digital signature and is attached to the message, which is then sent. Bob, to verify th e signature, does some computation involving the message, the purported signature, and Alice's public key. If the results properly hold in a simple mathematical relation, the signature is verified as genuine; otherwise, the signature may be fraudulent or the message altered, and they are discarded.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of public-key cryptography over secret-key cryptography?
The primary advantage of public-key cryptography is increased security: the private keys do not ever need to transmitted or revealed to anyone. In a secret-key system, by contrast, there is always a chance that an enemy could discover the secret key wh ile it is being transmitted.
Another major advantage of public-key systems is that they can provide a method for digital signatures. Authentication via secret-key systems requires the sharing of some secret and sometimes requires trust of a third party as well. A sender can then r epudiate a previously signed message by claiming that the shared secret was somehow compromised by one of the parties sharing the secret. For example, the Kerberos secret-key authentication system involves a central database that keeps copies of the secre t keys of all users; a Kerberos-authenticated message would most likely not be held legally binding, since an attack on the database would allow widespread forgery. Public-key authentication, on the other hand, prevents this type of repudiation; each user has sole responsibility for protecting his or her private key. This property of public-key authentication is often called non-repudiation.
Furthermore, digitally signed messages can be proved authentic to a third party, such as a judge, thus allowing such messages to be legally binding. Secret-key authentication systems such as Kerberos were designed to authenticate access to network reso urces, rather than to authenticate documents, a task which is better achieved via digital signatures.
A disadvantage of using public-key cryptography for encryption is speed: there are popular secret-key encryption methods which are significantly faster than any currently available public-key encryption method. But public-key cryptography can share the burden with secret-key cryptography to get the best of both worlds.
For encryption, the best solution is to combine public and secret-key systems in order to get both the security advantages of public-key systems and the speed advantages of secret-key systems. The public-key system can be used to encrypt a secret key which is then used to encrypt the bulk of a file or message. This is explained in more detail in How is RSA used for encryption in practice? In the case of RSA, Public-key cryptography is not meant to replace secret-key cryptography, but rather to supplem ent it, to make it more secure. The first use of public-key techniques was for secure key exchange in an otherwise secret-key system, this is still one of its primary functions.
Distributors of Mycological Products
http://www.MycoSupply.com
--------------------
Myco Supply - Distributors of Mycological Products
http://www.MycoSupply.com
The Premiere Source for Mushroom Growing Supplies.
Visit us online or call us toll free
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3DSHROOM
loon
Registered: 04/19/99
Posts: 2,878
Last seen: 12 years, 2 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: Lana]
#343843 - 06/18/01 07:31 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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Everyone should check out this site.... http://grc.com/
To find out how Zone Alarm and Black Ice Defender tested look here ... http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm (at the bottom of the page)
Hint: Zone Alarm did good, Black Ice did not.
________________________
Webmaster of the Shroomery
3dshroom@shroomery.org
http://www.shroomery.org
--------------------
Your friendly neighborhood loon
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holographic mind
veteran
Registered: 11/21/00
Posts: 387
Last seen: 23 years, 3 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: RESET32one]
#343845 - 06/18/01 07:32 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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i use zone alarm
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Lana
Head Banana
Registered: 10/27/99
Posts: 3,109
Loc: www.MycoSupply.com
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: 3DSHROOM]
#343969 - 06/18/01 09:52 PM (23 years, 10 months ago) |
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3DSHROOM,
Good link...very interesting article.
I've been trying to find Checkpoint Firewall-1 (A top level commercial firewall) and my friend kicked_mule gave me a link. Its basically an article about how the best firewall developers have sold out and work for the government!
What a kick in the teeth!
They have a site where you can go and look up private files that the 3 large credit buears use. It's pretty easy to get info if you're will to dig and spend under $100:)
Here's a link to the article about how Checkpoint Inc. sold out...or at least keep what they were doing on the down low:)
http://www.infinisource.com/features/fbi-files01.html
Look here to get a subscription on finding anyone.
https://www.cpfbi.com/default.asp
Lana
Distributors of Mycological Products
http://www.MycoSupply.com
--------------------
Myco Supply - Distributors of Mycological Products
http://www.MycoSupply.com
The Premiere Source for Mushroom Growing Supplies.
Visit us online or call us toll free
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soco
newbie
Registered: 04/26/01
Posts: 33
Loc: your window
Last seen: 23 years, 7 months
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: Lana]
#347981 - 06/24/01 02:54 PM (23 years, 9 months ago) |
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Lana,
Yeah, Its soooo disturbing, that we have to watch out for our own privacy.
I have the Zone Alarm now, and I am playing around with it. It seems like a intresting tool. Thank you for the good information, on encryption, and firewalls. Theres some crazy information, out there, soo much. Hey, thanks for the links also!!!
Peace,
SoCo
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Doomhammer
EmancipateYourselves fromMental Slavery
Registered: 05/01/00
Posts: 100
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Re: a good firewall? [Re: soco]
#356251 - 07/17/01 10:22 AM (23 years, 9 months ago) |
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I use Sygate Personal Firewall. It's free and seems to work good. It also supposedly makes your ports invisible to other users, not just closed.
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