XP SP2 Firewall vs Zone Alarm
Posted by MickeyMouse in Windows
This recipe explains the major difference between zone alarm and the firewall that ships with XP Service Pack 2.
With SP2, XP finally has a built-in firewall. Great for the internet as a whole; bad for the companies that produce other software firewalls.
Now that XP comes with a firewall, should the average user uninstall and forget about their favorite software firewall?
No! Software firewalls do something that SP2′s firewall does not do–block and filter outbound connections as well. The quote from Microsoft: “Windows Firewall will automatically allow all outbound connections, regardless of the program and the user context.”
Why block outbound connections? Software packages send information back to “home-base” all the time. Spyware can collect information and send it back to the author. These are invasions of your privacy that Zone Alarm and most other software firewalls stop.
SP2′s firewall will be good because it will decrease the number of targets for hackers and authors of spyware. Users who are not experienced enough to install a software firewall will have an easy option available to them and turned on by default. SP2′s firewall be also be very unlikely to have a lot of conflicts on the long run.
Should you run both? I do not think anybody is going to recommend that. You are just asking for troubles and conflicts.
Most experienced users will and should prefer a software firewall over the one included in SP2.
The Conversation
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January 06, 2009 at 1:10 pm, yasser said:
suck balls
January 13, 2009 at 7:20 am, Anonymous said:
“Why block outbound connections? Software packages send information back to “home-base” all the time. Spyware can collect information and send it back to the author. These are invasions of your privacy that Zone Alarm and most other software firewalls stop.”
Rubbish! Zone Alarm is spyware! It “phones home” every few minutes, and transmits a variety of your personal data to several companies. This is well-documented. ZA may block OTHER outgoing traffic, but at what cost?