[SWLUG] Wretched microsoft

[Steve Hill]

On Fri, 11 Jul 2008, Steve Anderson wrote:

> For years ZoneAlarm was the best there was on offer
> and it might still be the case if you connect directly to the
> internet.

It broke too much in my experience, seemed to be designed to scare the 
crap out of the user (presumably to prompt them to upgrade to the paid-for 
version) and generally fell into the classic Windows trap of believing 
that popping up a question every 2 minutes, that the user probably doesn't 
understand, is the best way to get security.  But each to their own. :)

> I think the blame can fall back to Microsoft for shipping XP in such
> an insecure state in the first place, requiring people to find a
> firewall solution that they've not changed over the years.

There I agree with you.  And frankly, my opinion is that you should not 
need a personal firewall - if you do, your system has been designed 
insecurely.  If you have to block access to a service your computer is 
running, I have to ask the question: why the hell was the service 
configured to accept the connections in the first place.  Far better to 
secure the services so they don't accept connections from all over the 
place than leave them insecure and have a firewall cover the insecurities.

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence