You don’t have to travel far or pay a fee to start protecting your Mac from break-ins. Take a quick trip to the Sharing pane in your Mac’s System Preferences, and there, with the click of a mouse button, you can turn on the built-in OS X firewall—and put a wall between you and the rest of the world.

OS X’s built-in firewall lacks the flash and sizzle of other firewall applications. It has no multi-colored gauges breaking down network traffic by type, and no alerts, beeps, or buzzes to warn of impending danger. But it’s there if you want it, running silently in the background and monitoring incoming traffic for potential danger.

The emphasis is on incoming. As it ships from Apple, the firewall does not monitor traffic that may be originating from your own computer. If your Mac gets possessed by a malware application that then attempts to attack or infect other computers via your Internet connection (a not-uncommon trick), OS X’s firewall won’t, by default, pay any attention. And, there’s no way to change this default setting from your System Preferences. To force the firewall to monitor outbound traffic, you must use Terminal’s command-line interface. For most users, that’s a scary undertaking.

With Tiger, Apple’s firewall has added three useful new features, which are all available by clicking on the Advanced button in the firewall pane. First, you can create a log of attempted network infiltrations. While this log will likely confuse network novices, those with a little technical expertise will find it useful.

Second, you can now enable Stealth Mode. Hackers often find vulnerable computers by querying every network port (essentially an unlocked door to your computer) for a given IP address and waiting for a response. If your computer replies, you’re a potential target. Stealth Mode tells your computer not to answer questions from strangers.

Finally, you can now configure the firewall to block User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic. UDP is a networking protocol used by some applications, including those that utilize VoIP and streaming media, as well as some online games. While this feature can help keep your Mac safer, it can also—in the hands of a novice—severely limit or disable network/Internet access.

ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall is the award-winning PC firewall that keeps your personal data and privacy safe from Internet hackers and data thieves. ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall includes Cookie Control and Ad Blocking for a faster, safer Internet experience.

ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall review:
Until recently, digital burglars didn’t bother tinkering with home computers. But since many home PCs are now hooked up to always-on DSL and cable connections, the data they contain is a tempting target. That’s why you need a firewall, software that protects your information. Fortunately, ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 4.0 defends your machine from hackers, eradicates ads, and sniffs e-mail for possible Trojan horses. It’s easy enough for anyone to set up and use, and it offers sufficient options and flexibility to keep power users content. For total protection against Internet maladies, we still recommend Norton AntiVirus 2002 as a worthy companion. But Windows users who need only a firewall can’t go wrong with ZoneAlarm Pro. If the $50 ZoneAlarm Pro is outside your budget, there’s always the free ZoneAlarm. The freebie doesn’t include many of Pro’s better features, including ad blocking, cookie management, and the extra info that Alert Advisor provides, but its firewall heart beats just as strongly.

Download and go, go, go
Download the ZoneAlarm Pro (you can test-drive it free for 30 days), install it, and you’ll have ZoneAlarm working within five minutes–the setup couldn’t be easier. Unless you want to delve into its configuration details, ZoneAlarm provides wizards that will walk you through the setup. Keep clicking the Next button, and ZoneAlarm automatically chooses the strongest-possible defensive modes for your PC.

ZoneAlarm Pro gets a total interface redesign in 4.0 and now looks somewhat like Norton Internet Security. The new Control Center displays the current status of all your safeguards, including any programs currently accessing the Internet, and it provides one-click entrées to all configuration settings. Links along the left-hand side - to Firewall, Program Control, and Privacy–lead to detailed settings, security logs, and options. Across the top, twin gauges monitor both upstream (outgoing) and downstream (incoming) Net activity. A holdover from the old interface, a large Stop button, lets you disengage protection at any time. We love the new look; it’s easier on the eyes and easier to navigate, too.

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
Depending on how you set up ZoneAlarm Pro, each time a program or a program component on your PC wants to access the Internet, the firewall displays an alert to let you know whether the activity is authorized. A useful Internet Lock feature freezes your Internet connection so that no activity–incoming or outgoing–occurs when you step away from your machine. You can configure the Lock to engage automatically after a specified amount of time or whenever your screensaver activates.

But the enhanced Alert Advisor feature goes a step further. When a malicious user attempts to break into your PC, a click of the Alert Advisor button displays the geographical location of the hacker. Not even Norton Internet Security currently does this.

But wait, there’s more. ZoneAlarm Pro includes a new cookie manager that prevents third-party sites from transmitting personal info but allows full rein to cookies from trusted sites. And the new ad-blocking component eradicates all sorts of ads, including pop-up, pop-under, banner, and animated ones. Finally, it monitors more than 30 types of e-mail file attachments that potentially carry Trojan horses or worms, and it quarantines these files so that you can examine them later with a good virus killer, such as Norton’s.

Stealthy security
The snappiest interface and the best features won’t do you any good, however, if your firewall leaks like a punctured rubber raft. Fortunately, ZoneAlarm Pro passed our performance tests with flying colors: It locked up and stealthed, or hid, ports on our PC from hackers. In additional informal tests, both the online ShieldsUp exam and the Port Detective utility confirmed that ZoneAlarm always worked.

Should you pay or not?
Online help and e-mail remain your only tech-support options. Fortunately, ZoneAlarm’s support site is first-rate, with FAQ files, a list of known problems, and reference documents. If you still need help, you’ll have to e-mail the help desk, using a complicated online form. Although ZoneAlarm promises to respond to messages from Pro customers in one to two business days, its tech support answered our test query in less than two hours.

From its interface overhaul to its superb graphical information about hack attacks, ZoneAlarm Pro gets a big thumbs-up.

Norton Firewall keeping your PC safe - and safely hidden from hackers and Web cranks - is a no-sweat operation with Norton Personal Firewall 2003. Enhancements to Norton Firewall 2003’s basic intrusion detection now allow it to rank with the best at-home firewalls, including ZoneAlarm Pro. New features include a pop-up-ad blocker and more understandable alerts. But at $50 ($30 after rebate), Norton Personal Firewall 2003 is almost as expensive as Norton Internet Security 2003 ($70, $40 after rebate). NIS 2003 is a better bargain, since it includes both Norton Personal Firewall 2003 and Norton AntiVirus 2003. Current Norton Personal Firewall users, however, should spring for the upgrade; the $30 you spend will buy stronger intrusion detection and several other worthwhile features. On the other hand, bargain-basement shoppers and beginners should stick with the free ZoneAlarm 3.0. Installation Installing Norton Personal Firewall 2003 and configuring it for the first time is as easy as pie. The Security Assistant wizard walks you through six easy-to-understand screens that set the firewall to protect a home network, configure the firewall to let apps access the Internet, and establish any privacy safeguards that you want to implement. By default, the firewall is up, and security is in place. It’s foolproof, even for firewall neophytes. But like last year, we still ran into one problem: Norton Personal Firewall 2003 doesn’t migrate custom settings - such as those you’ve worked on to tweak access for certain applications, or, in our case, to use with our satellite Net connection - forcing us to re-create them. Nasty. Features Personal Firewall also integrates well with other Norton utilities - Norton AntiVirus and Norton SystemWorks in particular - and it shares the same green-light/red-light interface, allowing you to see which security provisions are activated and which are not. There’s a price to pay for this simplicity, however. Norton hides its configuration settings several screens deep. For example, the overall firewall security level (Low, Medium, or High) - visible from the top page of the old interface - is now buried, along with advanced features, requiring several clicks of the mouse to uncover. Unfortunately, the more advanced your needs, the more troublesome Norton Personal Firewall 2003 becomes. Want to set it to block ActiveX Controls? That’s a six-click process through three dialogs. And unlike some firewalls, Norton doesn’t let you disable cookies selectively. In other words, you can’t specify which sites’ cookies you’ll accept; it’s an all or nothing deal here. Nonetheless, Norton Personal Firewall 2003’s several new features make it an even more effective guardian for the masses. The most important addition: an enhanced intrusion-detection system that not only blocks port scans from malicious users, but also looks at each in- or outbound data packet. If Norton Personal Firewall spots suspicious data transfers or transfer methods, it compares these to a “signature” database that it updates when you do a LiveUpdate (Symantec’s update feature) of Firewall, and it automatically drops the packets coming from the offending computer. This method catches and halts worms such as Nimda and Code Red. Also new is the Block Traffic button, which stops all Net activity with one click, much like ZoneAlarm Pro’s similar feature. Norton Personal Firewall 2003 also blocks banners and pop-up and pop-under ads; it displays a Security Monitor (a miniwindow on the desktop that offers access to all of Firewall’s features); and the app now includes a graphical mapper that shows the location of intruding computers and hackers. Norton Personal Firewall 2003 has also improved its alerts, providing more information on each alert’s meaning and providing hints on how to combat such attacks. Performance Norton Personal Firewall 2003 passed the ShieldsUp and Port Scanner tests with ease. Using another computer, we sniffed the Internet for our test computer, but Norton Personal Firewall 2003 blocked every attempt to gain entry and cloaked every port. This is comparable to the results of ZoneAlarm Pro and McAfee Firewall. See CNET Labs’ tests for more details. Technical support Symantec’s online support remains superb; simply click through a series of online forms to find a solution in the support database or search through user-submitted queries - a neat feature that more companies should offer on their tech-support sites. You can also e-mail tech support for free, although you have to click through several screens to reach the point where you can post a message. Symantec claims that it answers most queries by the end of the next business day; ours were answered in a few hours. Telephone support costs a small fortune: $30 per question or $3 per minute. At $50, Norton Personal Firewall 2003 is pricey for a firewall. Its saving grace: a $20 mail-in rebate both for Symantec product owners and users of McAfee, ZoneLabs, and BlackIce PC Protection firewalls. However, we recommend either paying a bit more to get everything included in Norton Internet Security 2003 or spending nothing at all for ZoneAlarm 3.0

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eSTOP Download Free - Use eSTOP to view and stop TCP connections without logging of your network.

eSTOP! was developed as a security product with the intent to view and (e)mergency STOP problem TCP connections. It displays in real-time any TCP connection in or out of your computer. Web connections are an example of a TCP connection. You can instantly stop that connection by double clicking on the connection in the list or by pressing one of the three large red buttons on the main window. Now with logging and blocking by port, IP address, hostname or domain name. eSTOP! is not a firewall. eSTOP! complements a firewall because you can use it to stop connections normally permitted by the firewall. You can make eSTOP! popup whenever connections happen–then do something about those connections!

Spyware Doctor Download Free - Advanced spyware removal tool that detects and cleans thousands of threats

Spyware Doctor is a 5-star rated Spyware remover and provides real-time Anti-Spyware protection against Spyware, adware, Trojan horses, keyloggers, Spyware cookies, adbots, spybots, browser hijackers, phishing attacks and other Malware threats. Additionally it actively protects web browsing using Internet Explorer with a built-in popup blocker and malicious site guard. Spyware Doctor is easy to use and low on PC resources and its super fast scanning speed is delivered by multiple specialized scanners that include Windows registry, file system, processes and tasks, browser, network configuration (including LSP), cookie and an intelligent script scanner.

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The firewall component in Microsoft’s Windows OneCare security bundle has holes, experts have warned.

The security software, available in a public beta version, by default allows applications that use the Java Virtual Machine or have a digital signature to connect to the Internet.

Like any blanket security-bypass rule, these default settings are a bad idea, said Mark Curphey, vice president at vulnerability management specialist Foundstone, a part of McAfee.

“Any firewall, any security device should have a default deny,” Curphey said in an interview Tuesday. “Any door should always be closed.”

Curphey discovered the issue when running software on his wife’s computer, on which he had installed OneCare. He informed Foundstone security consultant Roger Grimes, who subsequently blogged about it on the InfoWorld Web site. Grimes also blasted the default bypass settings.

“It just invites malicious hackers and other malware goons to exploit it,” Grimes wrote.

OneCare team on Tuesday responded to the Foundstone experts in its own blog, and a Microsoft representative confirmed the blog’s content. Yes, the OneCare firewall does allow any signed application and the Java Virtual Machine to pass through without alerting the user, but this should not be a security risk, according to the posting. The team invites readers to discuss the topic.

“It is highly unusual for malware to be signed,” according to the Microsoft blog posting. Furthermore, if an application is signed, it can be traced to its author, it said.

Blocking Java would result in many applications being disabled, Microsoft, the posting added. And asking users to allow applications to pass through each time they are invoked would be too confusing. If a malicious program that uses the Java Virtual Machine does land on a user’s PC, the antivirus component of OneCare should catch it, the OneCare team wrote.

According to Grimes’s blog, however, that adware and spyware makers often sign their applications. Such a signature is meant to make their software look more reliable. “They already routinely use signed controls to install themselves onto users PCs, and certainly they will continue to use them to bypass this (OneCare) service,” Grimes wrote.

Spyware expert Ben Edelman agreed. “Most malware is signed,” he said. “Getting these signatures is remarkably easy. And the resulting user experience is far better: reassuring-looking dialog boxes that make users think software is safe.”

A public test version of OneCare has been available since November. OneCare is meant for consumers and will combine anti-spyware software with antivirus software, firewall software and several tune-up tools for Windows PCs. The final package is expected sometime this year and will be offered as a subscription service.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6033589.html

Provide support to all your customers by remote control. Remote Helpdesk can be started from a shortcut to a Web or file server and runs without installation. A single license includes unlimited clients. Features 256, 15, 16, 24, or 32-bit screen transfer, compression and encryption of all traffic, file transfer, chat, macro functions, display remote system information, send messages to remote user, clipboard transfer, definable hotkeys, definable IP port, full screen mode, reverse connection and optional sock authentication for connecting to users behind firewalls, optional input to allow users to specify help needs, mouse wheel support for MS mouse or equivalent.
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VisNetic Firewall is a stateful packet level firewall solution built to protect Windows-based Servers, telecommuters / mobile users, and LAN workstations not currently protected by a firewall. VisNetic Firewall is more secure than application-based personal firewalls, yet less expensive than high-end firewalls, providing peace-of-mind through comprehensive intrusion protection.
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Hello! I Has decided to publish the rating of firewalls:

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Norton Personal Firewall 2006. Connect to the Internet on your own terms. With Nortonâ„¢ Personal Firewall 2006, you control what comes in and what goes out. A powerful firewall, it’s your primary line of defense against hackers, automatically locking out intruders and protecting your identity and data while you’re on the Internet.
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Norton AntiVirus Professional
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Packet Filtering is the type of firewall built into the Linux kernel.

A filtering firewall works at the network level. Data is only allowed to leave the system if the firewall rules allow it. As packets arrive they are filtered by their type, source address, destination address, and port information contained in each packet.

Many network routers have the ability to perform some firewall services. Filtering firewalls can be thought of as a type of router. Because of this you need a deep understanding of IP packet structure to work with one.

Because very little data is analyzed and logged, filtering firewalls take less CPU and create less latency in your network.

Filtering firewalls do not provide for password controls. User can not identify themselves. The only identity a user has is the IP number assigned to their workstation. This can be a problem if you are going to use DHCP (Dynamic IP assignments). This is because rules are based on IP numbers you will have to adjust the rules as new IP numbers are assigned. I don’t know how to automate this process.

Filtering firewalls are more transparent to the user. The user does not have to setup rules in their applications to use the Internet. With most proxy servers this is not true.