Fguy64 wrote:
baloney.
Steve Gibson is a sensationalist. Nothing more.
Remember when he stated that Universal Plug in Play was an inherent security risk? Oddly enough there is hardly a device on the planet that _doesn't_ use UPnP. Every router has it. Every media center has it. Blue tooth uses it. Yet he still recommends people disable it.
Or when he stated Microsoft had purposely put a backdoor into Windows 2000/XP via the Windows Metafile Image Code? Just because something was a stupid idea and was later patched doesn't mean it was done on purpose. Just google Steve Gibson and WMF, you will see what I mean.
I could go on forever about Steve Gibson and his rants and raves, or his little programs he offers on their site and how utterly useless they are.
Fguy64 wrote:
more baloney. To say that a software firewall won't provide inbound protection is nonsense.
A software firewall _is_ useless for inbound protection. All software firewalls use horrible implementations of packet filters or per-process filters. Where does the inspection happen? That's right.. on the target machine. The attack reaches the target machine _before_ the software can reply. I assume you realize that hardware _does_ control software correct? Your Ethernet card will get the ping request _before_ the software firewall has a chance to work effectively.
That is why a layer of protection is required. Most broadband routers provide a decent Stateful Packet Inspection firewall, and the ability to _not_ respond to ping requests. Both are critical for security. How can you attack something that you can't see?
Imagine a radar station sends out a "ping" to see if there are any targets or objects in the area. A hardware based firewall will not respond to the request, or will absorb it, where a software based firewall never gets the chance to _not_ reply. The ping has reached the target machine and by default replied that the port is closed or open. It doesn't state that the port doesn't exist unless very specific rules are created.
If you want to control outbound access, then they serve their purpose. For inbound protection, you might as well have a straw house and let the big bad wolf come calling...
Peter
I was kicked out of Chapters because I moved all the Bibles to the fiction section.
