Compare firewall software to spy protection software

[tony@well.com]

I've done a bit of reading on the net and I've read this newsgroup for
a couple of months, but I'm still unclear on the difference between
firewalls (typically ZoneAlarm) and spyware (typically SpyBot). I know
that each in each category different programs have their merits and
shortcomings, but I'm primarily curious about their generic features
and the extent to which their services differ and/or overlap.

How about popups? How about cookies? How about hidden intrusions into
my OS and applications?

For the record, I use Windows98 and IE6.

Anyone willing to shed some light on this mess*?

T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....

[default]

The spybot software identifies and purges spyware from your system
(software that's been loaded on your system without your consent or
understanding - one hopes)

The firewall stops incoming and outgoing traffic from contacting the
spyware and makes you aware that some program is trying to contact the
mothership.

For popups and cookies you need additional software. With
mozilla/netscape/K-meleon you only need to make the cookie file
read-only and the cookies can't be written to the drive when the
browser closes.

Web Washer will get rid of the pop-ups, cookies if you want it to,
and web bugs.

The K-Meleon (Mozilla based) browser has lots of controls and tweaks
for cookies and pop-ups and web bugs built into it. It will also
respond to the read-only cookie trick if one doesn't want to edit the
cookie file manually.

ZoneAlarm's main claim to fame is its ease of use. Once you learn
more about firewalls and how they work and what they do, I suggest you
get Kerio Personal Firewall. It is only a little more tricky, from a
users perspective, but offers lots of additional configurability.

It isn't easy to switch browsers once you become used to one or
another of them, but the Mozilla varients offer more security than IE
does. I find it easier to switch than keep up with M$'s swiss-cheese
ware, and which new vulnerability and patch needs to be installed this
week.

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:01:21 GMT, tony@well.com wrote:

>I've done a bit of reading on the net and I've read this newsgroup for
>a couple of months, but I'm still unclear on the difference between
>firewalls (typically ZoneAlarm) and spyware (typically SpyBot). I know
>that each in each category different programs have their merits and
>shortcomings, but I'm primarily curious about their generic features
>and the extent to which their services differ and/or overlap.
>
>How about popups? How about cookies? How about hidden intrusions into
>my OS and applications?
>
>For the record, I use Windows98 and IE6.
>
>Anyone willing to shed some light on this mess*?
>
>T.
>========================
>Tony Roder, speaking his mind....



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[mto]

<tony@well.com> wrote in message
news:lvrlhv4bbei1s5t40ift7h1sk58l7dc8ah@4ax.com...
> I've done a bit of reading on the net and I've read this newsgroup for
> a couple of months, but I'm still unclear on the difference between
> firewalls (typically ZoneAlarm) and spyware (typically SpyBot). I know
> that each in each category different programs have their merits and
> shortcomings, but I'm primarily curious about their generic features
> and the extent to which their services differ and/or overlap.
>
> How about popups? How about cookies? How about hidden intrusions into
> my OS and applications?
>
> For the record, I use Windows98 and IE6.
>
> Anyone willing to shed some light on this mess ?
>
> T.
> ========================
> Tony Roder, speaking his mind....

Simply put a firewall controls communication into and out of your machine
while a spyware removal tool such as SpyBot (which is NOT spyware itself)
removes spyware that makes it on to your machine. Within those two
categories there are a wide range of programs that vary greatly both as to
ease of use and capabilities.

ZoneAlarm was a pioneer of the idea of firewall protection for home computer
users and is still recommended by most authorities as the best product for
the average user. Some who read this forum of course will sneer - but not
everyone is a techno-geek willing to spend hours writing rules and mucking
around in their registries. If you aren't **very** comfortable with the
Windows operating system, this would be the product that I recommend, having
tried more than a few myself.

It has been very well tested over a number of years on millions of machines
so you should experience no problems with this one. The free version is
just a basic firewall. Pro version adds capabilities like ad blocking (not
just pop-ups - all ads) and allows you to block scripts, cookies & mobile
code on a site by site basis as well as across the board. Worth every dime
since much of the newest spyware seems to be magically appearing along with
those ads even at otherwise very respectable sites.

SpyBot Search and Destroy hunts down & removes many of the nasties that
invade your machine and it is an award winner. It will search your machine
for hundreds of spyware programs and remove them for you and also contains
an "immunize" feature that will prevent well over 200 (the beta version is
over 400) known spyware programs from downloading & installing in the first
place. This is a free program. There are commercial programs - AdAware
Plus and PestPatrol (in the $45 plus annual subscription range) -
available, but I haven't heard anything that would lead me to believe that
the paid version of AdAware does any better a job of ad blocking than
ZoneAlarm (and it is not a firewall) or that either program does any better
a job at removing spyware than SpyBot.

Hope that answers your questions - if not just ask.

[Dick Hazeleger]

tony@well.com wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:57:52 -0400, "mto" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
> >The free version is
> >just a basic firewall. Pro version adds capabilities like ad
> blocking (not >just pop-ups - all ads) and allows you to block
> scripts, cookies & mobile >code on a site by site basis as well as
> across the board. Worth every dime >since much of the newest spyware
> seems to be magically appearing along with >those ads even at
> otherwise very respectable sites.
>
> Is it correct to say then, that once such a firewall prevents the
> intrusion of baddies, it also becomes unnecessary to use a spyware
> hunter (except to eliminate the baddies that have already infected the
> OS)?
>

Hi Tony,

No, spyware hunters are not unnecessary. There are still spyware
programs floating around that will use your browser (HTTP, port 80) to
contact their "evil mothership", and since you will have to give your
browser permission to access the Internet... the spyware will have that
permission too, and that is the point where a spyware detection /
hunter program comes in. It will detect the spyware and "destroy" it.

Spyware is more than "infecting an OS", you'll be able find it
anywhere, in your browser, in your eMail (in spam), in useful programs
(more trojan alike) and in separate programs (for instance keyloggers).

Hope clarifies your thoughts about this issue a bit: Besides a FW, you
still have to check out your system with HiJackThis, AdAware and
Spybot; perhaps it also would be a good idea to run (regularly updated)
JavaCool's Spyware Blaster to prevent spyware from being installed.

HtH
Dick

[YK]

tony@well.com wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:57:52 -0400, "mto" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>> The free version is
>> just a basic firewall. Pro version adds capabilities like ad
>> blocking (not just pop-ups - all ads) and allows you to block
>> scripts, cookies & mobile code on a site by site basis as well as
>> across the board. Worth every dime since much of the newest spyware
>> seems to be magically appearing along with those ads even at
>> otherwise very respectable sites.
>
> Is it correct to say then, that once such a firewall prevents the
> intrusion of baddies, it also becomes unnecessary to use a spyware
> hunter (except to eliminate the baddies that have already infected the
> OS)?

To prevent the intrusion of baddies, there are three things you can do.
Note: You should keep these up to date as the baddies are always moving.

Install a good HOSTS file.
http://asp.flaaten.dk/proxo/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1311
http://asp.flaaten.dk/proxo/hosts.zip

SpywareBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Update the reference file through the online update function.

Use IE-SPYAD to add baddies to the Internet Explorer Restricted Zone.
This site has different Web sites than the HOSTS file.
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource.htm#IESPYAD

[mto]

"Dick Hazeleger" <Dick@post_it_in_the_newsgroup.com> wrote in message
news:vhm87qakn3b949@corp.supernews.com...
> tony@well.com wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:57:52 -0400, "mto" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >
> > >The free version is
> > >just a basic firewall. Pro version adds capabilities like ad
> > blocking (not >just pop-ups - all ads) and allows you to block
> > scripts, cookies & mobile >code on a site by site basis as well as
> > across the board. Worth every dime >since much of the newest spyware
> > seems to be magically appearing along with >those ads even at
> > otherwise very respectable sites.
> >
> > Is it correct to say then, that once such a firewall prevents the
> > intrusion of baddies, it also becomes unnecessary to use a spyware
> > hunter (except to eliminate the baddies that have already infected the
> > OS)?
> >
>
> Hi Tony,
>
> No, spyware hunters are not unnecessary. There are still spyware
> programs floating around that will use your browser (HTTP, port 80) to
> contact their "evil mothership", and since you will have to give your
> browser permission to access the Internet... the spyware will have that
> permission too, and that is the point where a spyware detection /
> hunter program comes in. It will detect the spyware and "destroy" it.
>
> Spyware is more than "infecting an OS", you'll be able find it
> anywhere, in your browser, in your eMail (in spam), in useful programs
> (more trojan alike) and in separate programs (for instance keyloggers).
>
> Hope clarifies your thoughts about this issue a bit: Besides a FW, you
> still have to check out your system with HiJackThis, AdAware and
> Spybot; perhaps it also would be a good idea to run (regularly updated)
> JavaCool's Spyware Blaster to prevent spyware from being installed.
>
> HtH
> Dick

Anybody compared Spyware Blaster to Pepi's Immunize in the SpyBot S&D?

[mto]

<tony@well.com> wrote in message
news:fc5mhv0e9lpmsqtv3teorc8563vuhv7ut0@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:57:52 -0400, "mto" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
> >The free version is
> >just a basic firewall. Pro version adds capabilities like ad blocking
(not
> >just pop-ups - all ads) and allows you to block scripts, cookies & mobile
> >code on a site by site basis as well as across the board. Worth every
dime
> >since much of the newest spyware seems to be magically appearing along
with
> >those ads even at otherwise very respectable sites.
>
> Is it correct to say then, that once such a firewall prevents the
> intrusion of baddies, it also becomes unnecessary to use a spyware
> hunter (except to eliminate the baddies that have already infected the
> OS)?
>
> T.
> ========================
> Tony Roder, speaking his mind....

More the other way around. Once you have used the appropriate spyware
detection tools to clean the machine then the firewall will help to keep out
further infection.

[mto]

"Dick Hazeleger" <Dick@post_it_in_the_newsgroup.com> wrote in message
news:vhm87qakn3b949@corp.supernews.com...
<SNIP>
> Spyware is more than "infecting an OS", you'll be able find it
> anywhere, in your browser, in your eMail (in spam), in useful programs
> (more trojan alike) and in separate programs (for instance keyloggers).
>

Don't overlook the power of that miserable little gif-bot with attached
cookie LOL - and the only way to avoid those (other than accumulating a list
of offending ad servers and blocking them) is to either block all
ads/cookies or surf with graphics turned off.

[default]

K-meleon allows one to reject graphics from outside the domain you
visit. Seems that should cover the little vermin . . . what do you
think?

Web Washer claims to be able to dump the single pixel gif as well.
You can configure it to insert the gif of your choice.

Also has a neat mechanism to dump pop-ups that open when one enters
and leaves a site.

>Don't overlook the power of that miserable little gif-bot with attached
>cookie LOL - and the only way to avoid those (other than accumulating a list
>of offending ad servers and blocking them) is to either block all
>ads/cookies or surf with graphics turned off.
>



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[Aaron]

"mto" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in news:vhmb2l7tpsop3b@corp.supernews.com:


> Anybody compared Spyware Blaster to Pepi's Immunize in the SpyBot S&D?
>

If you run both, you will see a line that says. "spywareblaster will give
you much more control on activex". Seems clear that it spywareblaster is
recommended to be run on top of immunize.


Aaron
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