Firewall problems

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TRON.dll
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Firewall problems

Post by TRON.dll »

First, let me get you all up to speed here:

I have two computers. Computer A is the one I have access to most of the time and is the one I'm always making fun of and whatnot. Computer B is the one I don't have access to as commonly, and is the one I'm having some trouble with, so focus on Computer B.

We installed a freeware firewall called "Jetico Personal Firewall" onto our system. It allowed me to flawlessly play DEFCON, but completely disabled my ability to play TRON 2.0 online. When I access any part of the game that requires online functionality (i.e. Server listing/hosting/etc.) the game locks up completely and my computer starts running very slow. I can eventually get out of TRON 2.0, but it's either through an ALT-TAB or a very long line of multiple non responsive "End Task" commands through the CTR-ALT-DEL menu, I can't remember which exactly.

I'm also starting to question the abilities of this firewall program, considering a recent system scan just found an application called Ace-Spy2.exe: Spyware.

Should I uninstall the firewall? Or is there some massive tinkering I have to do? To be honest, me neither the person who installed the firewall don't have a clue on how to navigate it's menu and manually unblock/block all communications for individual programs. What it does do (and it's particularly annoying) is it constantly pops up a message for any program that's not unblocked when it's trying to access the internet. The message pops up on top of the program, which, in some cases, freezes the program until the message goes away.

Does anyone have this firewall program and/or knows how to navigate through it, or actually use it? Also, if I need to be more clear or understandable on my description, please let me know.
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Post by win3k »

Greetz
We installed a freeware firewall called "Jetico Personal Firewall" onto our system
If you don't know how to drive it, even after having visited and read the support forums (http://www.smokey-services.eu/forum/index.php?c=13), get rid of it and install Zone Alarm (free version is a pretty well regarded, highly usable piece of software).
I'm also starting to question the abilities of this firewall program, considering a recent system scan just found an application called Ace-Spy2.exe: Spyware.
I wouldn't rush to blame your firewall for that. Firewalls are designed to prevent unauthorized access from the Internet to your PC, but they won't stop you from downloading crapware and they're not supposed to detect viruses. Also: AceSpy.2 is a key logger. Please tell me that computer hasn't been used for anything sensitive (like internet banking)...

TBH, a policy I've followed - religiously - is a complete system rebuild (starting with a low level disk format) on any machine that I have any degree of responsibility for if that machine looks like it has been compromised. That's almost certainly overkill, but once a machine has been compromised, I have zero faith in the AV toolkits ability to completely get rid of the malware and to not stuff things up somewhere else. Your mileage may vary.

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Post by TronFAQ »

Jetico is one of the most complicated to use firewalls around. Still better than XP's crummy built-in firewall, though.

I'd advise you to uninstall it and get a different one, like Win3k said. ZoneAlarm isn't bad, but I personally think Sunbelt Personal Firewall, Comodo Firewall, and Online Armor Firewall are better.

Sunbelt's is the easiest to use, but not quite as good at security as the other two. Comodo is a bit complicated to understand at first, but you soon understand it. Online Armor is probably the next easiest to understand. I think in your case, Online Armor would probably be the best choice.

http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall-pr ... tware.html

I use Comodo myself, now. The latest version has become really excellent for a free firewall, but it's a little more complicated to use. Though frankly, I didn't have much choice. There are very few firewalls out there that also work with Vista, at the moment.
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Post by TRON.dll »

The PC I'm using is running ME, and I don't think ZoneAlarm is compaible, I'll check, though. :)
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Post by TronFAQ »

Heh, yeah I should've guessed that's why you're using Jetico. Getting a recent version of a firewall that still runs on Windows Me is pretty much next to impossible.

In that case, you'll be stuck with this old, outdated version of ZoneAlarm:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/ ... 001_en.exe
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