Do you plan to use third-party antivirus and firewall?

[Mike Lonewolf]

Hey Mike.

That was what I'm about to say
I was a big fan of ZA while running Win XP. Started from Win 7 ZA had severe compatibility issue. Then I moved to Comodo that have compatible version with Win 7. Then when WDP started, comodo was left with compatibility issue, again.

Well. Starting with WDP I really haven't install any firewall yet.

Kevin

Kevin? Forget about Windows 8 DP, unless you're using the tools to write programs with, there has been 2 updates since it came out. CP (Consumers Preview), and now we are working with RP (Release Preview).

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Kevin? I suggest for FireWall duties you go with ZoneAlarm. They have a couple free versions one with, and one without anti-virus.
ZA has always been a strong FW since it was introduced, and gets some of the highest rating from all corners of security, and various magazines. (I.E. PCMag, MPC, Windows Mag, etc.).

***EDIT*** Just finished talking to Tom over at ZA's website, THEY aren't even in the Alpha stage of a version of ZA for Windows 8 yet..Sheesh.

I used ZA when it first came out. It was fund to play with, but I fail to see how that sort of firewall would protect you if your system was compromised by malware.

Cly? You don't install it on a system that has already been compromised. You would install a firewall on a clean system, EVEN before you run Microsoft updates. Cly? if your system is still infected in some manner, I would suggest you to do a HARD format, and reinstall Windows 8RP. To preform one, you go into your BIOS, then to the hardware tools, and format Hard Drive(s). BUT before you do that, GET an accounting of the disk size. (bytes & sectors) When you do a hard format, the entire disk is erased, including bad sectors, partitions, file format, the entire shebang. Would be best if you installed that hard drive, to use the CD/DVD included with it, to put it back to factory specs. Some BIOS include with them, auto-detect and can put your hard drive back, BUT like I said, get an accounting of the drive.

 

[CB]

Though I'm currently with WRP but Haven't really tried any firewall. Comodo is fine with my Win 7, but sometimes it's bugging me a lot with so many pop up asking for program clearance.

Kevin

 

[Cly]

Kevin? I suggest for FireWall duties you go with ZoneAlarm. They have a couple free versions one with, and one without anti-virus.
ZA has always been a strong FW since it was introduced, and gets some of the highest rating from all corners of security, and various magazines. (I.E. PCMag, MPC, Windows Mag, etc.).

***EDIT*** Just finished talking to Tom over at ZA's website, THEY aren't even in the Alpha stage of a version of ZA for Windows 8 yet..Sheesh.

I used ZA when it first came out. It was fund to play with, but I fail to see how that sort of firewall would protect you if your system was compromised by malware.

Cly? You don't install it on a system that has already been compromised. You would install a firewall on a clean system, EVEN before you run Microsoft updates. Cly? if your system is still infected in some manner, I would suggest you to do a HARD format, and reinstall Windows 8RP. To preform one, you go into your BIOS, then to the hardware tools, and format Hard Drive(s). BUT before you do that, GET an accounting of the disk size. (bytes & sectors) When you do a hard format, the entire disk is erased, including bad sectors, partitions, file format, the entire shebang. Would be best if you installed that hard drive, to use the CD/DVD included with it, to put it back to factory specs. Some BIOS include with them, auto-detect and can put your hard drive back, BUT like I said, get an accounting of the drive.

How does a firewall prevent your system from being compromised by a malware that you inadvertently download and install?

 

[Kodi]

I use Avast internet Security (paid version) on all my computers and find that it does everything that I want it do do and does not seem to slow my computers.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

I used ZA when it first came out. It was fund to play with, but I fail to see how that sort of firewall would protect you if your system was compromised by malware.

Cly? You don't install it on a system that has already been compromised. You would install a firewall on a clean system, EVEN before you run Microsoft updates. Cly? if your system is still infected in some manner, I would suggest you to do a HARD format, and reinstall Windows 8RP. To preform one, you go into your BIOS, then to the hardware tools, and format Hard Drive(s). BUT before you do that, GET an accounting of the disk size. (bytes & sectors) When you do a hard format, the entire disk is erased, including bad sectors, partitions, file format, the entire shebang. Would be best if you installed that hard drive, to use the CD/DVD included with it, to put it back to factory specs. Some BIOS include with them, auto-detect and can put your hard drive back, BUT like I said, get an accounting of the drive.

How does a firewall prevent your system from being compromised by a malware that you inadvertently download and install?

It DOESN'T I had assumed you had gotten drive by infections, not that you, yourself placed them onto your computer. In this case scenario, I would then suggest you get the paid version of Norton 360 version 6. With that you would be BLOCKED by a full screen message that is telling you of the dangers.

 

[Cly]

Cly? You don't install it on a system that has already been compromised. You would install a firewall on a clean system, EVEN before you run Microsoft updates. Cly? if your system is still infected in some manner, I would suggest you to do a HARD format, and reinstall Windows 8RP. To preform one, you go into your BIOS, then to the hardware tools, and format Hard Drive(s). BUT before you do that, GET an accounting of the disk size. (bytes & sectors) When you do a hard format, the entire disk is erased, including bad sectors, partitions, file format, the entire shebang. Would be best if you installed that hard drive, to use the CD/DVD included with it, to put it back to factory specs. Some BIOS include with them, auto-detect and can put your hard drive back, BUT like I said, get an accounting of the drive.

How does a firewall prevent your system from being compromised by a malware that you inadvertently download and install?

It DOESN'T I had assumed you had gotten drive by infections, not that you, yourself placed them onto your computer. In this case scenario, I would then suggest you get the paid version of Norton 360 version 6. With that you would be BLOCKED by a full screen message that is telling you of the dangers.

I want a firewall that prevents unwanted connections from the Internet, which MS firewall does nicely. My point is that Zone alarm type firewalls that go to great pains to prevent programs on your machine from accessing the internet, which I think is useless and a waste of time because any sophisticated trojan that has already compromised your system gets around that pretty easily. (MS firewall can also be configured to filter outbound connections by a program but but it's very difficult to set up).

As I said, I first used Zonealarm in 2001 or so, but after playing around with it for a while I came to realize that it's not all that useful. If you can point to some uses for a firewall other than the built-in Windows firewall I would love to know about it.

And by the way, given that most of us download and install dozens of third-party apps, that should be a huge point of concern. Firewalls can give a false sense of security because it give an option to block third party apps from accessing the internet. If those apps have malware worth its salt, they can get around the firewall pretty easily.

 

[bitmodule]

They said Windows Defender was updated for Windows 8 to be like MSE so I use it, but Windows Defender was poor in Windows 7. I have always used the default Windows Firewall.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Personally I am using various security solutions. First was Norton 360, and now am using Bull Guard. (Beta testing went live yesterday) I'm liking Bull Guard, nicer interface than Norton 360. BUT pretty looks aren't what counts, it's how the product works.
Bull Guard gave me permission to let Windows 8 know if I find any problems with their product & Windows 8.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Back to the subject at hand Cly, if YOU want total protection, you should ONLY use a software firewall in conjunction with a hardware firewall. Basic hardware firewalls can be found with most routers. And even so with a hardware router, you need to remember to get new rules when they become available. I, myself find being paranoid helps to keep the bad guys off my systems. I said that because I also have a Cisco hardware firewall too. Internet >>> Router FW >>> Hardware Firewall >>> Software Firewall. And each of them are locked differently so that anyone that ACTUALLY wanted to break into my network, would be driven insane trying to figure out my thought pattern for each of them. And NOW with touchscreen lockouts of the system. I have added a hand motion control motion to get passed the Windows 8 screen.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Ms has re-written parts of Windows which hackers regarded as leaky as a sieve. The whole Memory Heap stuff has been re-coded thereby closing a well used (in Hacker circles) weakness in Windows -- force a memory overflow into a buffer and start messing around there with the nasty stuff.

Finally Ms has well and truly fixed this -- and as this is so central to the kernel of the OS I doubt if Ms will pass these details on to AV suppliers.

IMO the best people to protect an OS are those who coded it in the first place rather than rely on 3rd party suppliers attempting to "Reverse Engineer" bits of Windows and basing their software on the result of their reverse engineering --which could be flawed in the first place or worse could actually open other areas to exploitation by malware writers.

I've long since said that the days of FREE consumer grade AV stuff are over -- there isn't ANY need for this sort of stuff in W8 -- If Windows defender can't defend itself against malware then nobody else will be able to either.

Your best bet is to supply Windows updates frequently and ABOVE ALL safe surfing and NEVER EVER open email - especially with attachments when you don't know the sender (or even if you DO in certain cases !!).

Corporate protection is another matter as it's not only malware that needs to be defended against. You have to be concerned with Denial of Service attacks , massive spam attacks etc etc. The discussion here I presume refers to personal copies of W8 on people OWN laptops / desktops rather than company supplied machines.

I would assume that anybody using a HOME router would certainly enable the built in firewall and regularly check its logs to see if anybody has attempted to attach themselves to your network -- if you use torrent sites - doubly important too.

Other than that and Windows own firewall you shouldn't need any other protection.

I usually go one step further though -- any software I download I try and check out as much as I can on a Virtual machine --only then do I copy it to a real machine. With a Virtual machine if all goes wring then just delete that VM and create a new one. It's rare that you have to test stuff on physical hardware first these days although you do have to do it sometimes --then TAKE BACKUP before you start.

I also never (or extremely rarely) surf the net on a physical machine --I always do it through a small VM just for that purpose. I use a small W8 VM - running off an SSD it's still almost as fast as a physical machine.

On that VM I also have email accounts too so if any rubbish gets through it won't contaminate my main machine.
Hyper-V on W8 allows VM's to run in the background which can be started automatically on Boot. VMware workstation does this too but HYPER-V is FREE with W8.

(120GB SSD allows plenty of space for my primary OS and the VM I use for surfing the web).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[virus]

Windows 8 antivirus and firewall do good job. If my computer ends up infected then I will install Avast.

 

[jimbo45]

Windows 8 antivirus and firewall do good job. If my computer ends up infected then I will install Avast.

If your computer ends up infected do you REALLY think Avast has any better chance of saving it than Windows defender.
I doubt it somehow.

W8 is a WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME to what you might be used to in W7 (or previous windows versions such as Vista or XP).

Note that the rules have SIGNIFICANTLY changed for W8 -- we are all getting bogged down in the whole Metro vs Traditional desktop debate -- but honestly one of the BEST features of W8 is that it's actually quite secure against viruses etc.

Of course no OS can protect you against totally idiotic Surfing and stupid practices like opening emails from "Nigerian Businessman- please pay 1,000 USD so I can release 250,000 dollars and I'll pay you 15,000 for the privilege of being able to use your bank account to get my money out of the country".

If people still fall for scams like that - or "the Canadian Lottery" well you deserve what you get.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[paarkhi]

Lot of files which I could run on win 7 no longer run on win 8 due to security issues, so I'm sure that the security has been tightened in win 8 which is a good thing

 

[Coke Robot]

Lot of files which I could run on win 7 no longer run on win 8 due to security issues, so I'm sure that the security has been tightened in win 8 which is a good thing

Do you get the metroie SmartScreen dialog?

 

[Coke Robot]

I find that the default Windows Defender in 8 will be plenty fine for basically a vast majority of people. After using it since the DP and seeing that it caught about 65-70 percent of the STDs on foreign hard drives, it's pretty solid. It blocks potential attack as well too. Along with system wide SmartScreen from Windows to Internet Explorer, Defender, and UAC, I see solid virus free systems in my future.

 

[TimK]

As for the programs which no longer run, I would call it 'control issues' rather tban security. We seem to be getting more Apple-like every day.

 

[dinesh]

Avast+Windows 8 firewall.

 

[virus]

Windows 8 antivirus and firewall do good job. If my computer ends up infected then I will install Avast.

If your computer ends up infected do you REALLY think Avast has any better chance of saving it than Windows defender.
I doubt it somehow.

W8 is a WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME to what you might be used to in W7 (or previous windows versions such as Vista or XP).

Note that the rules have SIGNIFICANTLY changed for W8 -- we are all getting bogged down in the whole Metro vs Traditional desktop debate -- but honestly one of the BEST features of W8 is that it's actually quite secure against viruses etc.

Of course no OS can protect you against totally idiotic Surfing and stupid practices like opening emails from "Nigerian Businessman- please pay 1,000 USD so I can release 250,000 dollars and I'll pay you 15,000 for the privilege of being able to use your bank account to get my money out of the country".

If people still fall for scams like that - or "the Canadian Lottery" well you deserve what you get.

Cheers
jimbo

cause stone cold said so...

 

[Phone Man]

While waiting on the next Beta of NIS 2013 I tried Windows Defender in Windows 8 RP. I have Windows Updates to not install but wait for my go ahead, which prevents WD from auto updating definitions. Also I can not find a setting to schedule a scan. It only gives me manual choices. I wish it had its own updater that could be set to check on a specific schedule and install the update.

Jim