Hi, Would like to know if the Windows 7 Firewall is good enough, or if I need a third party firewall. With Zonealarm, for instance, when I download a new program and it tries to access the internet, Zonealarm alerts me that XYZ.exe is trying to connect to the internet. It asks me whether I want to allow this or not. With the Windows firewall, I have never seen this happen? Does it happen, ever? Or does it already know trustworthy programs, and only ask for those that are suspicious?

The Windows firewall has consistently been getting stronger, and yes, it "knows" of a good number of trusted applications which you can find by looking through the setting. Sorry I can't recall the particulars on how to find the trusted list, I'm on an XP laptop at the moment so I'm in the dark so to speak.Do some more checking around though, I wouldn't consider mine the final word on effectiveness by any stretch since I'm a pretty safe surfer and tend to avoid sites that seem prone to malicious happenings.DAS

Hi, Windows Firewall is a protective boundary that monitors and restricts information that travels between your computer and a network or the Internet. When your computer gets an unsolicited request, Windows Firewall blocks the connection and there will be a pop-up. For more information about Windows Firewall, please refer to the following article: Understanding Windows Firewall Usually, Windows Firewall is enough and it need not install any third party firewall. However, you would like to make the machine more secure, you can also install a third party one but it may reduce the system performance if there is two running firewall in the background. Thanks, Novak

Personally I think the direction the Windows 7 Firewall has taken is excellent. Incoming connections are disallowed unless there is a specific rule.Outgoing connections are allowed by default, but you can change this behavior. From what I can see there are many problems being reported that may be involved with 3rd party firewalls, so I advise getting familiar with the Windows firewall and avoiding the 3rd party solutions. Also, I recommend you configure Internet Explorer not to download any and all programs (Add-ons) from the web (at least not without confirmation from you), and get a top-of-the-line antivirus program like Avast Pro 5. These steps alone will reduce the chance of you inadvertently getting "suspicious" programs on your computer to near zero. -Noel

"crackedLCD" wrote in message news:52c0f45f-23ee-4453-979f-7df3af2fe048...> Would like to know if the Windows 7 Firewall is good enough, or if I > need a third party firewall.Yes, the Windows 7 Firewall is fine, and I recommend against using a third-party one.-- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Ken Blake