Best of the Free Firewalls

Greetings from beautiful downtown Kalispell, Montana. I am here for a 3 day art show called Arts-in-the-Park and have done well, so far. It was a long day getting here and I will head for home on Sunday night as soon as I take down the tent and load up the van. I have another big show in Richland on Friday and Saturday next week and need all the time I can have to get ready for it. Its warmer here than at home, but I am parked under a huge oak tree and am very comfortable.

On to the business at hand. As you know, I travel a lot these days, always with my laptop, and always on the lookout for free wireless connections. I usually find them in non-Starbucks coffee houses, like the one I am in right now (City Coffee here in Kalispell...highly recommended). I have been doing some thinking lately that I need to add a software firewall to my laptop, at least something better than the built-in firewall that comes with Windows.

Until now, I haven't made it a priority since my home and studio both have routers which act as firewalls. But, after reading a couple of articles on laptop safety while traveling, I decided to look for a free firewall that would help me out on the road and act as a second firewall when I am back on my home turf. In talking with the technician at my ISP, they recommend a software firewall on all my computers, even though they are behind router firewalls.

Of course I wanted a free one, if possible. I did my homework and found that there are three free firewalls that rank fairly high for the protection they provide. The first, and probably the best is Comodo, a very good firewall product that has won some Editor's Choice Awards and raves from several user's reviews that I have read.

The second is the free version of ZoneAlarm. It also has some decent reviews, but several users report that it has slowed down their computers. Other on-line reviewers have stopped recommending it because it just hasn't kept up with some of the newer firewalls that have come out.

The third is a new firewall that caught me offguard when I found it. It is made by PC Tools, the maker of my new favorite spyware detector, Spyware Doctor. It came in third in a couple of reviews I read, but because it has the familar interface of Spyware Doctor, this was the one I chose. It is a very good firewall, but not my first line of defense (at home, anyway), and it will do the job I wanted, both at home and on the road.

In working with it for a few days, I have found it easy to use and set up. And, as I said, the screen interface makes it so easy to use in my case. It takes up very little memory and system resources, which also makes me happy.

Like all firewalls, it has to be trained, meaning that every time something on your computer tries to access the Internet, the software asks you if it is OK. If it is something like your Web browser, you obviously want to permit it, but the software also lets you make this a permanent "yes" so the program won't ask you again.

So what is the big difference between the built-in Windows firewall and all of the ones I have listed above? And why do most computer security experts recommend you use a software firewall other than the Windows one?

The answer is simple. The Windows firewall is a one way firewall, meaning it only monitors and blocks any possible illegal access attempts coming in from the outside. It does nothing about attempts to get on the net from inside your computer. So, if you picked up some bad rootkit, or unknowingly have a spyware program inside your computer that wants to send your personal information out along the Net, the Windows firewall can't do anything for you.

On the other hand, these other firewalls I've mentioned here monitor both traffic directions and notify you when a program tries to access the net from inside your computer. That is why you have to train it so it will not block your regular programs. So, if spyware is trying to send personal information out, you are notified and can decline to let it access the Internet.

The one unfortunate thing about most firewalls, especially the free ones, is that they don't block any potential malware coming in from bad site. For that, you need a good spyware software like Spyware Doctor or CounterSpy.

I hope this is of help to you.

Free Fish Tank

If you have ever walked into a retail store that carries computers, you have probably seen the aquarium screen savers show different kinds of fish swimming lazily either an ocean or aquarium environment. With today's high resolution monitors and video cards, these screen savers look hauntingly realistic.

Psychologists have pointed out for years that having an aquarium is a good way to relax and lower stress if you just sit and watch the fish do their thing. My brother has had an aquarium for years, and while it is very relaxing to sit and watch the the little fishies swimming around, I found that your stress levels go back up because you have to feed them every day and clean up the tank on a regular basis. Thanks, but no thanks. All pets are high maintenance, which is why at this point in our lives, Susan and I live in a pet-free environment.

But, along with many other folks, I enjoy watching fish swim, either in an aquarium, or in their natural environment. Enter the aquarium screen savers. You get to watch fish swim without having to perform any maintenance. The problem has been that these screen savers, including the one from Microsoft, cost money. And while I enjoy watching fish swim, I was not moved to spend any money for it.

A few months ago, when I had some extra time to do some research, I looked for a free aquarium screen saver. No such luck...they all cost money.

But, the other day, I ran across a free one called "Sim Aquarium." It comes in a free version as well as more complex aquariums that do cost a few dollars. I downloaded the free one and enjoy it very much. It looks good on all my monitors, especially my 20" wide-screen monitor at home.

If you have always wanted a fish screen saver, give this one a try. It is available on the ZDNet web site. Enjoy.

Securing Firefox

Hello again from beautiful downtown Ephrata. I know it has been a couple of weeks since I've written anything, but, as longtime readers know, this is the busiest part of my art season, where I go from show-to-show displaying and selling my art works. And I am now beginning really busy time of the season. This weekend I will be in Gig Harbor, WA and next weekend in Kalispell, MT. After that I go directly to Richland, WA, followed by Coeur d Alene in the first weekend of August.

It is major crunch time for me as I have to come back to Ephrata after each show to restock my traveling van before heading out for the next one. Sometimes I only have 3 days to do that. So, I just don't have a lot of time to write these blogs, as much as I love doing it. I will make up for it in the winter months, I promise.

Susan and I did take 10 days off for both a vacation on the Olympic Peninsula and a family reunion in Seaside, OR. We had a great time, although I haven't had much time to even look at the photos I took on the trip. After the vacation, we headed to Tacoma where I had a very successful 3 day show.

So that sort of catches you up on my comings and goings. I will write a quick blog when I can, as I am still keeping up with the latest trends in technology on a nearly daily basis. I have several blogs planned and hope to find time to write them.

Today, I want to recommend and important article I just read about Firefox, my favorite Web browser. If you are a Firefox user you need read this article. It is entitled, "Securing Firefox: How to Avoid Hacker Attacks..." It is 11 pages long but most of it is illustrations showing how to set up your browser to be as secure as possible. Again, I strongly recommend that you read this article.

Almost as I write these words, a new security flaw has shown up in Firefox that you should also be aware of. This one is interesting (and weird) because it really isn't Firefox's fault. If you have both Internet Explorer and Firefox installed on your computer and you are browsing a malicious Web site using IE, Firefox can be attacked and used to hack your computer. I said it was weird.

If you browse the same bad site with Firefox, you can't be hacked as the site is geared to attack IE. So, the easiest solution is not to browse a malicious site with IE. As for me, I never use Internet Explorer, so I am safe. I also have set up my Firefox using the recommendations in the article mentioned above. Look for the folks at Mozilla to fix this flaw soon.

Happy computing and I will write when I can.