XP's firewall

I have heard that the firewall in XP is a one way street.
I think it only blocks incoming, and ET can phone
home whenever he wants, but I'm not sure.
In a typical desktop, single user, environment with
broadband via cat5 or DSL, does it provide sufficient
protection?
I know many of my friends use ZoneAlarm, but so
far i have had no problems using the firewall in XP
Shold I install Zone Alarm?

Install a good, comprehensive, security program,
such as Windows OneCare, and you'll not have to
worry about those issues. You can try it FREE
for ninety (90) days.
http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

"~~single~~" <alik@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:%23DIGw8S7IHA.3260@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
I have heard that the firewall in XP is a one way street.
I think it only blocks incoming, and ET can phone
home whenever he wants, but I'm not sure.
In a typical desktop, single user, environment with
broadband via cat5 or DSL, does it provide sufficient
protection?
I know many of my friends use ZoneAlarm, but so
far i have had no problems using the firewall in XP
Shold I install Zone Alarm?

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfrisch@nospamgmail.com> wrote:

Do you own the domain nospamgmail.com?
Why do you abuse it?

> Install a good, comprehensive, security program,
> such as Windows OneCare, and you'll not have to
> worry about those issues. You can try it FREE
> for ninety (90) days.
> http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm

ARGH! That's complete BS!

You can't gain security through use of a bunch of tools only.
You need to tailor your behavior to the problem:

0. install Windows from clean media on a fresh formatted
NTFS partition;

1. don't use the "Administrator" account or one with
administrative rights for your day to day work; use
a "restricted user account";

2. uninstall any programs/services you don't need/use;

3. turn off any services you don't need/use (that includes
ActiveX and Scripting within Internet Explorer and
Outlook Express);

4. keep your OS and ALL installed applications uptodate;

5. don't open (email) attachments you didn't expect;

6. turn on "Software Restriction Policies" aka SAFER and
allow execution only in %SystemRoot% and beyond and
%ProgramFiles% and beyond.


Stefan