Firewall dilema

[Eggwhite]

Is there a firewall white list that I can put programs I downloaded that a firewall is blocking, that I know are safe?

[nitd_kim]

jus turn off firewall... its utterly useless for 99% ^^

[gyung]

yeah firewalls are usually not very helpfuly unless you really suspect you are getting attacked.

but it can help with spyware that tries to call home

and it really depends on your firewall ^^;;

read the help file.... most firewalls have a list, but it varies of course

[CGY]

Only when you are visiting some sites that you are not sure about, like some "non famous" ones, then, you should turn your firewall on. It's better to check those download files you are going to get, to see whether it is trustable, or not.

[thugangel]

Three years ago, I tried and installed the most popular firewalls back then: zonealarm and BlackIce. zonealarm was too crappy for me and doesn't seem to be doing a good job protecting me compared to BlackIce. I like the feature from BlackIce that rates the hackers from non-critical to malicious types and the way it does the blocklist. Windows XP's built-in firewall was (and still is, even with the SP2) crap so had to keep that disabled.

I installed this other firewall software, which was beautiful because it tells me the IP addresses of ANYTHING that makes contact with my computer. I was amazed to see how many IP addresses tried to get into my box when all I was doing was chat on AIM. Too bad I don't remember the name of the application anymore and didn't care because I finally got a router which most of em are built with firewall. Hardware firewall is niceee. No eating up my computer resources and no pop-up alerts or stuff like that. But it has a flaw, which is that hackers keep improving and finding new ways to get in while your router is still using the same old style of protection and you're always gonna be needing to buy a new one to keep upto date. Not only that, you still have to encounter problems with making it work with other applications like games or torrents, just like you would with the software kinds. It's annoying but it's inevitable.

AND THIS IS BETTER THAN NOTHING. Sure your computer still works fine without any firewall protection, but what's the cost? Are you okay to recieve files or see pop-ups that you don't want? Are you okay that all the information about you in your computer is open to the interweb like your email, passwords, phone numbers, address, bank account, social security, credit card numbers, what stuff you buy, etc.? Being naked, you're also viable contributing to DDoS which is one of the likely reasons you're pissed because your favorite site or server is down. People who say firewalls are useless are mostly naive leechers and gamers.

And that is, guys, how I cook my cookies. Are you guys even listeni-- HEY!! WAKE UP!!

p.s. Ah, oh yeah. I don't really understand what the poster of this topic was saying, but I disagree against the people who say you don't need firewall ^_^;