Firewalls
 

With all these new viruses doing the rounds I am thinking off installing a firewall. Already got virus protection.

Have heard of zonealarm which is recommended by NTL.

If I install a firewall, will this affect Live in anyway?

Does it affect anything else?

Good idea, Red. :)

I use Zone Alarm Pro, which I've found to be a very good firewall. Costs about $50 I think. There is also a free version available, which isn't as fully featured as the Pro version, but is still very good.

www.zonelabs.com

Tiny Personal Firewall & Sygate firewall are also meant to be quite good, & I think both of them a free too. (though Tiny is rule-based, so is a bit more of a hassle to configure than ZoneAlarm).

If you connect to Live via either a direct connection from your modem, or use a router, then a firewall on your PC will not affect XBL whatsoever.

If you connect to Live using Internet Connection Sharing, then using a firewall shouldn't be a problem for XBL. Although you may need to open the relevant XBL ports in ZoneAlarm (or just allow the XBox into the "Trusted Zone") - not too sure as I've not used ICS with XBL & a firewall, might not need to change anything.

A firewall shouldn't really affect anything else. If you have any progs on the PC that you want to allow to connect to the 'net, you just tick the relevant box for that prog in ZoneAlarm's Program Control options (& anything you don't want to allow to connect, you just cross the box). It's very easy to use.

Another option worth thinking of is getting a NAT router with built-in firewall, such as the Linksys BEFSR41 (~£50 from Amazon etc). This would let you connect the XBox & PC to the 'net at the same time (no need for ICS, or swapping cables etc), & also gives you a very good hardware-based NAT firewall to protect the PC & XBox etc.

EDIT: If you have WindowsXP, don't use the built-in Internet Connection Firewall - use ZoneAlarm or something similar instead.

Red, definitely use a firewall if you've got broadband. Either a NAT/router and/or software based firewall at the very least. Otherwise someone's bound to make you're life miserable.

I use the basic ZA. It's free and does the job nicely.

I connect using a Linksys hub. I can't use the PC and Xbox at the same time.

So will Live be alright with that setup?

Hub or router?

I use Sygate Personal firewall Pro

ZA was annoying, but Sygate is secure enough to stealth all my ports, and not as annoying to use lol

Its a Linksys 5 port workgroup hub EFAH05W.

Ah, so you basically have a direct connection, but you use a hub so you don't have to swap cables each time? (i.e. PC & XBox both plugged into the hub, & then the hub is plugged into the modem. XBox has the PC's MAC address cloned onto it. Want to use XBox, you turn off the PC 1st. Want to use the PC online, you turn off the XBox 1st).

Yep, having a firewall on your PC, with that setup, will not affect XBL at all in anyway.

Yeh that's the setup.

Thank m8.