Should I replace Sygate Personal Firewall or not

AndrewJ · 30-08-2006, 14:47

Hi all

I am concerned over the security of my computer since I've had a few scares with trojans and a worm recently even though I mainly game.

I used to use Zonealarm but this and Battlefield 2 and my Star Trek Beta Game do not get on, so I went back to Sygate Personal, however I have heard that no more updates are coming out for it, so therefore it is wide open to more modern attacks.

I also have Spybot and Adaware along with Tuneup 2006 and Avg Free, I've been told AVG is not fool proof and many viruses escape it's defences.

Being as I am a gamer I like my system to run at a minimal of resources, so I am wondering for my peace of mind should I replace Sygate or not?

Halcyon · 30-08-2006, 15:16

As an Anti Virus I would reccomend ESET's Nod32 which is available online at www.eset.com.
It is the only anti virus I have found which uses hardly any system resources and let's you carry on working in the background without lagging all your system.

basa · 30-08-2006, 15:20

Sygate were taken over by Symantec (the Norton People)

and the only firewall they now supply is their own. You can get latest version of Sygate's from 'oldversion.com'.

Having said that when I upgraded from W98 to XP I stopped using it in favour of the built in XP firewall (I know it only stops incomings) and have had no problems. I also have Adaware, Spybot, SpywareBlaster and Avast on board.

If you wished you can quite safely use that latest version of Sygate (it was quiet stable as I recall) or one of the other free firewalls. AFAIK the only updates to firewalls involve fixes for bugs rather than for different types of hacker attacks. (I'm sure someone will correct me !

)

pedantic · 30-08-2006, 15:34

There is a list of free firewalls here the thread is quite dated, so some information may be outdated.

There is also a good forum here to give you some idea's as to what users are using, and their opinions on particular firewalls, as well as other pieces of information and advice.

AndrewJ · 30-08-2006, 15:54

Thank You will give them a read

Aragorn · 30-08-2006, 16:13

Generally speaking, personal firewalls should provide two functions - blocking unwanted inbound traffic and controlling outbound traffic. On a home PC you usually don't want any inbound ports open, so Sygate should be able to cope with that (possible exception would be seeding torrents and hosting games). As for outbound, as long as you set your firewall to block any new outgoing connections until approved (and are carefull about what you approve), you should be fine there. As Basa said, firewalls shouldn't need to change that much.

Personally, if it works now, I would stick with it.

(There was a thread a while back linking to a firewall leak test - might want to search for that old thread)

---------- Post added at 15:13 ---------- Previous post was at 15:08 ----------

Thread here

AndrewJ · 30-08-2006, 19:22

Thanks Aragorn I think I shall stick with Sygate, as for my antivirus I am going to buy NOD32 since it seems to be the ultimate AV for the average joe and company.

So lets hope all goes well!.

SnoopZ · 30-08-2006, 19:24

I used to use Sygate but since it got discontinued i moved over to the very good and popular Kerio firewall. I also use Microsoft antispyware and NOD32 and a hardware firewall.

AndrewJ · 30-08-2006, 20:11

I tried Sunbelts Firewall and had nothing but problems with it, especially with the Star Trek Beta game, I had constant permission problems with it, drove me nuts so I went back to Sygate.

SnoopZ · 30-08-2006, 20:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felinix_Devotion

I tried Sunbelts Firewall and had nothing but problems with it, especially with the Star Trek Beta game, I had constant permission problems with it, drove me nuts so I went back to Sygate.

Did you install as Simple mode? because you have to let a firewall learn your system before making it more advanced. Top firewall it is although i did turn off webfiltering as that screwed web based speed tests.

A good site for testing your ports is Shieldsup for testing your ports.

AndrewJ · 30-08-2006, 22:04

I had it in learning mode yes, it claimed to have learned and I told it to give access to the star trek programs when I run them it crashed them mid game by asking for accesss again....

SnoopZ · 30-08-2006, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felinix_Devotion

I had it in learning mode yes, it claimed to have learned and I told it to give access to the star trek programs when I run them it crashed them mid game by asking for accesss again....

That's a shame but then Sygate is a great firewall too, i just wish norton hadn't screwed with it!

AndrewJ · 31-08-2006, 18:05

Used the Shields Up site recommened and Sygate passed all tests...so I shall stick with it.

pedantic · 31-08-2006, 19:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felinix_Devotion

Used the Shields Up site recommened and Sygate passed all tests...so I shall stick with it.

I should think most reasonable firewalls would pass that test, it's outbound protection you should be concerned about too. That's why I dumped Kerio, because that, and a lot of others didn't do so well. I now use Jetico, and have more peace of mind.

SnoopZ · 31-08-2006, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by pedantic

I should think most reasonable firewalls would pass that test, it's outbound protection you should be concerned about too. That's why I dumped Kerio, because that, and a lot of others didn't do so well. I now use Jetico, and have more peace of mind.

No they don't. I've used a firewall that hasn't been setup properly before and you will find about 1-3 ports that aren't stealthed. With a hardware firewall you would pass the test though.