Third-party Personal Firewalls

When you need a third-party personal firewall

Most recent operating systems provide a built-in firewall that you can enable easily. Older operating systems don't always offer that option. Fortunately, there are dozens of free or inexpensive and easy-to-use personal firewalls available. (For help in selecting among them, you can look through the links to review sites which discuss the benefits and drawbacks of major third-party firewalls.)

How to know whether you should install a third-party firewall:

• If you're using Windows XP or Mac OS X, a built-in firewall is provided with your system and can be turned on; you don't need to install a third-party firewall unless you prefer the other firewall's interface. Windows XP provides ICF and Macintosh OS X provides IPFW.
  
  
• If you're using Windows XP's ICF but you want more flexible configuration options, install a third-party firewall. (Note: If you install a third-party firewall on Windows XP, turn off ICF. You shouldn't run two different software firewalls on the same computer.)
  
  
• If you want a graphical user interface for the Mac OS X IPFW but are using a version of OS X earlier than Jaguar (10.2), you can either install a third-party interface for IPFW or install a separate firewall. (Versions later than 10.2 provide a graphical user interface for IPFW.)
  
  
• If you're using an older Windows or Mac operating system (pre-Windows XP or pre-Mac OS X), install a third-party firewall.
  
  
• If you're running a home network with a router which doesn't provide a firewall, install personal firewalls on each computer in your home network.
  
  
• If your home network's router does provide a firewall, and you take a computer to other locations, you can still install personal firewalls on your computer to provide protection while it's traveling. Layering two firewalls behind each other on different devices (one on a router and the other on the computer) is acceptable. Running two firewalls on the same device is not advisable. (For example, you shouldn't turn on the Windows XP firewall and then install another third-party firewall on top of it.)

Information on particular firewalls

While CITES does not provide support for third-party personal firewall users, the following resources may help you decide whether you want to install and run one independently.

http://www.firewallguide.com/ - a site describing security principles for individual users, including reviews of the most popular third-party firewalls (both software and routers with built-in firewalls).

• Software firewall reviews: http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm
  
  
• (For off-campus users) Reviews of routers with firewalls built in -
  http://www.firewallguide.com/hardware.htm (wired routers)
  http://www.firewallguide.com/wireless.htm (wireless routers)

http://www.securemac.com/ - a Macintosh-specific site (for both OS X and pre-OS X users) including security information and reviews of several Macintosh firewall products.

http://librenix.com/ - a Linux-specific site including system administration information and tutorials. See the admin section for firewall guides.

http://technews.ucdavis.edu/news2.cfm?id=702 - The University of California at Davis' description of the importance of firewalls in a campus environment.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1450 - a discussion of the importance of several strategies in a combined effort to increase security, including antivirus software and firewalls.