Well ok, but there's caution and then there's paranoia. You can seek out all sorts of opinions, but you won't actually 'know' until you've had some experience with whatever application you choose. There's not a one that is foolproof. With dialup, your vulnerability is considerably less than someone who's connected fulltime over broadband. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Thanks, but I'm confused because I asked this question on another thread a day or two ago, and you said you didn't have a lot of fw experience and I should post here to get more specialized help. So that's what I am trying to do. This place is for questions after all, it wouldn't be here if the answer was that we just have to go for things and figure them out on our own as we do them (and actually, posting at forums *is* one of the primary ways I try to figure things out "on my own"). Maybe that could be said if all reasonable angles and questions have been addressed but someone just won't actually try anything, but I don't think that's what's gone down here yet. But thanks, good to know I'm that much less vulnerable with dial up, because at least with sygate, the slow-down in browsing speed can't even be put into words. Only through asking can I know if worrying about protecting a dial up connection is a matter of caution vs. paranoia though. But as far as getting a very old version of a fw, I think my question makes sense even though there's obviously much I don't know. Pretend 2.x was built in 2001. Both the fw authors and the hackers have figured out a lot of stuff since then. I'm only asking if having an old version of something like that means it knows only what was known in 2001. With a fw, I don't readily see how using it would allow me to figure out if it's effective. If things were getting in or out because the dated version couldn't recognize them, it wouldn't know it so neither would I! So while the informed may know that it doesn't work that way, I think the logic behind the question does make sense...?

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Well, I don't use a firewall with any regularity, and I've experienced no problems that could be attributed to being hacked - this is on a group of machines running 95 & 98, for several years now. I'd hoped someone with more direct experience could have offered some advice here in S&V - but maybe they're all on summer holidays. Installed ZA 2.6 on a couple of 95 machines, all has gone smoothly. Plenty of 'alerts', almost all of which have originated from my ISP (which does make me wonder about them). Tested my security at Shields Up - passed with flying colours. Also useful in interpreting the Zone Alarm log is Domain Dossier and Using and understanding zalog.txt Hope that helps We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Ok, thanks. Maybe I will reinitiate the request for recommendations when more people are around (or something. I have this theory that as soon as it can be seen from the main page that there has been activity on a thread beyond a couple posts, others skip that one because they assume everything is resolved). But on the other hand, browsing has been so much easier without a fw at all, that maybe I'll even just "forget" to ask my original question about the smallest good one again! (Wellll, knowing me, that's doubtful I guess. At least the part about making sure old versions aren't inadvisably stuck in the past. "Getting there" can be half the fun, a lot of this stuff I just find interesting.) Thanks again.

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Possibly folks are leery about advising for '95 since it's fading from the common experience. You might be able to use the 'search' feature of the forums - folks here have asked for firewall recommendations before, I'm sure. A firewall performs a certain function - monitoring network ports - newer firewalls have extra features, but those are 'extra' - the basic functionality would be the same more or less - at least, that's my understanding (however imperfect that may be) It has been interesting checking my ZoneAlarm logs. Overwhelmingly, my machines are scanned by affiliates of my ISP - including Time Warner and AOL - but every now and then there will be an offshore scan (Russia, England, Italy, Poland, France, Hungary & Japan - even Turkey). Curious. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Some interesting reading at SamSpade.org on firewalls etc. We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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