Do i need to have Windows Firewall turned on?

r*oc

I have just installed a ripwave modem from irish broadband & have had nothing but problems trying to access the internet. I've been in touch with technical support who have tried everything to fix but to no avail. The problem seems to be, my modem or pc not locking onto the automatic ip address. I've since switched off the windows firewall to see if that helps & it seems to have done the trick. What i'm afraid of is, is it safe to leave firewall switched off. I have AVG installed but only the free basic download. Is my pc at risk?
Also... if anyone has any advice of a proper fix for my ripwave modem, please advise.

Farcear

Yes, you are at risk unless Ripwave has some sort of Firewall itself.

It is very unsafe to surf the internet without *some* sort of firewall solution; either Windows' Firewall or the Router Firewall though I'm pretty sure Ripwave doesn't have any sort of Firewall feature. If the Windows Firewall is the problem -- I'm assuming tech support tired creating exceptions -- then you may want to consider a 3rd party Firewall. Free AVG provide a firewall, so you'll need to find someone else.

I can't believe that it's just the Windows Firewall, as surely this product has been tested with Windows. What version of Windows are you running?

Capt'n Midnight

Here is a link from the BBC to give you an idea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4423733.stm

Jacques wanted to demonstrate just how risky it is to connect an unprotected PC to the internet.

We set up a poor Windows XP machine with no firewall or anti-virus software.

Connecting it to the internet would be like throwing it into a lion pen with raw meat strapped to its hard drive.

How long would it be before we were hit by something nasty on the net? Hours, minutes?

As it turned out - eight seconds!

A firewall should not stop you getting an IP address via DHCP unless you have some strange settings on it. If you have an address like 192.168.x.y then the ripwave might have NAT which offers some firewall function, but IIRC you have another address and the internet is connected directly to your computer.


Antivirus does not replace a firewall.
A firewall won't stop you downloading a virus
and antivirus won't stop someone creating or connecting to shares on your machine.


Turn on the firewall and scan your machine.

Nietzschean

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Here is a link from the BBC to give you an idea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4423733.stm

That story is a bit out of date no? there hasn't been an exploit with that sort of wild infection ability in years that i can think of. And no doubt they did the 'test' using an unpatched machine. Though as you said a NAT offers some firewall function, and imo more than enough. Much more likely to screw up your machine with some malware/virus than something which could manage to somehow get through a NAT.

Capt'n Midnight

There are still a lot of copies of XP out there and while the link is very old, it shows that it is possible to get hit before you can be protected. And yes it's far far less probable now. It's also worth pointing out that some vulnerabilities turn out to be many years old.


There are still patches released to prevent people taking complete control of your machine



It's also possible that some malware is interfering with the firewall. Best to check the stickies on the malware forum http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1009 to rule out that too.