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Additional firewall advisable with Smart Security 8?


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Hi there,

 

First post!  I recently installed Smart Security 8 on Windows 8.  Both have firewalls, but I wonder if either is sufficient.

 

For years my setup was Nod32 + Zonealarm, and it served me well.  I particularly like ZoneAlarm's granular outgoing connections control.    I know some people complain about it, but I like being told program xyz is trying to call home so I know what's going on and who to trust.  I find that eventually, once I've set everything to "set and remember", it quiets down.

 

Will the built-in firewall of ESS8 provide the same control?  Is ESS8 compatible with running ZoneAlarm at the same time?  Anything else I should be considering?

 

Thanks.

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Hello there and welcome,

 

No, you shouldn't use two software firewalls at the same time. Yes the firewall in ESS is very competent. You could also probably get slightly better system performance running ESS, than a standalone AV + a standalone firewall.

 

It's up to you how much you want to interact with the firewall and how much control you want. The default mode is the automatic mode, and it is the default because it doesn't bother the average user with firewall notifications since not everyone knows what to allow or block when they see a notification. So the default mode is the recommended mode for the majority of users.

 

I take it that you have already uninstalled ZoneAlarm so its out of the way.

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I take it that you have already uninstalled ZoneAlarm so its out of the way.

 

New machine, new install, and haven't installed ZA yet.  If ESET gurus are confident I'll get as good or better firewall protection from Smart Security, I'll just leave at that and tweak the settings.

 

Thanks.

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I won't comment on the current ZA because it's been about 4 years since tried it. I did try it on my first Windows 7 x64 with Node 32 and found that it caused extreme problems. So much so that I had to do a fresh install. Every once in a while I wondered what all the hype is about with other software. I wonder no more. I'll stick with the tried and true.

 

I have ESS v8 installed on both of my systems, 7 Premium and my new 7 Pro. You can be as granular as you want or take the easy road as SweX explained.. If you intend to setup a LAN/HomeGroup I strongly recommend using Automatic mode until you have completed the setup, then switch back to Interactive mode.

 

To be honest LAN/Homegroup is all new to me and so far everything works but I think I still have to take a look at some permissions to deal with which I'm in the process of reading about.

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