Stops attacks cold
Written: Sep 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: One piece in the personal computer defense puzzle
Cons: Takes a bit of savvy to set up the first time
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| kurt_h's Full Review: Macmillan BlackICE Defender (1575954451) for PC |
BlackICE Defender is a personal network defense program that analyzes incoming network traffic looking for suspicious activity. And once it finds it you get a chance to stop it!
Defender is a relatively easy program to set-up and use, with a fast download after paying $40 or so for it. The latest version 2.1 installs flawlessly on my Win2000 Pro machine and sits as an icon in my system tray once it starts up. From a few simple settings of how paranoid you are and which systems you trust (via IP address) this is a 'set it and forget it' program that operates in the background.
When I initially had a dial-up account my Defender program was set to a very high level of paranoia and it was giving me warnings about every half hour or so. Annoying, but as the IP addresses weren't the same I just blocked them and let it ride. Over time the attack warnings decreased as Defender just logged the attacks and blocked them. After a week I had quiet computing and never looked back.
With that experience I was tempted to just hook my home network into the DSL connection I finally got, but didn't want to pay out lots of money for each computer to have Defender. Thus I purchased the U-Gate firewall from UMAX and blocked all of the ports from there. I still do use Defender on a couple of machines at home, but the only things that get logged now are connections from my home network. Defender is sort of a backstop program for me to detect anyone who somehow figures out the Network Address Translation of my firewall and tries to hit this most used computer on the home network.
Finally I do recommend another personal product that monitors OUTGOING traffic that may indicate a trojan horse or viral program seeking internet connections: ZoneAlarm. The concept here is that not all attacks come from the outside, and many programs like to install adbots that seek out the internet to download wonderful ads to your computer. ZoneAlarm finds those programs as they try to access the outside world and allows you to decide if you want to stop them.
Defending a computer on the internet is a multi-layered concept and BlackICE Defender can play an important role in that defense. But any serious network user should look at a hardware home firewall for 'always on' DSL and cable modem connections along with a network scanner like Defender and an outgoing analyzer like ZoneAlarm.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kurt_h
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Location: Sterling, VA
Reviews written: 967
Trusted by: 168 members
About Me:
A reader of SF and fantasy, and an enjoyer of liquid refreshment now and again.
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