Tell Hackers to Scram - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, June, 2000 by Claude J. Bauer

McAfee.com Personal Firewall

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BEEN HACKED LATELY? Unless you've installed security software such as McAfee.com Personal Firewall ($40, one-year subscription; 877-622-3331, www.mcafee.com), you may not even know until it's too late. A firewall that detects and blocks unauthorized access to your PC via the Internet is especially important with today's always-on DSL and cable connections, which provide intruders with an open door to your system.

McAfee.com's new firewall is fairly simple to set up; the first time it runs, the program asks if you want to Block Everything, Allow Everything, or Filter Traffic. For maximum protection, select the last, and Personal Firewall will monitor your online sessions for inappropriate activity.

When you connect to the Internet and launch applications, the firewall intercepts the activity and prompts you to Trust All Applications or to create lists of Trusted and Blocked programs. Although this is handy, it could frustrate users who don't know which executable files belong to which applications; for instance, you can't answer the query "Allow CS3.exe to communicate?" unless you know that CS3.exe refers to CompuServe's software.

Personal Firewall displays real-time activity and creates a log of all communications. You can monitor traffic that isn't related to your applications; a flood of stray bits may mean your system is under attack.

While McAfee.com Personal Firewall blocks unwanted probes, it lacks a visual or audible alert to let you know there's trouble. If you suspect an attack, you must analyze the data in the program, which may require skills beyond those of mainstream users. Equally annoying is that the current version doesn't support Windows 98 SE's Internet Connection Sharing.

McAfee.com's firewall provides solid protection, but isn't as friendly as Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2000 or Network Ice's BlackIce Defender.

[pros] Inexpensive, simple to configure and install

[cons] No alert mechanism, tough-to-interpret data log

RATINGS

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING rates products on a scale of 1 to 10--with few 9's or 10's--based on value, performance, innovation [medals go to rare standouts in these areas], ease of use, and suitability for home offices. The [pros] and [cons] symbols indicate pros and cons.