Expert: James Filmer - 7/25/2010

Question
I just bought a netbook with Windows 7 Starter.  Do you think that the firewall that comes with it is good enough, or should I be looking at something else?  Thank you for your generous help.

Answer
Hi Herb,

Really, a lot has been written about that subject, so please forgive my pointing you to other posts.

As far as my opinion, since you're asking that question, probably it's good enough for you - as long as you understand how to use it.

For that reason, I give you links to sites that already give details about it.

If you want to try a 3rd party Firewall, Online Armor is a good one. So is Sunbelt Personal. Since you need an anti-virus application, if you don't have one already, AVG has a Firewall AND anti-virus application. You can find this and others (anti-virus, anti-spyware and Firewall info) on http://www.enrgy21.com/support
Whether you use it or not, get Spybot and at least one other anti-spyware application (also on Enrgy21.com).

To keep it simple, if you have enough info to decide to keep it great. If you're confused, let me know and I'll give you more of my personal opinion.


http://www.firewallguide.com/
http://windows.about.com/od/securityprivacy/ss/Win7Firewall.htm
http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?style=16&f=37&t=1930
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2335235,00.asp
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/living-with-the-limits-of-windows-7-starter-editi...