Are Desktop Firewalls Overkill? 440
Barence writes "Should you be running firewalls on your desktop and server machines? PC Pro's Jon Honeyball argues the case for switching off Windows firewalls and handing over responsibility for security to server-based solutions. 'I'd rather have security baked right into my network design than scattered willy-nilly around my desktops and servers,' Honeyball argues. 'It seems to me that there's much sense in concentrating your security into a small number of trusty gatekeepers rather than relying on a fog of barely managed faux security devices. Of course, it puts your eggs into fewer baskets, but it does mean these gatekeepers are easier to control and manage: monitoring them in real-time becomes routine.'"
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:3, Funny)
I prefer using desktop traffic to restrict ports 1-65535 tcp/udp outbound on the client machines. It helps keep them focused.
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hardly Overkill (Score:1, Funny)
"Why expose ports unnecessarily?"
I tried using this argument with my teenage daughter, but she just laughed at me.
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Funny you should mention that... (Score:5, Funny)
But in the event of an accident, those people who are not belted in will be thrown free of the car to relative safety whereas those belted in will be strapped into a deathcage which could easily catch fire!!!
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:5, Funny)
my girlfriend sleeps with her bedroom door locked, even with the front door to her house locked down.
I think this says more about you than about Windows and firewalls.
Re:Defense in depth (Score:3, Funny)
The most important "desktops" are the laptops that get hauled around airports by the powers that be. Relying exclusively on your servers/switches to isolate your "desktops" doesn't work in a Beijing hotel.
This really is too obvious to be worth mentioning. Anyone indulging this non-debate is a liability.
Don't be silly. Haven't you heard of the Great Firewall of China? Clearly, it is completely unnecessary to worry about a laptop getting infected in Beijing, as it has been behind a firewall the whole time.
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:1, Funny)
Linux users do that. Windows users, leave their girlfriends naked in their cars parked on the outskirts of the city, unlocked even.
Re:Dude... (Score:5, Funny)
My plan is to run downstairs, get a bucket and fill it with water. Then I'll balance it on my door. Then I go back downstairs and bake a pie. After it cools, I take it upstairs and find a good place to attack from. When the intruder comes in the bucket of water will soak him head to toe, and that's when I hit him in the face with the pie. My pies are AWESOME so when he stops to eat the pie, I sneak around him and run out the front door naked. Someone is bound to see me naked and call the cops on me. When they show up I can explain that I'm naked because I didn't have time to pull on some shorts and also bake a pie. I had to choose just one thing to save my life.
Re:Dude... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Chill out man (Score:3, Funny)
You can tell the difference?
Re:stating the obvious... (Score:4, Funny)
Do you live in a neighborhood where someone jiggles your front door handle every few seconds?
No, but I wish I did! My "front door handle" has gone without jiggling for a while...