best firewall protection?

[historian]

Norton? Black ice? Any other hints pls? I have norton but it doesnt seem to be doing so well and is very intrusive.
thanks

[Gman]

1. Any hardware router

will keep out anyone you don't want in:

Linksys or NetGear

[swag]

2. For a single PC?

I use ZoneAlarm, the free version

www.zonelabs.com

I disagree with the person who said any hardware router will keep anybody out. Not true.

[skeptic9]

3. The best intro to web security I've seen is at

http://www.members.tripod.com/~KB0DSW/Internetsecurity.html

Any hardware or software firewall is only as good as the set of "rules" it has been "configured" to implement. The most restrictive rules would have as their default to EXCLUDE all activities that the user does not authorize explicitly. Most firewall users use default rules that take the opposite approach: anything not specifically disallowed is permitted.

Norton does a very poor job of documenting firewalls for the average user. An introductory manual is at http://www.lmp.at/ftproot/Motherboard/Gigabyte/GA-7zxe/setup_cd/Utility/Norton/firewall/English/MANUAL/NPF.PDF

Norton does a better job supporting corporate firewalls. See the Norton "Client Security Administrator's Guide" at http://software.berkeley.edu/windows/scs/test/scs-docs/scs1.1_admin.pdf

Consumer versions of Norton allow most of the same functionality as corporate firewall software for configuring rules that will make your computer as secure as you can stand.

[TimMooring]

4. www.grc.com

This is a good resource for security issues. Stev Gibbons research. Their shieldsup link is a good test of how secure you are behind any firewall.