Ok, so I guess I am computer STUPID. I cant seem to figure out how to set this program up. I am supposed to accept or deny things when I dont even know what they are. Does anyone know of a simplified help for this or am I just screwed?

basically with all firewalls you will need to accept or deny programs. You just have to know what program is trying to connect. Like say Outlook express, you will need to accept this one to read emails and so on. I havent used tiny firewall but with zonealarm and sygate it tells you the name and shows an icon and also the directory of the program. I hope some of this can help you at all and if not just come back and i will try to explain better or even Zack might be able to.

Hammy, thanks for the reply. I have zonealarm now and there is a world of difference between the two. With zone it gives the name of what wants permission but with tiny sometimes it is just ip addresses or something I have never heard of. I wanted to switch because I have heard tiny was so much better. Frankly I'm just not sure it is worth the trouble.

Tiny Personal Firewall is a very capable product. However, it is one of the least user-friendly ones out there. For instance, it doesn't ask if ou want to let Outlook Express access the internet, it asks if you want to allow msimn.exe access the internet (the name of the Outlook Express .exe file). Anyways, I am not aware of a tutorial or anything that will make it easier. You really do have to kinda know what it is asking about. I will see if I can find anything though. But, once you get it set to allow what you want, it will not ask you things nearly as often. Like I said, it is a pretty good product. If you don't want to fool with all its configuration, try Zone Alarm. It is free - www.zonelabs.com It has a certain amount of configuration needed as well, but it is considerably simpler. If you have any more questions, let me know, and I will also see if I can hunt down any tutorials or anything for Tiny.

-Zack

http://www.mindshatter.com/zack/smanback1.gif

NP

also if you want have a look at sygate http://www.sygate.com/swat/default.htm its the same kindof setup of za and i run za and sygate at the same time.

Hey Pesky,

Hadn't even read your reply when I wrote mine! My page must not have refreshed. Anyways, you will probably like ZoneAlarm. It is a very good product IMHO. Sygate is very good as well. I have some customers that use it on their laptops when they VPN in into their office.

BTW, nice to see you in here Hammy!

-Zack

Hammy and Zack, I want to thank you both for your help. I now have zone and sygate on my computer and am finding both to be easy to understand. I really like some of sygates features. I do have one question Hammy. When using sygate and I go to do the scans I get this message.
Access to this port has been disabled for security reasons
Do I have something set wrong to cause this?
Pesky

Hi pesky just trying to understand more of your last question m8. Which scan are you trying to do? The test system security or something else?

As I just went to try the scan and it aint working for me, hmmmmm

I get this:

Unable to determine your computer name!


Trying to find out what services you are running...

Unable to detect any running services!

Weird, also np Zack got bored and been away for more then a month and then moving next Friday so will be busy for a bit.