Comments on: Microsoft takes down barrier in Vista firewall

Windows update will turn off the firewall's new feature by default--something customers have asked for, Microsoft says.

[roger.d.miller]

Is there an echo here?

Didn't I read this same story yesterday?

[Amazingant]

echo here?

Didn't I read this same story yesterday?


echo
echo
echo

[markdoiron]

Doesn't Make Sense

Setting the firewall partly off to suit the needs of enterprise customers doesn't make sense. First, don't they have their own version (unencumbered by product activation) of Win Vista? Second, don't they have IT departments that can see that everything is hunky-dory, versus the typical home user, many of whom still struggle to get Windows installed at all? The weak link in security is and will continue to be the home user. All MS is doing is making it even easier for renegade software to successfully operate in the Vista environment of home users.

mark d.

[TV James]

Moronic

Hey... I'd like a gun without a safety. Too often I look down the barrel to make sure there's a bullet before I shoot someone. Only I keep forgetting to take the safety off before I pull the trigger. If there were no safety, I could turn the gun from my head and squeeze the trigger in one fell swoop and save a lot of time and aggravation.

Those that know enough to know what a firewall is are the ones that are smart enough to know how to turn one off.

It really should be on for the unwashed masses running their zombie PCs on irresponsible ISP networks where security is a free downloadable copy of McAfee for a year.

And with tools like SMS and Ghost, isn't it a snap for an IT department to deploy PCs with the firewall turned off?

Or, ship two versions of Vista... Vista Home and Vista Pro. Make them identical except that the Pro version has the firewall turned off and costs $100 more.

[Jackson Cracker]

marketing opportunity

Ship the OS with all the outbound ports open. Then
when users complain about spyware and their ISPs
tell them their computers have been hijacked and
turned into zombies, MS can step in and offer them
an "anti-spyware" program that closes the ports.

[ChazzMatt]

copy edit this story!

"The firewall in Windows Vista will have half its protection turned off by default"

half? HAVE

Are you people high school dropouts?

[TV James]

Read it again

No, it's correct

have half

have 50%

be only half enabled

be 50% useless

[Jackson Cracker]

no need

half = ½

[circuitcyborg]

Easy there...

The grammer is correct. You could replace "half" with "50% of" and it would mean the same thing, for example:

"The firewall in Windows Vista will have 50% of its protection turned off by default"

[john55440]

Why So Complicated?

As a home computer user, I have found neither Norton Personal Firewall nor ZoneAlarm to be rocket science.

Why the f-word can't Microsoft design a firewall that offers similar ease of use?

[inetdog]

What is outbound protection for?

Not to be too unkind to Mr. Warrilow, but I always thought that the purpose of an inbound firewall was to protect me and my insecure applications from DoS or takeover attacks from others and that the purpose of an outbound firewall was to protect me against the "call home" traffic of the malicious spyware or malware application I inadvertently loaded from a web site or an email.
Protecting others against me is only important if I am infected, and you want to limit the spread of the virus. That is not a real advantage to me, just altruism, and if I want to attack people deliberately I would just turn the firewall off!

[t8]

IE is the biggest problem.

Since MS put IE into the kernel of Windows (in order to try and win a court case against the Justice Dept), they have given a way for viruses to embed themselves into Windows.

MS should block all in-going and out-going traffic from IE if they are serious about security. Firefox could then replace IE and the system would be a lot more secure.

[Pop4]

In a time for online gaming and FSB this bares no responsibility; Active X

Nice feature! I know I am posting late; rather I have so much resistance on incoming traffic already. Does the absense of Anti-virus software, except on fresh inceptions into the world wide web matter to anyone. I find the advent of a 3mo. introductory security pack to be worthwhile to put a system configuration in order. leading up to less restrictive options.

[alek_nedic]

Nice feature!

http://www.analogstereo.com/mazda_tribute_owners_manual.htm