Thread: The One-Way FirewaLL

Windows' built-in firewall has always suffered from the same flaw: Though
it blocks suspicious stuff that comes in, it does nothing about what your system sends out. Since an infected PC can mass-mail spam and forward your credit card numbers to someone with out your better interest in mind, that's an important shortcoming.

Vista supposedly fixed this problem with the addition of a firewall that is capable of watching and blocking out bound traffic. But that capability is turned off by default. And Vista's designers neglected to put the controls that turn it on in a place where users are likely to look for them: the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box. Here are two possible ways to deal with to the situation.



1. Turn on outgoing protection: Click Start, type firewall, and select Windows Firewall with Advanced Securiry. Click Windows Firewall Properties. In the dialog box, the first three tabs have an Outbound Connections drop-down menu. In all three, select Block.

2. Get another, better firewall: Even with its two-way protection enabled, Windows' firewall is a feeble guardian. On the other hand, the free Como do Firewall Pro came out tops in independent testing, ahead of products such as Norton Internet Security.