Do I need a firewall program for my wi-fi connection?
By DuoMaxwell
@DuoMaxwell (953)
United States
November 22, 2010 10:12pm CST
Before I ask my question,
This is the first time I connected to the internet from my bedroom using my Belkin Surf-n-Share USB Wi-Fi adapter that I got at Wal-Mart for $40 dollars (must be 300Mbps), and now i'm chilling, relaxing at night and listening to songs that hold memories on my hard drive while on my Acer Aspire Revo nettop.
LUCKY!!! 
However, even when I had my own computers before (my Hewlett Packard Ombibook 4150 given to me as a hand-me-down from my older sister, and my Acer Aspire One which my monitor broke because it fell over the bed and onto the wall), even though I had the right ethernet and telephone cords, I couldn't connect through dial-up on my telephone outlet because it must've been burnt out years ago near my house's furnace, and my Omnibook's dialup PC Card was fried in a lightning storm before she gave it to me. So the only internet connection I had was both in the living room where I had no privacy unless everyone was gone or asleep, and wi-fi connection at the library.
Now that I have wi-fi internet in my room for the first time today with my privacy chances increased, I feel that I need something else to go with it because my ZoneAlarm firewall might not be enough. I have ZoneAlarm installed in the living room and it repels attacks and blocks unauthorized access when i'm on ethernet, yet there's no sign of any intrusions thru wi-fi, so ther's still a chance i'm unprotected and vulnerable. Is there a firewall program for my wi-fi as extra protection, or do I still need to keep ZoneAlarm for both it AND ethernet?
However, even when I had my own computers before (my Hewlett Packard Ombibook 4150 given to me as a hand-me-down from my older sister, and my Acer Aspire One which my monitor broke because it fell over the bed and onto the wall), even though I had the right ethernet and telephone cords, I couldn't connect through dial-up on my telephone outlet because it must've been burnt out years ago near my house's furnace, and my Omnibook's dialup PC Card was fried in a lightning storm before she gave it to me. So the only internet connection I had was both in the living room where I had no privacy unless everyone was gone or asleep, and wi-fi connection at the library.
Now that I have wi-fi internet in my room for the first time today with my privacy chances increased, I feel that I need something else to go with it because my ZoneAlarm firewall might not be enough. I have ZoneAlarm installed in the living room and it repels attacks and blocks unauthorized access when i'm on ethernet, yet there's no sign of any intrusions thru wi-fi, so ther's still a chance i'm unprotected and vulnerable. Is there a firewall program for my wi-fi as extra protection, or do I still need to keep ZoneAlarm for both it AND ethernet?2 responses
@theDeranged (96)
• Canada
23 Nov 10
What kind of router? And what are wifi the settings? Those are more important than the zonealarm or the wifi adapter. And isn't zonealarm a software you install on your computer?
@DuoMaxwell (953)
• United States
23 Nov 10
My wi-fi adapter doesn't use a router. It instantly connects whenever there's an open hotspot available. As for the wi-fi settings, I only used the same ones I used when I connect to the library, but I have no idea where the settings are. I just used it as soon as I took it out of the box. My bad.
This is the wifi adapter i'm using: http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=509530 . Again, it connects to the internet as is, without a router. I don't even have a wi-fi router anyway.
ZoneLabs's ZoneAlarm firewall is freeware, and you can download it at any freeware site.
@icehut (508)
•
23 Nov 10
theDeranged: are you suggesting that your Canadian banks do not use SSL to encrypt endpoint-to-endpoint traffic?
DuoMaxwell: to prevent unauthorized connections via your WiFi adapter, ensure that your firewall is configured to deny connections from all protocols and all port on the WiFi interface. Although this will prevent direct entry from the outside over WiFi, you'll still need to prevent malware from running on the inside that'll open a backdoor. As theDeranged mentions above, insecure WiFi hotspots are prone to data sniffing of unencrypted data. SSL connections will create an encrypted tunnel to the destination server. However, if the hotspot operator has malicious intent, a man-in-the-middle attack can still intercept your SSL connections. Even simply visiting websites can open you to data rewriting or injection of malware to be delivered to your browser. Therefore, don't use insecure networks you have no control over for private and personal data, and keep anti-virus/malware/spyware running. Or, quit hijacking someone else's connection. 
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
23 Nov 10
Ideally you should have a firewall installed.
I have used ZoneAlarm before, but I found Comodo Firewall to be better, at least to my liking. For one thing it gives a user more control over what should or should not be allowed.
You can download it from www.comodo.com either as a standalone or as an Internet Security suite. The Internet Security Suite is good at identifying possible attacks. No security software is perfect, but getting the best from a vrowd is better than having none.
Visit www.matousec.com to see the results of a Proactive Challenge where many security software were pitted against 148 tests.
