Product Reviews

As users spend more and more time on the Internet, it makes good sense to have some form of firewall protection. And as the number of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) installations increases, so the threat of a hacker attack becomes greater. There are plenty of choices available, as most offer high levels of protection, but at a price single users and small businesses can sensibly afford. However, a key feature is the ease with which they can be used, and it's here that many fall down.

Biodata's Sphinx (see Reviews, issue 79, p200) is a good example as, although it delivers a wealth of features at a tempting price, it's overly complex. Preventon Personal Firewall 2 aims to do away with this confusion. It's designed to provide high levels of protection, but still be user friendly. This philosophy becomes apparent during installation, as Preventon provides a simple list of Internet activities that can be allowed or denied. You can select from Web and email access, news groups, file and print sharing, NetMeeting and Chat, and there's a tick box for AOL users.

Web access includes Web browser and FTP or Telnet activities, and selecting the File and Print Sharing option only allows outbound access to an external file server or printer on a LAN (local area network). For other activities, such as networked game playing,

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you may need to enable specific ports from the advanced settings, but you'll need to know these beforehand. Preventon also doesn't support ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) services, so tools such as PING will no longer function.

The main interface is simple, with a basic display showing details of intercepted traffic. This can't be customised, so all you get is a colour-coded indicator, a date and time, a connection direction and IP source address, possibly an identifying name and the number of attempts. Double-clicking on each entry brings up more detail, although most users won't find any solace here as it merely indicates the protocol and port number. Log files can be saved to disk for later perusal at your leisure, but the only other setting you can play with is the option to have a pop-up warning appear on screen whenever Preventon blocks any connection attempts.

Installation is certainly simple and, in practice, Preventon worked well enough. The software was left covering an ADSL connection for 48 hours and it picked up plenty of intruder activity. We also took a trip over to the Gibson Research Web site (www.grc.com), where the useful ShieldsUp utility confirmed that Preventon was keeping the test PC's doors firmly shut.

Although Preventon succeeds in its aspirations, it's placed in an area of intense price competition, so you can get much more for your money elsewhere. As a free download for personal use, ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com) is hard to beat, but BlackICE Defender (see Reviews, issue 78, p169) is still a favourite, as I've found the high levels of information and its superb backtracking capabilities unbeatable. True, it's not as easy to use as Preventon, but it's certainly not as complex as many other products. Overall, if you're looking for basic hassle-free firewall protection, Preventon is a good choice. But if you want more for the same money, look elsewhere.