BleepingComputer.com: disabling firewall

I have found that i need to disable my firewall (CA Personal) in order to use some applications on my computer (eg, access yahoo emails, play audio files). is this a dangerous practise? what are the consequences?

Yes having to disable a firewall to use common applications is a dangerous practice. I am not familiar with CA Personal but have used several different firewalls and never had to disable them to run applications. Potential consequences of not having your firewall activated with certain applications are not good. Even if the application is safe your e-mails may not be for example. Then you have to remember to reactivate each time. I suspect there is a setting not right in your firewall. There are many free excellent firewalls available if you cannot resolve the problem with CA. Keep your firewall active, you should not have to disable it.

I found this - an older thread with a solution:
CA Personal firewall must be disabled to use Yahoo mail
http://homeofficeforum.ca.com/homeofficefo....php/t-564.html

Any firewall that I would have to disable to do normal internet use I would get rid of. A little search on this site will help you pick a firewall that you can use and stay protected.

Layback Bear, on Jan 31 2009, 06:14 PM, said:

I agree with Layback Bear. What's the firewall for if you can't use it properly?!

According to what tork showed, all CA needs is change of settings.
CA very likely has a HELP screen which should help.

I doubt very much that this, or any other, decent firewall needs to be disabled. It's all in the settings someplace.
Freeware firewalls will behave the same - everything needs to be set up properly.

email is a private thing, and it's a job of the firewall to protect properly. It is not like your any old willy-nilly web browsing.
To protect properly, it needs to be told what is and what is not permitted. Yahoo uses several redirects, each of the web addresses need to be permitted. Yahoo also requires that javascript be permitted. Session cookies should be permitted. The application (browser) going out to Yahoo mail needs to be setup to allow yahoo mail ... etc etc etc.

This post has been edited by tos226: 01 February 2009 - 08:58 PM

Here are the settings changes that worked for a poster on another forum having the same issue with CA firewall and yahoomail

Quote

http://homeofficeforum.ca.com/homeofficefo....php/t-564.html

Just to give you an example of how dangerous not having a firewall can be....

A few years ago I was using Norton. I was connected to the Internet so that I could live update it. The firewall was out of date.

In the time it took to update the firewall someone or something had managed to hack my PC and place a virus on there...

This was on XP...and perhaps an extreme case.

Note: This was from a clean install of XP and I had not browsed any web pages. The only thing that ran was Norton.

You have been warned.

I agree with you dancemat - always turn a firewall on and keep all your software updated.

Believe it or not some people do run without a firewall - but most people know that's not good. In fairness to the original poster, muuji, who was seeking help for a specific issue with a CA firewall and not suggesting that the firewall was turned off all the time but for an issue with yahoomail. The issue with firewalls is as tos226 pointed out - settings - understanding what needs to be allowed and what needs to be denied.

The best advice which is given here repeatedly on this forum is one firewall, one anti-virus (kept updated) and one anti-spyware (kept updated) and stay away from the bad sites.

This post has been edited by tork: 02 February 2009 - 08:51 AM

Those that run without a firewall and other security are usually posting on I'm I infected.

from another computer