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Black Ice Defender

URL: http://www.networkice.com/html/blackice_defender.html

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Rating: Excellent!

Review:

Setting up a firewall is not a piece of cake. One wrong setting could leave your system wide open to potential intruders. That is where Network Ice's Black Ice Defender comes in. This is simply the best and the simplest way to protect your Windows based PC from Internet attackers and intruders.

Black Ice Defender works a lot like an Anti-virus program that sits in the background and watches your system and its ports for scans and access attempts. You will simply be amazed at how often your system is scanned by those looking for open ports or Trojan horses. BID closes these ports and makes your system invisible to these scans because BID will not return the scan info which essentially makes it appear that your PC does not exist.

And what if someone isn't just running a script kiddie and is actually trying to attack you or gain access to your system? BID cuts them off at the pass! BID will cut off all access to your system leaving your attacker out in the cold. At work we tried several different attacks on a PC protected with BID and none would work! Mind you we are not hackers but were just using some commonly available attacks available to anyone who knowa where to look, and we were simply amazed at how effective BID is!

Black Ice Defender allows the user to choose 4 different modes. Trusting (why use the program at all), Cautious, Nervous, and Paranoid. Users should opt for either Cautious or Nervous. Paranoid is very restrictive and Trusting offers little protection.

One of the biggest things to remember when using Black Ice Defender is to make sure you have the most up to date version. There is a version checker in the program and it is very easy to use and it is very easy to install upgrades.

If there is one thing about BID that I dislike is that there is no manual provided when you download your purchased copy. There is a PDF version of the manual on the Network Ice site that can be downloaded but Network Ice should provide a manual to the user during the download.

I have used BID for several months now and I will never have another Windows based PC that has Internet access without it installed and running. The net is a dangerous place but Black Ice Defender makes it a little safer.

It is by far the best software purchase I have made for my system in a long time and I cannot say enough good things about it.

Submitted by: Zenwolf

   
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