Firewall recommendations please

I am waiting for delivery of a new laptop for work. I am a social worker employed by a charity and therefore paid for the laptop myself. I will be visiting young people in their homes taking notes electronically direct to my laptop and will be also online at times. The information belonging to my clients may be of a personal, confidential nature and their welfare could be compromised if the data was lost or stolen.

The new laptop computer (a Dell) has McAfee Security Centre 30-day trial which I will be deleting straight away. I will install NOD32 Antivirus and am looking for appropiate firewall software. The laptop will have 64-bit Vista and Windows firewall. At home and at the office I will be protected by hardware firewall.

Is the Windows firewall okay for my puposes?
If not, then what firewall software would you recommend for the times when I am working away from the office.

Please remember that I am paying for this (as the charity for whom I work does not have the funds) and just want to have the data secure at a reasonable price. I also do not want something that is resource hungry slowing my laptop down.

Thanks in advance for your help.

You will no doubt receive suggestions concerning a firewall, but if you are holding personal and confidential information, you should use extra security such as disk encryption, in case the laptop is 'mislaid' or stolen.

I think Vista Ultimate and Enterprise include the option for disk encryption, but if you use another version, you should source an alternative.
I have no experience of the free offerings, but there are some out there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_encr...

Thanks for the reply. Regarding encrytion, I just had to double-check on Microsoft site to be sure:

A key security feature of the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, Encrypting File System is useful for user-level file and folder encryption. For example, if two users are sharing a computer, an administrator can use Encrypting File System to encrypt each user's data to make it unavailable to the other user. For network file and folder encryption, Windows Vista enhances Encrypting File System management by enabling administrators to store Encrypting File System keys on smart cards.

I have ordered the Business Edition so should be fine.

Any else have any thoughts on an a secure firewall?

Edited by cozumel (Sat 23-May-09 20:36:04)

In reply to a post by cozumel:

I will be visiting young people in their homes taking notes electronically direct to my laptop and will be also online at times.

NM the Firewall! How will you be connecting to the Net at your clients' homes?

Thro' their own local wireless network to their BB connection?
Won't you be at the mercy of the strength or otherwise of their wireless encryption method?
Couldn't you, therefore, be eavesdropped in their own homes?

None of them have internet connections. I will only be at their homes when we are doing one-to-one appointments and using MS word to record our sessions. I will be going online when I meet at them at cafes and other public places in London (including possibly British Rail Stations). In central London you can connect in most places....

Edit: I should add that all files of client confidential interviews would be removed off the laptop hard drive the same day or sometimes the next day.

Edit: And thinking about it...to reduce risk further I could always use client identifiers instead of their names to make it more anonymous. But I still want a decent firewall as a proper preventative measure against unauthorised intrusions.

Edited by cozumel (Sat 23-May-09 22:00:36)

Why not use Linux?

Are you planning to use a Word template as a tick box? Why not just use a voice recorder and transcribe the results afterwards? More work for you but probably more secure.

In reply to a post by john2007:

Why not use Linux?

Are you planning to use a Word template as a tick box? Why not just use a voice recorder and transcribe the results afterwards? More work for you but probably more secure.

I use Linux at home (dual boot with Vista). The only problem with Linux on my work laptop is that OpenOffice or similar are not fully compatable with Microsoft Office programs and that slows me down with having to go through reformatting the text and table or stuff like that. I'd estimate that 90% transfers fine but the 10% would just frustrate me.

And the voice recorder would slow me down further. Working for a charity I have too many people to see in too little time. Hence the reason for the laptop. Increase my productivity and the quality of service my vulnerable clients can receive. I want to live up to their expectations as much as possible!!

Ummm, OK!

On the question of a firewall, why don't you get Norton Internet Security (AV/AntiSpyware/Firewall combined)? You can buy it for about the same as NOD32.

I've never heard of NOD, but it has a companion product Smart Security, similar functionality to NIS.

If you don't wanna pay for one, then ZoneAlarm Free Personal Firewall is as good as any other.

Windows Firewall is weak; it doesn't block outgoing rogue programs.

In reply to a post by cozumel:

I will install NOD32 Antivirus and am looking for appropiate firewall software.

Just install Eset Smart Security. Contains both an excellent virus checker and a firewall.

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

I don't want to go for a suite as from my experience they are 'bloatware', slowing a machine down and reducing productivity. Haven't used Norton Internet Security or similar for a few years because of this problem.

I have done a bit of research and will go with ESET NOD32 Antivirus and Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 which together should have a low resource footprint but highly effective protection. Outpost had very good results in testing from matousec.com passing 94% of the tests (click here for test results in pdf format). Feedback from users and admin/mods at Wilders Security Forums are also mostly positive for Outpost.

Thanks again

Edited by cozumel (Sun 24-May-09 21:30:45)