Dogfood's Full Review: Macmillan BlackICE Defender Full Version for PC (1...
BlackICE Defender explores a new product category that is long overdue - simple firewall software for consumers. More and more consumers have PCs connected to the Internet 24x7 via cable modems and DSL. These "always on" connections open up consumers to more exposure to Internet security risks.
BlackICE Defender is an easy-to-use, "user proof" package that is meant for the masses. It provides comprehensive monitoring and reporting of all sorts of Internet risks.
It is unclear to me how much actual protection BlackICE Defender provides, but it does an excellent job of providing quality reporting. I would expect that the protection content of BlackICE Defender will rise with product maturity.
The documentation and explanation of the product is extremely well-written and bridges the gap between casual and expert users alike. I have installed it on a static IP cable modem and a private IP machine behind a proxy server. Even on a private IP machine behind the proxy server, BlackICE has interesting reporting - such as when the gateway received broadcase ping requests (and, as BlackICE explains, probably a hacker looking for IPs that would amplify ping requests to be used in smurf DOS attack on someone else).
I would be surprised if two years from now cable modem ISPs didn't give away this sort of software with their standard consumer service.
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