Computer Associates eTrust EZ Firewall
The EZ Firewall installs quickly from the downloaded version and comes up with its default protection after a reboot. The default policy allows selected incoming traffic and all outgoing traffic, which we feel is a little too relaxed. If there are any attempted connections, a popup window reports details of host, protocol, and service, and gives the option to permit or deny the traffic. In the default learning mode, this information will be remembered and the same rule applied to further connections. There is also a default to auto deny in 30 seconds, although the window never changes to reflect this—and simply stays on the screen. This is a little confusing, as you are not sure whether the traffic arrived recently and is still waiting for an answer or not.The port scan produced some unusual results, with all ports below 1024 filtered, but a variety of ports above 1024 open. The test was able to fingerprint the OS correctly. There was no reaction to the ping flood at all, and CPU utilisation was quite high while the flood continued. There were no problems connecting to the Windows share, opening Web pages, or reading e-mail.
There is an option to save all the created firewall rules into a single file and import them to another system, which is handy if you need to set up many systems, but this is the only concession to external management in this product. EZ Firewall has a pair of sister applications; EZ Antivirus and EZ DeskShield, that provide antivirus and desktop e-mail protection respectively, and in fact there is a package called EZ Armor that rolls all three into a single install.
Overall this system is easy to install, but the lack of configuration, logging, and management options mean it is much better suited to the individual/home user than corporate environment. There are other, larger Computer Associates systems that are more relevant, but we were unable to access them in time for the review.
| Product: | Computer Associates eTrust EZ Firewall |
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| Price: | US$29.95 per user, annual renewals US$14.95 per user |
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| Vendor: | Computer Associates |
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| Phone: | 03 9821 3000 |
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| Web: | www.ca.com |
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| Interoperability: |
½Limited management features. |
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| Futureproofing: |
½
Good, but lacks configuration options and in-depth logging. |
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| ROI: |
Good value for money. |
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| Service: |
Good online help and FAQs. |
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| Rating: |
½ |
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central silent installs?? was in ice cap but to my knowledge not yet wriitten into SP!!