 End of Life! Finally!, 2008-09-11
I bought this way back in 2001 after my credit card number was stolen off the net. It worked ok for someone inexperienced with security, but now that I know what to protect against, I found out you can get better firewalls for free. I use Tall Emu's Online Armor. Zone Alarm is another good free one.
And now I read that IBM (who now owns Black Ice) is ending support and updates to Black Ice in Sept 2008. You've been warned! Get another firewall!
 Long time user, fabulous product, 2006-12-30
I've been using different versions of BlackIce for about 3 years now, and I'm thoroughly satisfied with it, albeit with a couple of mitigatable concerns.
The first concern is the system's defaulted application protection. This should be turned off at all times, as the program will continually spam you with requests to block applications, which include such basic system processes as explorer.exe, rundll.dll, and Windows Media Player. The memory function, which is supposed to help the program learn which programs to block and which to allow, does not work, and never has. Turning this feature off is an absolute must. The other annoying feature, is the yearly subscription this thing requires for its license. I bought the **** thing, let me use it. Fortunately, this is an easy fix.
Black Ice does require a good bit of setup, as you'll have to spend time blocking off ports commonly targetted by hackers, as well as blocking ports and addresses as they are scanned or scan your computer, this does take some time, and I recommend having a second firewall setup while you 'teach' Black Ice.
Without application protection, however, the program runs quickly and smoothly in the task tray, giving you messages on the tray icon for different levels of attack activity. You can also set Black Ice to play a .wav file to alert you. It detects many different types of attacks, such as Subseven port probes, PC Anywhere port probes, syn-ack shenanigans and others, even giving you a rundown of what each attack involves via the web.
All in all, I recommend this program, but only for the computer user who is serious about taking the time to protect their data. This program is not for the faint of heart.
4 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
Not for dummies., 2003-08-29
I've been a user of BlackICE Defender for quite some time now. I've used it for many network sercutiry jobs, and businesses in the past. In true tests I've proven to different companies the vulnerabilities of BlackICE vs. the competition. One of the problems is that if you plan on buying this product and you belive you can just throw it onto your HDD, you will come up short with your home/office network. This product takes a bit of configuring with different ports and IP addresses. Once you've done all of this though, you have yourself a VERY good product that will not only block exploit from being run on your computer, it will simply terminate them and erase them in the progress due to it's application protection option. BlackICE is worth every penny....if you know what you're doing with it.
3 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
 No Support, 2003-03-31
This product is worthless. It says plainly on their website that they offer NO phone support. That is danger number one. It locked up my computer all four times I tried to install it. I was unable to boot. It is hard to get web support when your computer will not boot. Avoid this software.
3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
RUN, HIDE, BUY SOMETHING ELSE, 2003-01-21
This is a case of tampering with a great product, and fouling it up.The original Black Ice was wonderful. It operated quietly in the background, keeping bad guys at bay. Then they "upgraded it". They made it obtrusive and a nag, interrupting all normal computer use with nagging messages and questions. The problem is, if you set it at the highest security questions, you get nagging messages at every turn. Even if you want to open a game, offline, with broadband disconnected, you get a Black Ice pop-up. To decrease the interruptions, you have to lower the level of security. Not a good trade-off. Then the other day, it just went crazy and seized control of my computer, basically locking me out. No matter what I wanted to do, it shut me down. Kind of like the Matrix. I finally had to reboot and restart in safe mode to uninstall Black Ice. I've gone out and bought a new firewall program.
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