18 of 19 customers found the following review helpful:
 Worth the money (maybe) - if you can get it for free, 2001-10-02
BlackIce Defender is, well, adequate as a firewall. That's part of the problem - if you ask the company, you'll discover that that's not the purpose of the program. Instead, it functions more as an intrusion detection system. It is easy to install, and fairly easy to configure, but that's about all it does. It certainly stops low-level attacks, like port 80 scans, but if you get a more involved probe, like a SubSeven probe, BlackIce Defender doesn't block it. Instead, it lets the probe happen, then tells you that someone was looking for something but couldn't find it. That's kind of like having a car alarm that tells you when someone is checking out your car but decided it wasn't worth stealing (okay, it's not a perfect analogy).Sure, you can block specific IP addresses, or allow only certain IP addresses ... but if you want to block every SubSeven probe, for example, you have to wait to be probed, then tell BlackIce not to let that person through again. Small consolation. Also, the interface that displays the most recent attacks is somewhat buggy - it wasn't unusual for me to be paging through attacks, blocking IP addresses who had probed me, when the list would suddenly shrink to the last 20 or 30 addresses. I'd have to flip back to the attacks page, page down a few times, and back to the address page
 DSL or Dial-up. Buy this puppy! It won't cause crashes!, 2001-09-27
I bought Black Ice Defender. I loaded Black Ice Defender in minutes. Black Ice Defender has run flawlessly on my system for many months. Why am I suggesting you buy it? Because I thought I was blowing my money, because I connect to the Internet using a slow Dial-Up account through Earthlink. I incorrectly thought that only DSL and Cable modems were prone to hackers' prying eyes - well I was wrong. Black Ice runs from the system tray. I disabled the audible tone so the icon flashes one of several meaningful security codes to signal anything from a minor concern to a major hacking attempt. I was astonished to find people trying to hack me the very first hour that I installed it! Talk about feeling violated!...Spend the [money]. Let Black Ice defend the information you have on your system. It has never once caused a crash or a slow down.
12 of 13 customers found the following review helpful:
Black Ice Defender - Effective and Easy to Use, 2001-09-19
This program is very effective and easy to use, especially for the novice computer user, although I think even more advanced users think it's great. I was really suprised to see how many attacks were initiated on my system in just one hour. I recommend that everyone get this program, you'll be shocked at what you see going on. Don't think you can just buy things off the net without many people trying to access your computer. After the first day, I got rid of individual hackers who had computers set up to monitor the web for personal computers. Price wise it's definately worth the peace of mind.
1 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
black ice defender, 2001-09-10
I found it very easy to install and use. Within minutes i was alereted to some 'port probes' which were listed in detail. very easy to use just install and forget it!
1 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
More for professional types but wonderful product, 2001-09-10
This isn't for the average person who wants to slap on a firewall and forget about it, but for the person who really wants to know what is going on... I also love NIS; I use them
for different purposes.
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Amazon Sales Rank:#8511