Topic: Beware Sygate Firewall.

[chorleydave]

Hello everybody.  I haven't emigrated - it's summer (supposedly) so time to be out and about and not stuck indoors all evening.

However, as the weather is so Februaryish at the moment, I offered to upgrade a young lass' PC.  All the hardware in place and working, I decided to format the hard drive and load Windows 98, as she had been on Windows 95.  Everything  in  place, MS Office 2000, AVG anti-virus etc. I then (against my better judgement) decided to give her that most annoying of program, a firewall.  Downloaded Sygate, as it's the only one I can tolerate, set it up, restarted the PC and couldn't get back into Windows:

"Error loading TEEFER, you must restart the computer."

Tried several times to no avail.  Eventually went into Safe Mode, uninstalled Sygate, but still couldn't load Windows.  Back into Safe Mode, then into Regedit, and spent over a hour removing all references to Sygate and TEEFER.  Finally the PC loaded Windows.

I've since been on the internet and there are hundreds of posting regarding Sygate and TEEFER. Fortunately, I have a version of Sygate PRO setup saved on my d: drive and it isn't affected.  However, I thought I had better report this as people come on here asking about Firewalls.

For the time being at least, avoid Sygate.

[Simon]

Thanks for the warning, Dave.  I've been recommending Sygate on here for a while now, and no one has reported any problems so far.  I had a look on the Sygate forums, and there are references to TEEFER, which, it seems, is the Sygate device driver, and the general advice seems to be to uninstall Sygate in Safe Mode, then re-install it, which is, in essence, what you did.  I don't think there's anything fundamentally different between the free and pro versions, apart from the pro version having a few more features.  The bricks amd mortar are, I believe, the same.  People on the Sygate forums have had this problem for different reasons.  There doesn't seem to be a common link, but what they do suggest is to shut down all other programs, especially anti virus software, before installing Sygate.

[Tony]

I've being running on Sygate for a couple of weeks, and I have not encountered any problems like that. But  whereas I get water tight readings on the "Sheilds Up" test site using ZoneAlarm, it appears potentially leaky when using Sygate. And as I have never had any problems ever whilst using ZoneAlarm, I'm back on it.

Devil you know and all that......ops I'm begining to sound like Shell and Lona  

[Camstop]

After having big problems with Norton's i've put the XP firewall on and i'm getting full stealth in shields up.

Can someone please tell me why we don't use the xp firewall again?  

[Lona]

Devil you know and all that......ops I'm begining to sound like Shell and Lona  

I was going to compliment you there Tony, with having good taste but since you are giving me up cheek, I won't.  

[Simon]

Can someone please tell me why we don't use the xp firewall again?  

Because it only monitors incoming traffic, so if you manage to get a trojan, and it's calling home, you'd never know.  

[Adept]

Can someone please tell me why we don't use the xp firewall again?  

Because it only monitors incoming traffic, so if you manage to get a trojan, and it's calling home, you'd never know.  

Of course that will all change when XP SP2 comes out.

From what I've seen and read, we may all be able to get rid of our third-party firewall software.

Yeah right

[Camstop]

Well i have installed AVG that runs everyday and i use AD-aware, Spyware Blaster and Spy Sweeper that i update and run once per week.  :slightlymad:


Surely that lot will pick up anything thats on my PC    Ohh and AVG found "Trojan Horse Dialer.6.j" on my PC which would be the reason Norton's went t*ts up i expect.  


Anyway now i have that Trojan Horse off my PC i bet Norton's would be ok again or i could always try Zone-Alarm or summit seeing as Si's gate is a bit dodgy at the moment