So it's a good idea--especially if you have an always-on connection, such as cable access or DSL--to provide yourself with some protection. That's where Network ICE's BlackICE Defender comes in. This personal firewall, now in version 2.1, is relatively inexpensive, easy to configure, and unobtrusive to your daily use. And, if you really want to find out who's after you, BlackICE contains the tools to allow you to attempt to trace your intruders back to the source.

Setup takes only a few minutes and then it's up and running at a default level of protection, Cautious (it goes up to Nervous and then Paranoid, but the higher settings could interfere with your normal Web or home network activities). You can leave it alone, and it will record any attempts to probe or connect to your system as well as alert you when the attempts occur. A visit to the Shield's UP! page at Gibson Research Corporation (www.grc.com), which simulates various hacker attacks, showed that Cautious was more than enough to ward off even strong attempts to infiltrate.

Earlier versions of BlackICE met with complaints about the difficult-to-understand interface. While 2.1 still contains some technical terms, it also uses the advICE feature to open a Web site that explains each type of hack attempt, from innocent attempts to connect to a standard HTTP server to more coercive SubSeven Trojan Horse attacks.

Unlike a lot of other firewalls, BlackICE keeps track of any information it can glean from intruders and stores it, allowing you to report serious offenders to your ISP. You can also block or trust specific intruders, so you won't be bothered by other networked PCs that you know should have access to your system.

While BlackICE isn't as easy to use as some other firewalls, it's much easier than it used to be and it offers much more powerful tools for those users who want to fight back against hackers. --J. Curtis

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.

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.