Bought a netbook with Win 7 starter, does it have the Win Firewall built in?

Just curious, because I don't know what firewall to go with and will need one obviously, so anyone know if the 7 starter has the Win Essentials firewall in it? If not what free firewall do you recommend for a netbook, dell mini 1018. Thanks in advance for the help with this!

EDIT: I apologize if this should have gone in the Security forum, I thought it should go here but I realize now after closer reading on that forum's description I might have posted in the wrong forum, please accept my apologies and move to the proper location if you so desire.

 

this page shows the difference and since it doesn't mention firewall, I believe it is included

Windows 7 Starter Limitations?

though you miss quite a bit of features.

Windows Live Essential has a pretty nice malware suite, but that is not firewall.

 

I'm almost completely certain the firewall is built into the starter version of Windows 7. Microsoft wouldn't remove base security features like that.

 

Great! Thanks for the link! And thank you both for the replies, I feel better, will reply when I know for sure so others asking this in the future will know for sure.

 

Builtin firewall is a joke.
Install comodo and m$-se.

 

based on what criteria that it is a joke ?

for typical firewall, you want something that just block incoming connections and the builtin works just fine.

In fact, if configured properly, you don't even need a firewall. The most widely published vulnerability of Microsoft Windows(the network share thing) has been plugged for years. firewall just give people a further sense of security.

enabling UAC(which XP doesn't have) is much more important than firewall.

 

I am relieved to hear (from a dell chat rep) that my machine does NOT have macafee on it already, so one thing I won't have to deal with is uninstalling that software. I doubt that comodo will work, it seems it needs more hard drive space then I'll have. But I am sure it will surf the net for me and that's why I bought it. The big 17R is coming but not yet, probably around the fall this year.

 

what program that would need more than modern day HDD space, how much space it need ?

 

Now I feel silly, I read it wrong, it said like 250 MB and I read it as GB, was wondering how it needed so much! Man I gotta quit scanning things....LOL!

 

Any simple trojan caught thru ie can dance around builtin firewall.
And lol on uac .... ya that will prevent something ... try defense+

And if the question if a netbook can run it .. yes my netbook runs it all fine under win7
even if I only boot that for gps and rest of the time ubuntu where don't have to worry about any of those crp.

 

show me a site that can infect my IE and I would test it for you to see if UAC works or not. Don't give me alternative, show me a site that can break a standard UAC/DEP enabled setup.

To me, a firewall is not a tool to prevent a trojan that is already on your system. It is pointless by then. How can you stop a program using standard 80/443 port or say DNS request ? If you want to do that kind of thing, the firewall should at least be seperated from the machine itself.