Good Windows Firewall?

Psychedelik

Could anyone recommend a good firewall? I'm using Kerio PF 2.1.5 which has an excellent interface and feature set, but it's 3 years old now and getting a bit vulnerable (crashing, etc.).

The latest version of Kerio PF is thoroughly crap with far too many features. What I love about 2.x is that it leaves everything in the control of the user. ZoneAlarm is also a "dummy firewall" that I wouldn't be able to use.

Could anyone recommend a stable, sensible firewall for, shall we say, power-users?

Thanks folks.

aidan_walsh

I use Sygate and am quite happy with it. Unfortunately, I too shall probably be looking into a new one since it was swallowed by Symantec and discontinued in favour of their products.

Blowfish

^^^ see his sig.

Ruu_Old

I use Tiny Personal Firewall, it aint free though. I used to use Sygate, but as aidan said, it got swallowed up. Still works but no longer support or updates for it.

amp

I just hide behind hardware firewalls.

Capt'n Midnight

amp wrote:

I just hide behind hardware firewalls.

I've had software firewalls crash in windows.
Also you may be vulerable for a short while if the network driver loads before the FW software


HW + SW is best - defense in depth and all that

pantar_dubh

Often running behind three firewalls, and without compatibility problems, if you count the Linksys Cisco firewall on the wireless router sometimes used. Also use simulated firewall programmes, like Spyware Blaster and SpyBot Search and Destroy, where they "immunize" your system against malware.

The Windows default firewall from MS is minimal in utility, along with frequent updates and security patches that typically run behind malware releases.

Had been warned about using more than one firewall at a time, and although this may apply to some programmes, I have found no problems with the ones I use.

BITdefender is useful and compatible with my other two (plus the two immunization programmes mentioned above). What's different about BITdefender that you may want to consider is that it uses heuristics to anticipate what future viruses and other malware may look like based upon the characteristics of past and existing malware. This is important, because, according to PC Magazine, from 70 to 100 new viruses and malware appear everyday, and definitions are always running behind. Heuristics will block suspicious software and ask you for a decision.

I also run other AV/anti-malware programmes, which I experiment with, and update them every morning causing me to lose only about 15 minutes a day. Apologies, but I will not mention them here on this open board, as it's wise to hold a few "cards hidden" for security purposes.

Oh, one that I have experimented with, but has turned out, thus far, incompatible with my bundle is the 2006 GhostSurf programme. It is very aggressive in its defense (which I like), but I have had to uninstall it four times now for bugs (twice for acting as if I was an external threat, when I was just simply trying to log onto my laptop!:eek: ). It seems to gradually take over your system over time, and runs the processor a bit too much for me with its random hub proxy programme.

Muggy Dev

I can recommend Zone Alarm.Its a bit fussy to set up but it does the job.Its also free.Not sure what the policy on this forum is regarding links but if you google it you'll find it easy.

Screaming Monkey

A simple firewall that might be worth a look..

http://force.coresecurity.com/

CORE FORCE is the first community oriented security solution for personal computers. CORE FORCE is free and provides a comprehensive endpoint security solution for Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems.

Black Swan

pantar_dubh wrote:

What's different about BITdefender that you may want to consider is that it uses heuristics to anticipate what future viruses and other malware may look like based upon the characteristics of past and existing malware. This is important, because, according to PC Magazine, from 70 to 100 new viruses and malware appear everyday, and definitions are always running behind. Heuristics will block suspicious software and ask you for a decision.

Worth considering.

the_syco

BitDefender is very good, I've found, to blocking incoming and outgoing (ET) threats. Also good for anti-spam. The latest one is version 9, but version 10 is being beta tested.

gline

i still use sygate and find no problems with it
i tried tiny and didnt like it at all

chump

my problem when using sygate was that it doesnt support multiple user accounts in XP... so moved to Kerio Personal Firewall... dunno how good it is in comparison to others, but seems to do the job OK for me

aidan_walsh

I've recently been trying out Comodo Personal Firewall, and I have to say I wasn't entirely taken in by it.

Not only did no visual program start by default (the option is buried away in the settings) which meant no prompts at all, but it also seemed to randomly kill connections, and had no options for tasks like setting up Network Neighbourhood traffic or NAT addressing without having to go and write custom rules.

As well as that, the first screen you get when you loaded the control centre was a splash advertising their other products. All that data automatically loaded off their website, but did the firewall itself ever ask could it go online? Pff, why would it?

Used it for about a week to see if I could get over my initial misgivings. I couldn't, and I'm back with Sygate again now.