What is the best software firewall?

luckylucky

My home network is going to consist shortly of Vista Ultimate plus XP Pro pcs. I have AVG 8 Firewall/antivirus at the minute but my subscription is going to run out shortly. Just wondering if it's best to stick with that or is there firewall/antivirus stuff regarded as being superior to AVG out there?

Jackovarian

well, i use zone alarm pro.

it gets a bit annoying at first as it asks for every system command, whether to allow it or not like.

but its really good at blocking spy sites, stopping viruses from running on your machine.

its an all round gem.

best thing is its all hands on, so you get a good idea of whats coming and going traffic-wise from sites n stuff. you'd be amazed at what it does.

deadl0ck

Comodo is excellent

luckylucky

cheers for the replies. Have any of ye heard of 'Online Armor', just wondering if that's any good, or Trend Micro 2008 pro?

-annex-

Online Armor or Comodo come highly recommended. The two come out top of the pack on leak tests.

yoyo

I wouldnt bother re subscribing to AVG, imo its gone downhill allot lately and I use now: http://www.free-av.com/ its better and also lite on resorces, as others pointed out comodo is worthwhile for the firewall side of things

Nick

masterwriter

deadl0ck wrote: »

Comodo is excellent

+1

luckylucky

I'll give Comodo a go then. Is it worthwhile going for the paid version?

masterwriter

luckylucky wrote: »

I'll give Comodo a go then. Is it worthwhile going for the paid version?

Free is fine for me anyway. Be aware that there is a bit of a learningg curve to get used to it as it can give a lot of warnings but I think it is worth it. There is a forum if you have difficulty http://forums.comodo.com/comodo_firewall-b50.0/
Get the latest version 3

darraghrogan

what about windows firewall? I left a computer wih a public IP running windows firewall and no probs...

I sometimes don't see the point of installing ancillary software to an operating system until there is truly a major prob with the software on it already - and as well - windows firewall is updated with windows update...

D

the_syco

darraghrogan wrote: »

I sometimes don't see the point of installing ancillary software to an operating system until there is truly a major prob with the software on it already - and as well - windows firewall is updated with windows update...

Have Bitdefender. Stops anything going out, or coming in. Have had a few problems with other firewalls before, but this is asy to use, and the antivirus that you can get with it is very good, I've found. Found viri that were not found by AVG, etc.

masterwriter

darraghrogan wrote: »

what about windows firewall? I left a computer wih a public IP running windows firewall and no probs...

I sometimes don't see the point of installing ancillary software to an operating system until there is truly a major prob with the software on it already - and as well - windows firewall is updated with windows update...

D

Windows firewall does not stop anything going out from your pc so if a trojan gets in, it can easily get out. Comodo or ZA can control outgoing behaviour. Of course clever Trojans can inject themselves into trusted programs and attempt to get by the firewall that way.
OP,Go to www.grc.com and run shields up test and make sure you are in stealth mode. Good luck securing your pc

Sherifu

darraghrogan wrote: »

what about windows firewall? I left a computer wih a public IP running windows firewall and no probs...

I sometimes don't see the point of installing ancillary software to an operating system until there is truly a major prob with the software on it already - and as well - windows firewall is updated with windows update...

D

Indeed, this can work with the right browsing practices. At the moment I only have windows firewall.

dulpit

Windows Firewall & general cop-on whilst surfing ftw.

Keano

Kaspersky Internet Security for me - nothing gets passed it!

but as dulpit points outs general cop-on goes a long way

dhaddock

ive have being using symantec client firewall on all my computers for some time now. really a great program and doesnt hog ur resources either!