Suggestions on a light firewall

[koliko]

Hello.
A friend of mine has asked me to help him with choosing a decent firewall for his rather old machine with only 256MB RAM, so the firewall has to be very light. He isn't tech-savvy, but I think he does a pretty risky surfing, so I think that Windows Firewall isn't enough. I use CFP v3 myself, and I'm very happy with it, but I'm not sure whether it will work well on his machine.
I'd really appreciate your help.

His configuration:
XP Pro SP2
AVG free
SAS free

Cheers
Koliko

P.S. Should I recommend any kind of HIPS as well? What about TF? Is it light enough?

[Dieselman]

You get HIPS with Comodo and OA free. OA free maybe better for him. Actually the best thing for him to do is buy some RAM. Very cheap upgrade. Only cost about $50 or so and takes seconds to install.

[Diver]

I don't agree with D'man. In fact, his answer suggests he did not understand the question. For an old machine you need old software. Try Jetico I, it runs like it is not there.

Some of the newer firewalls (and AV's fo that matter) may use memory management to show small numbers in task manager, but that does not tell the whole story.

Honestly, I don't understand these folks that cling to 7 year old computers. He could probably get a throwaway P3 or P4 for almost nothing that would scream compared to what he has now, or just spring for some memory.

[Xenophobe]

Sygate.

[Dieselman]

-{ Quote: "I don't agree with D'man. In fact, his answer suggests he did not understand the question. For an old machine you need old software. Try Jetico I, it runs like it is not there.

Some of the newer firewalls (and AV's fo that matter) may use memory management to show small numbers in task manager, but that does not tell the whole story.

Honestly, I don't understand these folks that cling to 7 year old computers. He could probably get a throwaway P3 or P4 for almost nothing that would scream compared to what he has now, or just spring for some memory." }-

Jetico is paid firewall from what I know. I was going off the fact that he has an old machine which means he does not have much money to spend. I was suggesting free firewalls and Comodo is extremely light.

[Xenophobe]

-{ Quote: "Jetico is paid firewall from what I know. I was going off the fact that he has an old machine which means he does not have much money to spend. I was suggesting free firewalls and Comodo is extremely light." }-
Jetico v1 is freeware.

[Matern]

Use a Router, or a Modem with Router, that is the best for a old machine and secure enough. If you would like to ad a hips, Threatfire looks for outgoing Malware and its easy to understand : http://www.threatfire.com/

[dave88]

Sygate is good, and light.

[WSFuser]

LooknStop is light but like Jetico its rules-based. Just help your friend change to the Enhanced ruleset and he should be fine.

[ellison64]

-{ Quote: "Hello.
A friend of mine has asked me to help him with choosing a decent firewall for his rather old machine with only 256MB RAM, so the firewall has to be very light. He isn't tech-savvy, but I think he does a pretty risky surfing, so I think that Windows Firewall isn't enough. I use CFP v3 myself, and I'm very happy with it, but I'm not sure whether it will work well on his machine.
I'd really appreciate your help.

His configuration:
XP Pro SP2
AVG free
SAS free

Cheers
Koliko

P.S. Should I recommend any kind of HIPS as well? What about TF? Is it light enough?" }-
Im guessing that the machine in question was possibly or originally 98se or w2000 OS that has been upgraded to XP PRO?.You dont mention what cpu it is?.In any case light firewalls include kerio2.15 ,looknstop,sygate,early versions of outpost and za are light too,as is jetico which (imo) is a little too difficult to use for the average joe such as myself.
ellison

[koliko]

The CPU is actually Intel Pentium 2.4 GHz. I don't know anything about the previous/original OS's, but I do know he cannot afford additional RAM. The freeware is what I'm looking for.

[Diver]

-{ Quote: "The CPU is actually Intel Pentium 2.4 GHz. I don't know anything about the previous/original OS's, but I do know he cannot afford additional RAM. The freeware is what I'm looking for." }-

I am not sure exactly what you think is wrong with the Windows firewall, unless outbound filtering is what you are worried about. IMO, outbound filtering and so called leak prevention has the lowest return on investment of any security measure. Investment being defined as machine resources, money, time and trouble. If all he has is 256MB and can't do anything about it (poor thing), the Windows FW is probably what he needs.

Its possible to even decrease security by installing a third party firewall if he does not have a router between the computer and the internet, as some of the more complex firewalls sometimes have a way of not loading or initializing properly. I have seen this happen a lot with Comodo 2.4, for example, and occasionally with Zone Alarm.

[Dieselman]

-{ Quote: "The CPU is actually Intel Pentium 2.4 GHz. I don't know anything about the previous/original OS's, but I do know he cannot afford additional RAM. The freeware is what I'm looking for." }-
Thank you. I knew you were looking for freeware. My older machine has a 2.4 P4 with 1 gig of ram and Comodo 3.0 runs fine on it. Very low memory usage.

[Kerodo]

My PC is an even older 1 gig PIII with 512 ram, and Comodo 3 runs great on that too. Other light ones are Jetico 1 and Kerio 2.1.5, both free. Sygate free runs well also, although a little heavier on cpu usage.. Filseclab is another older one that is light as well. There are many really...

[koliko]

-{ Quote: "
Its possible to even decrease security by installing a third party firewall if he does not have a router between the computer and the internet." }-
I didn't know that!
He doesn't have a router and this is why I presumed that he'd be vulnerable from outside if he had only the Windows Firewall on. If he actually isn't vulnerable, then the problem is solved. He can only have the WF on, right? He'll only need a HIPS then, and I'm thinking of TF.

-{ Quote: "Thank you. I knew you were looking for freeware. My older machine has a 2.4 P4 with 1 gig of ram and Comodo 3.0 runs fine on it. Very low memory usage." }-
Yes, I'm running Comodo 3.0.16.295 myself and can I say that its memory footprint is amazingly small.

[Diver]

The Mem Usage column in task manager does not tell the whole story. Its better to check Physical Memory Available on the Performance tab on a with and without basis to really see what is going on with XP.

When using the Windows firewall make sure that file and printer sharing are turned off, both on network properties and in firewall exceptions. It is also a poor practice to connect to the internet without a router.

[koliko]

All right, we'll try the Windows firewall with both file and printer sharing turned off, supported by the ThreatFire, the AVG and the SAS.
Thank you all for your advice.
Cheers
Koliko

[ellison64]

Well with those specs i dont see anything that wouldnt run really.Maybe a little more ram ,other than that any of the firewalls currently available should run without too much trouble.
ellison

[djohn]

you can use ghostwall it is free and lite,A replacement for windows with a little more flexibility.

[Fly]

-{ Quote: "Use a Router, or a Modem with Router, that is the best for a old machine and secure enough. If you would like to ad a hips, Threatfire looks for outgoing Malware and its easy to understand : http://www.threatfire.com/" }-

I would recommend to use at least one decent software firewall. I have a router that has a hardware firewall, but stuff still gets through.

Maybe think of it like this: how is the router supposed to know if whatever traffic is coming in is what you want to come in ?

[dja2k]

Well don't know how much memory the other firewalls mention but if this is useful, Online Armor Free uses about 15 MB.

dja2k