Mcafee, Norton or Zonelab??

[Untouchable J]

Just would like some first-hand opinions on which frewall is the best overall....

I'm currently using Mcafee firewall plus which is very basic (cant even add specific custom rules) and is a memory hog. The ideal firewall for me is very powerful, dont need extreme memory to work properly, have advanced options for expert users (custom rules, tracing IP's, advanced IDS), leak proof, etc.

Norton personal firewall 2005 or Zonealarm Pro 5??

Thanks

-J

[TylerGred]

I'm about to purchase Outpost Pro.

I think you should download the trial version of that. It's not a memory hog at all on my machine, plus it has many advanced options... and I mean many. I esecially like the fact that I can look over the open ports and see what program is on what port and kill it if need be.

Check it out
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/

It also placed 2nd behind Look n Stop on http://www.firewallleaktester.com/reward_stats.htm

Hope this helps.

[Arup]

Zone Alarm free is an excellent alternative for you and so is Sygate Free.

[Just wondering]

You may also want to take a look at NetVeda.. also free... for many of the features you are looking for

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "
Norton personal firewall 2005 or Zonealarm Pro 5??

Thanks

-J" }-
Of these 2, I would definitely stay away from Norton. ZA is far better. Plus, as several people have mentioned, there are also many more to choose from.

[bigc73542]

The mcafee personal firewall is one of only two or three firewalls that are certified by ICSA.

bigc

[Untouchable J]

Good Morning...

Thanks for the replies, but I have some more questions to help me pick the best personal firewall for me.

1) Whats so bad about Norton PF 2005? From what I've read on here Norton's firewall uses a lot of memory, is a P.I.T.A. to uninstall, and scored very poorly in leak tests. Recently I've bought a boxed version of NPF 2005 for the available advanced features (custom rules with default application rules, privacy control to protect my data being sent out,etc.)...but I might return this product due to all the "bad news" on here and other forums.

2) Is Mcafee Personal Firewall Plus powerful enough to stick with? The only problem I have with this FW is the lack of creating/using custom rules, so I'm forced to use the default application rules (which could leave your computer unsecured, IMO). Also dont like the inability to password-protect my fw settings. The thing is I'm currently using this FW free since I'm a comcast HSI customer......so if it's good enough, might as well keep it.

3) What are some good online resources to create "ideal" custom rules, info to disable windows services that arent needed, info on known ports used for various exploits/malicious activity/etc., and overall some good tips & tricks to secure my firewall, Windows Xp, IE, etc. I've been reading some of the articles at pcflank (securing XP, firewall rules, etc.) but I'm sure there's more websites with that kind of info......just havent found them yet.

4) What are some pros/cons between Norton Personal Firewall 2005, Mcafee Personal Firewall Plus 6.1, Zonealarm Pro 5.5, and Outpost Personal Firewall 2.5? Not very excited to subscribe to Outpost since I never heard about this FW until now....

Thsi forum have been a great help in understanding various computer security info, programs, etc. so I hope somebody could help me out again by answering some of my questions.

Thank You

-J

[se7engreen]

I don't use Outpost at the moment, but I think you'd be doing youself a great injustice if you didn't at least trial it. Could be the last firewall you try. In my opinion, one of the better personal firewalls on the market.

[Peter2150]

Have to chime in. Both Norton and Mcafee don't install on your system, they infest it. Try getting rid of them. I have been a faithful and loyal Zone Alarm Pro users for several years, and in fact just recently renewed my ZA license. But I am about to switch to Outpost 2.5 Why?

Well I scan my puter about once a week with several sites like GRC, and always have been fine. I tried last night and Port 641 was wide open. I checked around in ZA, and online, but couldn't find out what was going on. Downloaded the trial and installed and Port 641 was stealthed. But then I just did some of the normal things I do on my system, and next thing I know the darn port is open again. Using the list of ports Outpost provides I quickly narrowed the problem down to an exe that is part of the comcast support system. It was very easy for me to make a rule and close that port.

Yes I then went back into ZA and even though the way ZA lists the programs is not the greatest I found and blocked the program. Outpost was sooo much easier. I am switching.

Pete

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Good Morning...

Thanks for the replies, but I have some more questions to help me pick the best personal firewall for me.

1) Whats so bad about Norton PF 2005? From what I've read on here Norton's firewall uses a lot of memory, is a P.I.T.A. to uninstall, and scored very poorly in leak tests. Recently I've bought a boxed version of NPF 2005 for the available advanced features (custom rules with default application rules, privacy control to protect my data being sent out,etc.)...but I might return this product due to all the "bad news" on here and other forums.
" }-

I used Norton PF 2003 some time ago and it appeared to work, however, I recently tried to install it here on Win2k SP4 and it wouldn't work right. Also 2005 didn't work properly either. Something was amiss in it's auto rule creation stuff in 2005 so some programs couldn't access the net, and 2003 couldn't access the net period.

Aside from those experiences, I dislike Norton PF because it's bloated and huge (the archive is 25-30 megs.. come on, that's big enough to put a house in!), when it installs it creates an UNBELIEVABLE number of registry entries everywhere from what I can see. It also appeared to slow down my system somewhat, although I didn't do much testing in that respect. Also had trouble removing it and NAV on various occasions. Reformated once due to this.

So just based on the above, I would say that almost ANY other choice would be a better choice. Does a firewall really need to come in a 25-30 meg archive and invade your system? There are better ones that use almost zero disk space and zero resources (Kerio 2, Jetico, LnS are a few).

Just my opinion on Norton stuff. Some probably disagree, but my experience with Norton hasn't been very favorable.. and I did use NAV for years too.

[Untouchable J]

After searching the web I found this (a lil old, but its the same version):

-{ Quote: "...However, among our ten leak tests, it caught only Gibson Research's two-year-old LeakTest. McAfee verified that while its corporate firewall protects against such attacks, the personal edition does not." }-

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1706820,00.asp

:-\

With the great info kindly posted here, I think I might give ZA Pro a try. With Mcafee's fw already eating up 15-20 MB, I dont want to switch to Norton's 25-30 MB Fw.

Thanks

-J