choosing a new fire wall

[starfish_001]

Got to the renewal time for Outpost - having tried 3.5 I'm not sure about staying with it but .... it is a very good product......

My list so far

Outpost
looknstop
CoreForce

Not so keen on Zonelabs or Kerio or Norton so comments on the above would be welcome I use Process Guard and Defensewall so Tiny might be a bit like overkill.

Which product do you rate and why?
Experiences with support?
Soemthing else Jetco, Neveda?

[Kerodo]

I'd have to say that Core Force is still a little early in the development stage. I had some cpu usage issues with it, as well as some other quirks/bugs. I'd hold off on that one till it approached closer to 1.0. So one of the 1st 2 choices would be better IMO.. Also Jetico is pretty good if you can get past the popup annoyances during initial configuration.

Originally Posted by Kerodo

I'd have to say that Core Force is still a little early in the development stage. I had some cpu usage issues with it, as well as some other quirks/bugs. I'd hold off on that one till it approached closer to 1.0. So one of the 1st 2 choices would be better IMO.. Also Jetico is pretty good if you can get past the popup annoyances during initial configuration.

I must agree with Kerodo's CF current assessments.
Be very cautious if you try to test CoreForce. They have the right idea in mind with it's current development but it is extremely overkill on way too many permissions monitoring and that WILL slow your PC down significantly over usage sessions.
It consistently crashes on me with this present build and definitely is much too overly heavy for the common PC user as is.

I get far better protection with no impact or issues just using SSM (beta) with KERIO firewall.

Of course i use Cyberhawk and Shadowuser to offset matters too.



Like some i have high expectations for it but right now it's not stable at all.

[starfish_001]

At the moment just exploring may be I was a bit quick to knock out Kerio - Had a look at the pro version and it seems very good.

Would also like to look more closely at looknstop

CoreForce or similar are probably a way off for me ....

[Mrkvonic]

Hi,
My reply from the other thread:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...675#post684675

Mrk

[Chuck57]

Kerio 4.2, either free or Pro is, in my opinion, one of the best firewalls out there. I have Sunbelt 4.2.3 (free) on my computer right now and haven't had a complaint.

Another that I'm still thinking about is the newest McAfee desktop firewall. It's no slouch either.

[starfish_001]

I reading the Kerio pro manual and will take a look at looknstop at the weekend

Interested in any feedback on either?

[CJsDad]

I just finished my trial version of Outpost Pro and I am now using the trial version of Look n' Stop.
Between the 2 I like Look n' Stop so far, but this is my preference, I want to be completely sure about that though before making my final decision and I still have another couple of weeks left on the L n' S trial version.

[Mem]

I've just paid for Kerio 4.2.3 - the price was right. It fits in well with KAV 6 without having to maintain PG , RD, etc. It's easy to use, does what it is supposed to, can be application control and/or rules based so it gives flexability. Throughput has not been affected so I'll probably stick with it. Some will complain about memory usage being higher than others - I'm seeing about 19 MB routinely in VM size.

Since bought recently by Sunbelt the support is slow getting off the ground in the way of forums - I haven't needed any though since the product has been easy to configure for me.

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by CJsDad

I just finished my trial version of Outpost Pro and I am now using the trial version of Look n' Stop.
Between the 2 I like Look n' Stop so far, but this is my preference, I want to be completely sure about that though before making my final decision and I still have another couple of weeks left on the L n' S trial version.

Why do you prefer LNS to Outpost - what is better - what is worse?

[FirePost]

Originally Posted by starfish_001

Got to the renewal time for Outpost - having tried 3.5 I'm not sure about staying with it but .... it is a very good product......

If you like a pre 3.5 version of Outpost then you can just keep using it. Any renewals are for maintaining the anti-spyware or updates/upgrades. If you are not interested in those at the moment then just use the version you like until such time as there is something you want.

[WSFuser]

Originally Posted by starfish_001

Why do you prefer LNS to Outpost - what is better - what is worse?

being a former outpost user like CJsDad, i thought id add my thoughts.

with outpost 3.0 (not 3.5) u can use the presets.lst file to add preset rules for specific processes or applications. with the latest 3.5 u can no longer use the presets.lst file but outpost with its new "ImproveNet security community network" can automatically grab the latest rulesets for programs. for either version, u are given teh option of creating ur own rules for applications the moment u get alerted.

with looknstop, u have to import rules and then move them (up or down) for teh best security. and unlike outpost u cant add these rules when u get prompted for an application to connect and theres not as many preset rules either. looknstop firewall is very light and fast especially compared to outpost. haing said that, it also lacks a few things. it has no similar plugins (content blocker, antispyware etc) nor does it have process control or other HIPS-type features.

i suggest u try looknstop and form ur own opinions.

[Osaban]

Outpost: I used it for a couple of months, I can't be technical but it seemed very much alert of any inbound or outbound traffic. The antispyware plugin would be very welcome in some systems. I bought a license but I 'm not using it because it would sometimes block some websites for a short time. As I couldn't work the reason for this behaviour I bought L'nS'. I would still rate OP among the best.
Support: Excellent forum.

L'n'S: My current FW, it is a pure firewall, very light and fast as far browsing is concerned (on my system, compared to OP).
So far I had no issues and it's offering a basic protection ( if you know how to create rules they can become powerful tools).
Support:Excellent forum.

CoreForce: Don't know anything about it.

Even though L'n's is very basic compared to OP, it can be used in conjunction with ProcessGuard (my choice).

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by FirePost

If you like a pre 3.5 version of Outpost then you can just keep using it. Any renewals are for maintaining the anti-spyware or updates/upgrades. If you are not interested in those at the moment then just use the version you like until such time as there is something you want.

Yes that has been going through my mind - 3.5 leaves my machine unbootable

Version 3 works well enough except for the startup/shutdown bug. Outpost is also pretty heavy when 20 or so connections are open. The Spyware module is pretty average. But I have Proximotron and Online Armour + Process Guard in any case.

So at the moment I thinking of trying something different - Dont want Zonelabs although I do rate it

So I think I gonna try Kerio, LNS, and Jetico and may stick with outpost (but bug take too long)

[starfish_001]

I have loaded LNS and Kerio in separate snapshots for testing

LNS seems light and bare compared to Outpost
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...946#post685946

Kerio looks very full but still boots quicker than Outpost but then BSOD from the FW driver. For now back to outpost. Will Test Kerio more later.



I think that I like the rule based application nature of Outpost more than the LNS approach. I did quite like Kerio when I tried it a couple of years ago but .. it used to fail rather a lot of the leak tests.


I might give Jetico a spin tomorrow.

[starfish_001]

Kerio looks nice seems to have a lot of good feature not sure I need them all but as it is only stable for minutes at a time - I gave up.

I now have 3 snapshot running.

1. Outpost 3 my existing config
2. LNS
3. Jetico

Of the 3 I like LNS and Outpost best - although Jetico is very good when it comes to leak testing