Hey all, I have done tons of research on what security to use on a new laptop I am getting, but for the inexperienced (me) it can be overwhelming. I am a quick learner and good with technology but when it comes right down to it I don't know what firewall to choose. I want to stay the free option for all my security needs as I am a safe surfer. As of now I plan to use: AntiVir PE classic Spybot S&D Adaware SE Which firewall should I choose that I can pretty much not have to bother with much. I have found posts on Comodo, Kerio 2.15, Jetico, and Zonealarm that seem to top peoples lists. Please tell me which one to go with and why! Remember I am not experienced with firewalls.
I have tried all four of those firewalls. With Kerio I got the BSOD. Jetico was good but very busy with pop up warnings. Although the warnings settled down tremendously after about a week. Zone Alarm I liked. But it has not done well recently in security tests. I am currently using Comodo and it has been my favorite by far. It can be a bit busy with pop ups in the beginning. But the Comodo forum is a great resource for answers to any issues with the firewall.
Hi jsoth, Welcome to Wilders I personally would say "Yes", really due to your ability to control applications access to the internet from your PC. There are other firewalls, but, as you mention these... Kerio 2.15 and Jetico, these require the user to add rules for the applications, and for a new user can cause some problems. Comodo/Zonealarm, both can be used as "Application firewalls", where you just allow or deny an application access to the internet, without a need to know what protocol/ports are needed. I would advise you to try and learn some TCP/IP, just the basics are needed, and then use a rules based firewall.
Thanks for the welcome I am willing to learn a bit, do you have a good site/article to get me on the right start? Comodo looks pretty slick though. How much ram does it use?
It looks like around 25-26 MB of RAM. If RAM is an issue for your computer Jetico is exceptionally light IIRC.
Your Welcome If you are willing to learn, I am willing to help. A start can be here my follow up post does show the basic protocols/ports needed for basic internet use. Comodo is possibly a good starting point, I do not know the current ram usage of this, but no doubt others will post this info for you. Do post if you have any questions,.. remember, there are no silly questions, just possibly silly replies.
I use Ghostwall as a firewall because it is very simple and very light. It doesn't have outbound/application control although it's firewall rules are very strong. Because of this, there are no annoying popups that alerts everytime a program connects to the net. Now, how about for the malicious applications trying to access the net? I rely on Avira's strong virus/malware detection rate and ofcourse I use Cyberhawk as an HIPS. What makes Cyberhawk my HIPS choice is that it is very light and has very few false positives that may interfere with normal usage. So you see, my personal choice of security tools is that: -Should be easy to use with minimal user interuptions and configurations -very light in system resources -and ofcourse it should be free Avira uses about 8-12MB ram, cyberhawk approximately 10MB, and a negligible 400kb for ghostwall. But actually, ghostwall driver doesnt register its memory usage and the ghostwall gui that you see in taskmanager can be killed without affecting the firewalls performance...its just a gui...By the way the ram values are just approximations...they can even go lower than that... With these setup you are protected from: -Almost all viruses/malwares (Avira) -Future attacks/malicious programs (Cyberhawk) -Outside attcks from hackers, port scanners, exploits, etc. (Ghostwall) Now to be obsessive-compulsive, you may use spybot s&d or spyware doctor to check any other traces of spywares/adwares and even remnants of other malwares...
My setup is almost same. I have AntiVir Free, Ghostwall and Cyberhawk plus ProSecurity, DriveSentry and GeSWall. IMO AntiVir Free, GhostWall and Cyberhawk is enough and it's so light and good combination. -MikeNAS
Wow that's great. Now I knew someone who believes that this 3 tandem (Avira-Ghostwall-Cyberhawk) can do the works... Oh, I forgot to say that I sandboxie Internet Explorer and some Yahoo games...haha, very clever...Don't quote me on that...
No you don't really need anything more than the windows firewall if you are a safe surfer. If you want something that keeps the bad guys out and is simple to use then the xp firewall is your best bet.
Filseclab is a good little firewall. If you want something simple to control inbound and outbound connections then something like filseclab is great. In regards to your original post comodo is probably your best option. Its free, its secure, its not too hard to use and it should run fine on a new laptop.
One thing I like about Filseclab (and the reason I keep returning to it) is that I can almost always figure out what's going wrong (should something go awry), thanks to it's excellent monitor / logging. It's also very light on resources. OK, it's outgoing / leaktest protection may not be stellar ((if you put credence in it's importance (not terribly concerned in that I'm running HIPS)), but it gives me the "warm and fuzzies" in that I am able to diagnose issues that arise. I find it's been a great learning tool. Comodo has gained much popularity here, and generally considered an excellent firewall. You may want to give it a try. I tried it on my box, but it immediately broke things. Don't doubt i could have got it working, but at the time I had neither the time nor patience. May try it again in the future.
Hello, jsoth, from the four listed, I think ZoneAlarm is the simplest. After that Comodo. Both are nice products. Mrk
I loved the Comodo Firewall, as it has the bells and whistles that I like in my software, and of course it passes all the leak tests. I also however, am beginning to like the simplicity of the AVG Firewall that is included in the AVG 7.5 Internet Security Suite. I have to admit though, that being a safe surfer myself, my PC never ran faster than when using Antivir PE with just the Windows XP Firewall. I even added Windows Defender for a short time, and my PC still ran faster than when I used any Third Party Firewall. (And believe me I used most of them at one time or another) I will end with the fact that my son, who I would definitely not call a safe surfer, has only used Avast Home and Windows XP Firewall for almost a year now, and has not had any Viruses or Spyware. Of course I realize theirs still a chance he may be infected and just doesn't know it, but his PC runs well with no apparent problems. Oh, and I do like Cyberhawk and will probably install the next version when it becomes available.
A couple of days ago, I reformatted my computer, as I do every year to absolutely clean it. My current configuration which, if the moon is in the right place, the Fates smiling on me, and if I can control my crazed need to try new things, is: XP sp2 with most updates, Kerio 2.1.5, SSM free, Avira antivirus free, and Sandboxie. I always run Sandboxie with Opera browser even though I'm a very safe surfer. I also have XPantispy installed and almost all things turned off, including Windows messaging and autoupdates. I'll choose my own updates. We're also covered by a hardware firewall for incoming. I ran System Safety Monitor through a couple of reboots in learning mode and with Opera, MSIE6, MS Word, Avira, and a couple of other programs I use regularly and then turned off learning mode. On this machine, which is as clean as a reformat can make it, anything that suddenly starts wanting to connect, I will consider suspicious. I've always liked Kerio 2.1.5, even though it's a bit elderly now. With SSM and Kerio onboard, AND with a clean start, I think I'm in good shape.
I posted this info in another thread, but will reiterate it here. Filseclab is a decent firewall if all you want is something to set n' forget. However, as far as firewall testing goes, it is always at or near the bottom of the list regarding security issues. Also, for whatever reason, it tends to consume more CPU than the others. It is also very lightweight in that it is terminated very easily my malware. Also, as I found out through personal experience, if rules are added to the configuration (such as blocking IP's, IP/Mask Ranges), the increase in memory and CPU usage is enormous. Maybe others have not had this occur with their systems, but after I added these extras in Filseclab, it really started wacking out, giving me error messages, 100% CPU usage, system bogged down almost to a halt. Bottom line, in spite of the stories I've read about the difficulty of Jetico firewall (version 1), I downloaded and installed it, and really don't see what all the fuss is about. It did most of the configuring for me. If you download the additional help file (from Jetico website on same download page) and read through it, the basic configuring of Jetico is no more difficult than configuring any other firewall. In fact, I felt it was much easier than configuring Comodo or Kero. Personally, I wouldn't feel all that secure running Filseclab. But maybe that's just me.
