Im looking for a good free software firewall. I am interested in boot protection and stateful packet inspection. Thanks.
OpenSource (IPCOP, SmoothWall, Monowall, ClarkConnect, PI Secured), This one nope to being free Injoy Firewall but has the features you want.
Comodo firewall, just disable defense+ and the AV if you don't need them. otherwise pctools firewall might be a good choice ? eXPerience
Free for personal non-commerical use only? Or for commercial use too? In that case Outpost, OnlineArmour and ZAFree cannot be used.
Everyone, Thanks for all your responses. Yes I am looking for personal non-commercial use. You guys should know that according to Kees 1958 OA free doesnt offer boot protection, but Outpost free, Comodo and Private Firewall all do. So I shall be looking at those. Thanks!
Wow except for SmoothWall and Injoy, Ive heard of none of the others! Injoy seems a little too complicated for me though. And Ive already got a router so I dont need smoothwall.
Does ZA have free version? I think PCTools firewall is a good choice,and it is free.But it seems PCTools firewall is not compatible with some softwares.
Za has a free version, PC tools must have boot protection and SPI also. When you use Comodo and think that SPI is important to you, you should also check this one so malformed/non standard messages are dropped by Comodo, translation in Dutch really is funny talking about the RFC standard Ahh well funny that most CFW users are so proud on the process level protection that they do not bother about intrusion on the netwok level (network stack is processed before the process stack), hey my firewall just reached the highest score on process level intrusion testing, pitty it sucks at basic network filtering level (IMO the core function of a FW).
What a pity,ZA Free Version doesn't have Anti-Spyware,this feature only apply to Pro and Suite.I think this feature is very useful.Outpost,although its free version,it has HIPS and some other important protection. Comodo's SPI,I have never seen its strength.I know SPI will check the packets is right or wrong.But what can SPI give us?
PC Tools Firewall if u want a pretty easy to use firewall that has the best network peformance according to matousec, or go with Outpost Free, IMO those 2 are good options. Outpost if u want a strong HIPS, PCT FW if u want pretty simple but effective protection.
You requested a tall order. Comodo CIS 3.10 Enterprise Firewall Firewall + Proactive (Extreme) x - most here are using this Firewall + Proactive (High) Next to this would be Rising Personal Firewall (but default settings would have to be change and check off all the options to make this firewall just as good as the others) PC Tools Firewall Plus doesn't play nice with software applications it can hang your entire system version 5.x. If you disable the Enhanced Security Feature then not going to good of firewall, this feature hangs on applications not all apps but some. OA Free would be another one to use.. Using the plain Jane Windows Firewall doesn't support outbound protection.
Windows firewall guides as put together by Stem located here and here. Be sure to check the sticky at the top of the Firewalls forum.