How good is OA free?

I'm looking for a decent free firewall that will run on Win 7 64 bit.

Curious what are the opinions of Online Armor free compared to something like PC Tools free firewall. Is OA free superior? Any recent tests done on both firewalls (e.g. leak tests)? Any other better free firewalls?

Thanks in advance for any help and recommendations of other good free firewalls.

 

Welcome to Wilders, as I see that this is your first post. As per forum policy, an A vs B comparison is not allowed in the forums.

However you may want to check out the following sites below:
1. http://www.anti-malware.ru/firewall_test_outbound_protection_2011 (in Russian, use Chrome or third party page to translate)
2. http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/ (Online Armor results have been removed, though it generally scored really high)
3. http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm
4. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm (Firewall section)

Or try searching for relevant topics within this forum.

Enjoy your stay!

 

AFAIK that only applies to antivirus software.

 

The Comodo firewall is also worth considering. It provides good security and the days of too many alerts are gone, thanks to a comprehensive whitelist.

 

Good enough and much better than pctools I would consider also Comodo FW

 

i really liked to use on my windows and try it out of the virtualbox but gave me BSOD with Bitdefender AV.

 

I have discovered that its not so much a simple case of 'what's better' rather for me at least it is 'what works without conflict' or 'what runs smoothly without making my PC freeze up or go into slo-mo'.

Truly, they're all good. Try each one for yourself.

 

You can just use the windows firewall with windows firewall notifier : it morks fine, it's enough for a personal use and really light.

 

Comodo is a good choice. It has a lot of advanced features, & seems to work fairly well plus the white list now seems to reduce the popups. There are a lot of pop ups from the OA hips. Private firewall is also a very good choice. I am not sure PC Tools firewall is being updated very much, I think that it is going out slowly.

 

OA is a bit naggy
Comodo is also decent

 

OA (Free) is an excellent firewall/HIPS/anti-logger solution with many excellent features.

If it runs well on your system I highly recommend it

 

You can't go wrong with OA Free. I have OA one machine, Comodo on another, and Defensewall on two others. OA is on my wife's laptop and its quite worry free. I also like that it reportedly has excellent keylogger protection.

 

OA is top-notch, I use both the Premium and the Free versions and find both of them to be excellent. Also the vendor is a reliable one in terms of privacy. Highly recommended.

 

I'm in total agreement...I use OA Free with Windows 7. Simply great!

 

In different configurations works very nice...
Win7 (32-bit) - in team with MSE, Avast, Panda, SpyShelter...without issue
XP SP3 - in team with MSE, Avast, Panda, Mamutu...without issue

 

does the two hips not conflict....and people say bb and hips would conflict....here two hips are used together....

 

OA + Mamutu...no conflicts
OA + SS...the same
I like OA...and SS much more

 

Way too better than PCTools firewall. If you don't mind seldom alert pop-ups tehnyour okay with OA. Do also consider Comodo. The CIS version has been improved and take a look also at Privatefirewall. Those are free alternatives.

For set-up the guys here are willing to help you out. Just post whatever's on your mind and a buncch of the guru's are here for you.

 

I'm trying OA free, for the first time, on Vista HP with MSE and Prevx free, and I'm honestly amazed and very impressed with all OA's many and effective features...I'd rate it very highly

 

what happens when a certain process tries to access the registry or something .....generally any hips will alert and ask to allow, block or find out more about the process.....now that OA and Spyshelter are installed together........suppose OA alerts it first......the action is paused in the meantime......and it's allowed.....the action resumes....but spyshelter does not record that OA has already asked for user attention and allowed the action.....so spyshelter also now pauses the action and alerts....so the user again allows .......

this means user attention is needed twice every time a process tires to access something until the action is white listed by both OA and Spyshelter........

this also means time consumed in user attention is doubled than that if one hips were used...........

so what's your experience ichito.........

 

Nothing specialy terrible
Assuming I know what I install - I know that this concrete program, I know what is its purpose, its source is trusted ...I decide chose install/learning mode in both program. And it's a scenario vast majority of my new installations...no popups-alerts...no problem...fast and simply.

Assuming installation of unknown program...I skip that process will run on a virtualized system...even if it gives me a lot of alerts I patiently read all messages from both (OA and SS)...no wasting time if we speak about security of system...sorry - maybe I'm stupid and paranoiac but always is the same. When something is suspicious and strange - I set "block action" and..."game is over"

This is not a problem especially that - not too many programs are installed per day/week/month

 

I had problems with OA remembering rules. Actually I've had some problem or another with pretty much any 3rd party firewall I have used - so I just use the built in Windows firewall. Besides the remembering rules problem, there's the issue of the systray icons never appearing correctly after a reboot. I know it's being picky but still it looks/appears unprofessional for a higher end firewall. The only firewall I've not tried recently is Private Firewall which I hear a lot of good things about.

 

good to know you're taking security simply and seriously.....

 

Zone Alarm free is better IMO.

 

Yep! OA would never remember punkbuster or BF2142 properly and as a result I was always getting booted off the servers because OA kept blocking Punkbuster even AFTER I told OA to ALLOW.