Recommendations - FW for non-tech wife's new laptop???

Except that the poster is looking for a firewall to go in a notebook computer.

There is definitely a non-portable bias around here.

 

Aren't the products (yoggie.com) YeOldeStonecat's referring to made for laptops, and are portable?

 

OK, I stand corrected and should have clicked on the link. If you want one, its $179 and that is a fair chunk of change, plus there will be some penalty in battery life, and its one more gizmo to keep track of.

 

Click the link....you might see the letters that spell out "LAPTOP SECURITY FIREWALL APPLIANCE SOLUTION", and "unveils the next revolution in laptop security"

It's a USB stick, with a linux distro running on it. For some of us...not all too heavy to claim as non-portable. Just running code, doesn't really kill battery life, plus with many portable laptops hitting 5, 6, even 7 plus hours of runtime....for some, a non-issue. For spreading out on a table top at the local java shop for a few hours...another USB device on top of the portable USB mouse and possibly other peripherals..a non-issue for some. Budget? Yeah, that's for the user to determine, it's more for the Lenovo, Averatec, and Winbook users, rather than the eMachine and Pavilion users.

 

I finally got rid of ZA on my wifes computer when it started to block her Email after our ISP changed the Email Ports. I installed comodo & she likes it very much.

 

The most important thing it is positioned for "moms and pops" as its team claims
And actually, in its out of box config and setup it is very easy to use, still it has the same protection as in advanced mode. The difference is only in an ability to setup different things (advanced mode allows fine tuning). And it is actually very safe, because Firewall is accompanied by the HIPS and optionally with KAV AV engeene with excellent virusbase support.

 

This is not that simple. To circumvent anything a hacker needs at least that his "something" was started. Then he heeds that his something did something unusual. And here HIPS come to the scene. In general hackers' skills are overestimated. Most malware uses just the wrong or insufficient security settings and can be removed manually by advanced user.

 

Vista compatible FW for laptop revisited:

Lots of good stuff in many of the replies, and I appreciate them.

Several overlooked the fact that some suggested FWs are not (even still) Vista ready. As far as I can determine, these do NOT support Vista:
ZoneAlarm Pro (their suite does - don't particularly care for suites; free ZA does - not well reviewed in recent yrs)
Comodo
Kerio

Those would've probably been my top picks.

Couple of points:
MS Vista's FW does NOT rate that well in several tests, esp leak tests, perhaps others. This shouldn't surprise anyone. It also has very poor / limited configurability. Still, it'd be better than nothing...maybe.

McAfee ISS (came on the laptop): Stopped using McAfee yrs ago... now I remember why. Is it EVER irritating. Really, really, really poorly designed UI. Almost IMPOSSIBLE to shut down the AV completely. IMO, compared to ZoneAlarm Pro, it's a joke.

So, still looking!

 

I say NIS because it comes preinstalled with default rules and its huge database of safe apps is updated enough so the popular programs such as firefox have automated rule creation. It's good enough for inbound and passes shields up and its outbound is 1 popup for program and it takes 1 click for automated allow or deny rule.

Pics look easy enough?

I know you said you do not like norton but the 2007 version has made a big change. Ask others. They may prefer kaspersky but they will still agree norton is use-able now and has great AV.

 

Sorry Coolio, I'm not "cool" w/ Norton, for a lot of reasons.
(see what I did there? I used part of your handle... oh forget it.)

If for no other reason than Symantec's technical support isn't bad... it's non-existant. Plus they've been cranking out pure trash for several yrs. I had some of that trash, and had to kick it to the curb. Nope, too soon for me to go back in the water.

 

Now I'm not really a fan of Norton either, because of past experience. But when I bought this pc 8 mos. ago it came with NIS 2007 pre-installed. Support was one of the pluses of my experience. So was the ease of use. If you chose not to trial it based on past experiences, I'm afraid you'll be missing out. If it wasn't for wanting to try out everything else, it would still be on my machine. Just my 2c worth....

 

Thanks Monty,
By any chance were you born in 1964?

You mean you didn't send countless emails during your payed support period that went unanswered? And you didn't call customer support & complain & they promised someone would contact you w/in 1 business day & they NEVER did?

You mean the manager of the tech support group didn't personally promised you that a tech would be calling you back "very shortly" and they never did? And you mean the update process didn't totally F up every piece of Norton software on your PC to where their "self help" support KB said "just uninstall everything & start over?"

Is that the Symantec of old? Let me say something. MANY apps will work "out of the box" when they come OEM, because THEY MAKE SURE OF IT! It's what happens later on is the BIG problem. I'd have to read rave reviews from every credible source for several years in a row that Norton was blowing the competition away in EVERY category before I'd even consider it. Even then, it'd be a last resort.

I'm sure they improved - had to. They were so bad, free apps were kicking their A's in popularity.

 

It really depends. For just plain using the firewall in Vista is pretty ok.

Otherwise for seperate applications I would recommend the Comodo firewall. It is very light and easy to work with.
But I guess the most easy way would be a suite. Easiest way to configure. Why vote will be for KIS7

 

Thanks sjoeii,
As mentioned, Comodo doesn't have a Vista ready FW yet.
Vista FW may be somewhat effective, but it isn't "good" by any objective testing reports I've seen.

If I were going to put any important / sensitive info on a computer and / or do online financial transactions, for instance, I would personally NOT trust the Vista FW, OR many others on the market. I'd suggest the same line of thought for others. Do some homework. Choose wisely!

 

haha,

Never thought I could post something like this (I highly appraciate BigC's expertise and opinions), here it comes

"Yes I can endorse that, use the free VistaFireWall control application for easy in/outbound firewall http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/ "

Regards Kees

 

No, I drive a '64 Montego lol ...

That's exactly what I mean.

Agreed. Although I didn't think it was your top priority?

Another conflict might be...

...since

stealth would be handled before the s/w-firewall. Maybe what you are looking for could become a never-ending quest, similar to the one I was on. I ended up with no software firewall at all, and I have 2 teen-aged daughters that use this pc for (unsupervised) browsing and instant-messaging. I don't worry about this 'puters security with them at all. Maybe you should get SandBoxie...their forum (and this) can help you tweak SB and no longer need a (software) firewall!