What firewall to choose based on this..->

Hello everybody. Well I'm looking for THE BEST of the BEST of the BEST firewall!
The most secure firewall
Low on ressources doesn't really matter
It doesn't have to be easy to use!

I've tried ZoneAlarm Pro, Outpost Pro, Sygate PFP and Kerio. But really I can't figure out which firewall has the best security features?? The best packet filtering etc...
Anyone, help me on this?

 

Never ever ask for the best personal firewall (or AV/AT/AS for that matter). They all secure your system. You just pick whatever you like.

 

Hehe. I know But somebody gotta know which one has the most and best security features...?? The best inbound outbound protection, application control, packet filtering etc. There must be one which is a little better then others? On just one of that points...

 

If you've tested those FWs and can't figure out which one is the best, then I can only assume that YOU are the weakest link. Learn how to properly secure a FW and you MAY discover the subtle differences among the various FWs. I prefer the old ZA Pro 4.5.594.000.

 

I found ZoneAlarm to be very good... But after a day of use it just kept disconnecting me from the inet. VERY annoying so I uninstalled it... Hmm.. Sygate Personal firewall Pro won't work with ICS on my computer... Maybe i'll try jetico

 

Me too, but I wouldn't put it quite so harshly.

Lately, my favorite ZAPro is acting up. The icon is active (on the toolbar) but ZA isn't - giving rise to the thought that someone out there is targeting ZA apps, and their whole attack simply shuts it down while allowing the icon to continue (apparently) doing its job. This was verified by looking at the running processes, and ZA was nowhere to be found. It would restart, all the gates were open, all traffic type permitted. So I had to LOCK it down, and manually go thru and re-config everything. I no longer trusted it. A re-move and re-install fixed it all three times.

The 2d time it happened, I thought maybe it was something I'd added/installed that was hosing it, but again, it was a free-for-all, and I had to lock the network down again (very embarassing). This particular time, it had been down over the weekend and I had 167 assorted agents/bot and 19 Virii AAW, Spybot S&D and NAV missed out on, to get rid of.

The 3rd time, I chose to save the old ZA.exe and .dll files and analyze them - but I found nothing... nonetheless I keep a close watch on it. Anyone else seen this?

I'm considering a totally Linux-powered hardware solution (286-486 box, minimal RAM, no video, floppy/CD boot only, 2 NIC. S/W is/was free. Here is one source: http://www.gateway-guardian-gg-os.net-software-download.com/ and here's another: http://www.securiteam.com/tools/6B0091P5PS.html

 

I have not encountered such events with ZA Pro 4.5.594.000 and my PC. However, we are talking about different system and surfing habits.

I saw a similar problem with this software on a friend's PC. But there is a pop up warning that ZA is down and asking if the user wants to restart ZA. We never could replicate that problem a 2nd time.

Perhaps it's an inside job. If your PC is in STEALTH mode, then it would be VERY difficult for an outside hacker to locate your system and shutdown ZA.

 

If they're really were a firewall better than all the rest, all the other companies would be out of business!

 

I have been useing Kaspersky antihacker for a few days and so far I really like it. It is a little bit of a pain to get set the way you want but I just updated spybot search and destroy and it is a major upgrade and Antihacker is the only security app that caught the change. Process guard and a couple of others I have didn't notice that it had changed but my firewall did.

bigc

 

I agree with meneer and Atomic. I have tried most of the popular firewalls on the market.From web filtering to application controls, different firewalls have different security related features. Different people would value different features differently. So it is hard to say which firewall is the best. The best way to find out which one is the best FOR YOU is to try out the different firewalls by yourself as you already did, and see which one fits your own needs. Indeed, such questions on 'best firewalls' have been asked again and again here on the forum. If you do a search, you can find enough information out there.

By the way, I do not think the purpose (or result) of such questions on 'best firewall' is to seek the answer. It is just to light a fire war among users of different firewalls.