Which FREE firewall is light on resources???

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by 5422323465, Aug 22, 2005.

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  1. it_waaznt_me

    it_waaznt_me Guest

    Hmm.. I am surprised that no one has mentioned Jetico as yet .. I think its the best freeware firewall around ..
     
  2. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Jetico is good as long as you don't get stuck in the Infinite Reboot Loop From Hell and get hosed. The main complaint with Jetico is that the popups are extremely annoying.

    Seems that no matter what firewall you choose, there is always some complaint or other about it.. :D
     
  3. pilotbiffster

    pilotbiffster Registered Member

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    jetico takes 3964k on windowsXP, plus it's a very efficient rules parser
     
  4. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    USA still the best. But barely.
    To answer the original question. Ime the 2 lightest are Ghostwall & Look n Stop. Right now I'm using GhostWall.
     
  5. sweater

    sweater Registered Member

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    You can also try Filseclab Pro 3... its free and very easy to configure.
     
  6. WaterWall

    WaterWall Guest

    GhostWall is like CHX-I. These are both light on resources but they don't let you specify which applications to allow/prevent accessing the internet.

    IMHO, the primary benefit of a personal software firewall is being able to specify which applications should be allowed to access the internet. For example, I only want to allow my Opera 8.5 browser to use HTTP & HTTPS while denying all other applications on my PC.

    GhostWall and CHX-I don't have this functionality. They apply global firewall rules that apply to all applications on the PC.

    I think the features offered by GhostWall or CHX-I can be had by simply using a hardware firewall. For example, you can run Shorewall on an old Pentium 166 running Linux to serve as both gateway and firewall. Doing this will use 0 MB on your Windows pc which is far less than GhostWall or even CHX-I.

    So there you have it. Run a Linux or *BSD firewall/router on a cheap 8 year old pc. And use a software firewall in Windows that allows you to specify which applications you want to allow access to the internet.
     
  7. Clweb

    Clweb Registered Member

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    Jetico takes a time to learn. It is very good in application survey, and so useful when you have a hardware router with firewall. The outbound protection is very good.
    I have no reboot loop, I had a long time to terminate Windows (XP home), and choosing "Automatically save changes", Windows closes very fast.
    And this may also reduce the popups for applications.
    All in all, I discovered recently (fogot it in my firewall tests) and adopted.
    I used Outpost, but through the years, this good firewall became a bloated software and the component control is annoying with lots of popups.
    Jetco is a good choice with small memory usage (7MB max, 3MB average)
     
  8. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Yes Jetico is quite good. I ran it here recently and it used 3-7mb ram, I was surprised to see it actually go back down from 7 to around 3.4. Pretty light. The reboot loop problem used to happen in conjunction with Avast. However, recently I found that if I installed Jetico first, and then Avast, I avoided the problem. So that may work for some. Still, I'd be cautious with it as it may be some kind of driver conflict related problem and get you for other reasons as well. But it is a good light firewall with great outbound protection that is hard to beat...
     
  9. Clweb

    Clweb Registered Member

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    I have Avast installed here since more than 2 years. So Jetico was installed after Avast. As I said, the "Automatically save changes" solved any problem.
    Yes the outbound protection is of first class.
     
  10. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    There are two best firewalls for me. Sygate 5.6 and Outpost 2.7 (and latest 3.0 too). They both remain very light even when hammering them with massive ammounts of connections and packets using eMule.
    Also very user friendly with simple yet effective control.
     
  11. Technic

    Technic Registered Member

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    Hello!

    I thought the author asked for FREE firewall. :p

    :-*
     
  12. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    Right now, I'm using CHX for inbound protection and NetVeda Safety.Net with only the outbound protection settings enabled... ;)
     
  13. Comit

    Comit Guest

    Sorry for the bump, but I found this thread through google and wanted to post a followup. I dunno about Kerio 2.x but 4.x defiantly is not light. 3 processes totaling 23MB, compared to zonealarm 6.x's 2 totaling 22MB. 2.x sounds nice, but is it a good idea to switch to a firewall that's no longer being developed?
     
  14. Tassie_Devils

    Tassie_Devils Global Moderator

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    Hi comet.... :)

    Well, it may no longer be developed, and it may still an oldie but a GOODIE... I used it for a number of years before getting 4.2 version, and I liked it a lot. The fact that it's no longer "developed" does *not* detract from it's original final build/effectiveness, as long as you have a good ruleset for it, which is readily available around the place.

    Try this bit of information.. very good: http://www.geocities.com/yosponge/4firewal.html

    Also from dslreports forum BlitzenZeuss's rulesets: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8023708

    Main Kerio forum link: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/kerio


    I know some say the new V4 is heavy, but I don't notice it here really and I am on dial-up :'( as Sweater said earlier in thread, works great, love it.

    Cheers, TAS
     
  15. sweater

    sweater Registered Member

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    The very light on resources FREE firewall I think is the built-in Windows XP SP2 Firewall... set it to no exceptions and with the additions of GhostSecurity Suite (AppDefend software) to control any outgoing applications then you'll be fine. Just install a reliable anti-trojan program for additional protection. :cool:
     
  16. Notok

    Notok Registered Member

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    For a free firewall that doesn't have application control, I would say GhostWall or Look'n'Stop Lite. With app control, I like Sygate (even though it got bought out) and FileSecLab. There is also XP Firewall Control, which gives application control to the XP firewall.

    Personally, though, I think it's worth it to pay for a good one. I originally wanted a light free one as well, but when I tried the trial for LnS, I bought it after only a couple days, and haven't regretted it one bit.
     
  17. Arup

    Arup Guest

    Lightest and best perfoming inbound is CHX, also Window's own IPSec if you can implement it. For outbound app control, the free Zone Alarm is also quite good and never goes over 17MB, also Sygate free is very good as well, if you are not running a proxy or transparent proxy like web scanners, mail scanners etc. which are part of AVs today.
     
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