The best free firewall?

What is the best free firewall? I'm sure you'll ask me to define "best", so I suppose I mean the most secure. It is a security app afterall, and if it's complicated, I'll learn.

Also, how does the best free firewall compare to the best paid-for firewall?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

Everyone has their own opinions. I say it depends on what you're looking for. Do you want it secure silent ? Or secure but chatty ?

 

The best free firewall is Private Firewall. It is FW + HIPS + Anomaly Detection. Light on resources. Easy to use. Well maintained. Great tech support (seldom needed) from actual employees of the PFW organization (not from a forum of multiple opinions).

 

+1

 

@qwerty12345, I would actually suggest you try out all the free firewalls available out there, this URL is a good starting point
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm

Also there are free trials for paid firewalls, maybe you could also try that, and more or less you'd get a feel of what you really want (performance, security, settings, usability, user-friendliness, etc.)

So yeah, quoting Morro, ultimately, it really depends on what you're looking for.

 

I've tested or tried almost every firewall out there at one time or another. I've never tried PrivateFirewall, but from what I've seen posted everyone seems to agree that its a great firewall. I may be building a few new machines in a few months so i will have to give it a try then. I really like the GUI. Looks very simple to use. http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Privatefirewall-Screenshot-567.html

 

Your question can not really be answered to say which free firewall is the best. I do have recommendations. The following have very good free firewalls: Online Armor, Outpost, Private Firewall, and Comodo. I have never used Private Firewall, but i had to list it because I have seen so many good things posted about it. Never noticed anything bad so it must be good. I just got done trying Comodo's new version of their Firewall, and i really liked it. The only thing with Comodo is that there may be a learning curve. So if your patient it may be right for you. Online Armor is great, but lacks some of the features the paid version has. The same holds true for Outpost. It lacks some of the features the paid version has. I only use the paid versions so I do not remember which features the free versions was lacking so i hope someone can give you a better breakdown of the features offered by the paid vs free.

 

I've used OA Paid, Private Firewall and Comodo FW/HIPS combos.

My problems with OA were delays - longer boot time and delayed HIPS response in some instances. For example, when installing some apps the HIPS would hang for seconds while it considered response to new opening processes. Reliable, but slow.

Comodo V5 FW/HIPS seemed excellent, behaving exactly as expected, with fast HIPS response. Better white-listing than PFW, 'quieter' HIPS when installing some apps.

Private Firewall FW/HIPS is lean with lightning-fast HIPS response. It is a bit light in white-listed apps, challenging every new process it encountered - but that's fine with me. That's what a HIPS is for. I haven't seen the 'anomoly detector' challenge any 'anomolies', but I'm covered with other security apps (EAM and SOL) in that regard.

PFW for me until I see a better solution.

 

i been using outpost for 4-5 years its been one of best firewall buying its life time license is not a bad deal as well

as for free i tried comodo once

what is best firewall according to me is what you feel more familiar with and you know how to set your own rules in it.

thats is best and most secure

 

I would recommend Zonealarm. Try the latest version but keep in mind that over their history newer versions have introduced new bugs and some previous releases were known for their stability. Important: If you have to go back to older versions, read the changelogs to see what you are missing:

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html

I think the golden age of personal firewalls was between Atguard 3.22-->Kerio 2.1.5 and think that their programmers should be kidnapped and forced to issue bugfix releases compatible with the latest operating systems.

 

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

 

Private Firewall

@ bellgamin, a concise note, informative and with a focal point. Reading your notes with true fulfillment.

 

I'm not a fanboy of any program but I agree that PW is the best 'personal' firewall I have used, for home users there so few others as effective, user friendly and FREE

also very underrated...

 

Plus another.

 

What is your o/s?
What do you mean most secure?
Are you behind a router?

The answer to your questions is probably a FW where you will learn about rules and then USE!

Do you know what a 2 way FW is? If not you have some learning ahead. But that is a good thing!

 

I agree with this.

 

Looks like il have to give PFW another try

 

Zone Alarm free

 

The best firewall is the one that serves your needs, and does it so in a way that you understand it.

 

That is without a doubt the best answer you're going to get.

 

MS Windows Firewall.

 

Most firewalls are just as effective as one and other.. The difference comes in the stuff they bundle with them or the UI they use.

So like Windows 7 Firewall would be just as effective as the Zone Alarm (Paid) firewall with both of them configured. Alot of difference people base on firewalls is HIP's Which is not even a firewall.

 

I think that what makes it all really difficult is that after all it is nearly impossible to understand everything that is going on "under the hood" and also I've seen more security programs which I suspected had either this flaw or that flaw.
So when I choose security programs I both look at who is making the stuff, what other people says of negative or positive stuff, try it out and see what I think, but in the end I suppose that I end up going with whatever gut feeling I'm left with.
Even the supplier of my present firewall has screwed up a couple of times , but then again I save many version back so I just installed the previous version so no biggie. Also just had to uninstall my previous A.V. as it were causing spontaneous reboots on my system (but I nailed the "sucker" without any difficulty worth mentioning)
Bottom line, for me... :
Snoop around , then make a choice based on what you like and first and foremost on (who and) what you trust, if this doesn't pan out then try out the "runner ups" !!!

 

Good answer.

If they were a clear 'best' firewall then surely everyone would be using it?

Most of the answers you will receive are simply answers to the question "what is my favorite firewall".

 

To the 5 or 6 people who basically said "it depends what you mean by 'best'", I had already anticipated that when I said:

If that doesn't make sense, or isn't really meaningful, then it's probably because I don't know much about firewalls, (maybe that was obvious from my post) and I hoped you could enlighten me.

Perhaps I should re-phrase my question: What are the differences between the different firewalls available, and which are generally regarded as being the best at what they do (stopping people from hacking into, and out of, my computer)?

Thank you.