The best free firewall?

probably most firewalls are equally good for protection.
there are many test you can run online to test your firewall.

my preferred firewall is the one that comes with Windows 7.
i like it because i don't have to configure it or answer a ton of popups.

at the other end of the spectrum you have things like Malware Defender which are more suited to "rocket scientists".

i think the best firewall is the one you are comfortable using.

 

This is interesting, if true. Windows XP firewall doesn't really seem to do much; it only has 3 programs on it's exception list, but it's never told me it's blocked anything.

So, it doesn't really matter if a firewall is simple or complicated, free or paid, discontinued or current, as long as the person who is using it knows, basically, what to block and what to allow, it will be an effective means of controlling what has access into and out of a machine?

 

If you re a beginer in firewall "manouvers" you can try 2 ,Zone Alarm Free and Sunbelt Firewall FREE.Easy rule making.
You dont want inbound with this ones ,your PC should not behave as a server for the internet.Block LSSAS in/out and TCP for Svchost.exe.
Easy to set up ,but depeding on the antivirus you use you need to do some testing.
Then you have the Comodo without the HIPS ,but no HIPS in this one means no self protection for the program itself.
And you have the Outpost 6.5 free as well ,but requires more knowledge for making rules ,more granular
All you need to do is get some uninstall tools for all of this mentioned and start testing each one of them.And do some restore point too before.
.

 

I don't believe XP has any way to control Outbound. Tho I don't know for sure as I never messed with XP firewall. You can control Inbound it's just a royal pain to set up. XP is also a VERY basic firewall set there to protect you some vs None.

Vista and 7 Have a program you can use to be able to configure Inbound and Outbound. And also give you the option for IPV6 Filtering that XP Firewall don't have for obvious reasons. These firewalls can be hardened even feather though other tweaks (More on how Windows Built in firewall works / is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Firewall)

All firewalls Block / Hide Ports. It's the configuration that you can do with that firewall that sets it apart. So Some Firewalls are very very user friendly and some are not but they all work all basic same way.

HIPS tho is the main way people compare firewalls now. Even tho it really don't interact with the firewall them self and are more of a Yes and No program.


(Sorry for the Delayed response I seen the post a few days ago but have not had any time free to be able to sit down and type a response.)

 

Which begs the question, as Pandorian said, if there is a clear best, why doesn't everyone use it. Why would anyone use the more difficult ones? Do they usually have more features, or greater customization?

I'll look into this.

Not a problem at all, thanks for your helpful and informative posts.

 

Some people just like the Look, UI, Feature set (Hips or any other protection also added), Amount that you can customize the firewall Like shutting off some protection that most firewalls just integrate Or are just a fan of that company's product. Some people have also seen "Firewall Tests" where someone has tested the Hips side of the firewall and said it's the best. They assume that sense they said it was the best it must be and use it them self's.

There are many reasons why people use different ones but when you get under the hood you will see they are not very different at all

 

Online Armor
Private Firewall
Comodo

 

Check yourself here
http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php

 

You might also want to do a search on "Matousec" (without the quotes) here at Wilders. I think you will find that the objectivity of those tests is questioned by many folks. Draw your own conclusions.

 

Who can counter argue against such a wonderful premise. You said it perfectly.

Thanks.

 

Online Armor, Outpost, Private Firewall, and Comodo.

 

Upon further review, I would just like to say there is no "free" firewall. Even those that cost zero.

Not free BECAUSE there is a learning curve for the user to set them up and understand FW basics and how to build basic rules to give user in out protection against undesired www connections

Have a look at the top of this forum at the stickies and learning threads. Invest the time and learning thus NOT free.

 

Anyone recommends this site as a official "Firewall" test should be shot at the wall.. That test only test hips part of firewalls and nothing else and even at that it does a crap job.

 

Anyway... give us an alternative that leads to less philosophical replies like "best firewall according to me is what you feel more familiar with"

 

Good advice from bellgamin in regards Matousec.

I like Online Armor.

 

Haha, okay great.

Do you have any suggestions for anywhere that does a better job of testing and comparing various firewalls?

Thanks.

 

As I have stated before they all work in the same Basic way. Your best bet is to find a few you like or seem interested in and try them see how you like them. The UI and Rule creation is what really is different you need to find one that fits your Experience and your style.

As for Firewall tests there really arnt any, Simple because there is nothing to test other then "Hips" a Firewall is a Firewall. The simplicity of the UI and the Experience needed to use it is going to be the big difference.

 

I'm sorry that's exactly what that site is. It's based of what "he" feels is the best firewall according to his own HIPS test. He takes NOTHING else into account. The test as a whole is a joke along with that site. As it has been pointed out before do a search his record speaks for it's self.


As for the quote above... The best judge of a Firewall is going to be your self. You need to find one that fits your Level of experience and knowledge so you can set it up and harden it. Firewall is going to do you jack if you don't know how to make rules for it to stop the baddies.

 

Exactly!

 

Take your pick among the ones already mentioned here...

Here's a link just for read-up/guidance:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm

The choice is yours to make. As usual.

 

I have have been using the latest versions of Outpost firewall for a while now, but my computer has been a bit slower in responsiveness since around the time I started using it. I decided to uninstall it and put Comodo firewall on my machine and it definitely is much more responsive now. That doesn't mean Comodo is better, it just means for some reason it runs better on my particular machine. I have a Vaio laptop with and i7 processor and 6gb of ram so it is a fairly speedy machine. I have used Outpost firewall off and on for a long time as well as Comodo and Online Armor. My preference is just Comodo for now anyway, but that could change in time.

Tomorrow my new OCZ 240gb SSD will arrive to replace my slow 5,400 HDD and I will do a clean install anyway so as to have a clean slate to start with. Once I get the new drive running and Win 7 installed I will probably be using Comodo Firewall along with MSE after backing up my clean install first that is.

 

IMHO, ZA Free & Windows 7 Firewall Control Free are the best free fw's.

I use Windows 7 Firewall Control Free along with MSE 2 betaand NortonDNS on my 7 64bit.

 

pure, light and simple:
Zonealarm Free Firewall

 

I don;t back any one Firewall but Ive used the Window's, Comodo and Online Armor Firewalls. Currently I use Online Armor.

 

If you want security just post from your phone and forget about firewalls.