Any firewall that lists rules like Kerio 2.1.4?

There is a free version of online armor firewall.

 

Yeah, I've got a feeling that's the one I tried. It has a more basic firewall mode with the Advanced mode only being available in the Premium version, so I'll try the 30-day trial to look at that in case I haven't already.

Then again, looking at the screenshot of the rules list (middle one) it doesn't look very promising http://www.online-armor.com/screenshots.php

 

ok.
Its a very strong firewall although the hips alerts can be annoying.

 

Unfortunately the interface is a mess, even in Premium mode which I've just tested after trying the Free mode first to compare.

The tab in that screenshots (Programs) doesn't seem to do much except allow you to specify whether the program is Allowed or Blocked. You then have to go to the Ports tab to specify the Protocol, Directions and ports. Under that there's another tab "Endpoint Restrictions" where you have to go to specify IP addresses. I couldn't see any way to Allow All traffic on the LAN and only use rules for Internet traffic either.

So in that respect it's worse than Comodo! It probably has some advantages but it fails in that main area with which I'm concerned unfortunately.

 

@doveman

Eset Smart Security (be sure to check "toogle detailed view of all rules")...though I don't know can firewall be installed without AV component.

 

As I said, I'm not willing to use a product that requires me to keep paying £20/year every year to use it but I should investigate further to be sure that's how they work and whether I could just buy one year but keep using the firewall indefinitely.

 

You probably can, however new updates and upgrades won't be available until you pay.

 

Well I tested Eset in my XP virtualbox now and whilst it has some things I like, there's some other things I really wouldn't be happy with in a paid-for program.

It took me a while to even find how to get to the rules list, as it's tucked away under Advanced Setup - Network - Personal Firewall - Rules and Zones - Setup, rather than having a quick access option from the notification tray icon or on the main program window. This isn't a major problem as I know where it is now, it's just a minor inconvenience and confusing for new users. It's not as bad as it sounds either as the Advanced Setup page remembers which tab it was last on, so I just have to right-click the notification area icon, click Advanced Setup and then click on the "Zone and Rule Editor" Setup button.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/3686/esetfirewall.png

The two serious problems as far as I'm concerned are that
a) the rules window doesn't remember the column settings, requiring me to waste time dragging the dividers around every time I open it, so that I can see all the information

b) there's NO ability to move rules around whatsoever. Kerio (and Filseclab) at least had up/down buttons to move a rule around and I'd have hoped by now a modern firewall would allow us to drag and drop MULTIPLE rules at once, using Shift+click and Ctrl+click to select them as we do with files in Explorer (Comodo allows dragging a single rule at a time, which is painfully slow when trying to tidy up multiple rules)

I'd also liked to have seen a Grouping option for rules, like in Comodo, so that the user could choose to collect all the NETBIOS rules for example under one line that could be expanded to show the individual rules. It's not the end of the world but it means I have to scroll down everytime to see my application rules. An alternative would be to have separate System Rules and Applications rules lists.

On the plus side, the Trusted Zone is apparently ignored by the firewall, so no need to create any "Allow all LAN traffic" rules at the top of the list as is needed in Comodo.

So overall, not a patch on Filseclab IMO and certainly not worth my £20.