Comments of free firewalls...

clansmann,

You are most welcome, the interface is something that could do with lot of improvement and I would also like them to introduce rule making for individual apps regarding port access, IP etc.

 

Arub....You can do already....make rules for certain apps.

Groups.........Group type..Drop down. Application....New.
When you get the Pop up....Put in name in Group Name.
Location.....Find your app click on it...click on blue down arrow.
Save.

Security......Advance Internet FirewaLL..Using the drop downs...add your rules.
Click on add button....then the save button.

When you are in the Group section....have the drop down on... All
You can click on edit.... ie Web Server...and you will see it uses Port 80.
Looks like you can do some more fine tuning there.

 

JW,

I am sure you wouldn agree that the Kerio 2.15 interface for making this rule can be emulated and make our life much easier.

 

Whenever I've used diff FWs including the old Kerio...They were all pretty much
out of the box..Had trouble understanding FW's then....and still do.
No matter how closely I try to follow anyones ruleset...I usually get hopelessly
lost. The light is slowly starting to dawn..and somethings are coming somewhat
in focus. So with me it's mostly trial and error....Mostly error.
That is why I am in the FW section so much....hoping some info will sink in.

 

That's absolute nonsense. I don't have the fastest PC and it's using only 2 or 3% CPU and even under heavy stress with hundreds of connections open it doesn't even hickup.
I even have it installed on a 350 and 450 Mhz that are mainly used by my wife and one of my kids purely for the internet and even on those machines it does it work unnoticed. I personally think it's one of the best Fireealls available (the Pro version that is) and I base that on some 5 years of experience and testing many others (I work in the IT); it's stable and the latest versions are very protective and can withstand any online firewall test you throw at it. Compare that with ZoneAlarm which is good, but an incredible resource hog and more unstable than every before after version 2.x something. A Firewall has to be relaible, shouldn't crash. Sygate never crashed as far as I can remember. Just try for example ZA or Outpost... just give it a few weeks. Not to mention that you can even run Sygate Pro on a server, but then it's only reliable after build 2525 and higher.
Try to run those other personal Firewalls on a server...

 

He was probably comparing Sygate's CPU usage to others, and he's right... Sygate uses the most CPU of ANY other software firewall. Most idle at 0% while Sygate always uses 2-4%.

Sygate also has other problems. It allows packets in to listening ports without permission. I have tested this and seen it several times using CHX in the background to catch what Sygate allowed in.

There is also the long standing and world famous loopback issue which they don't seem to care to fix. Google for it and I'm sure you'll find many discussions.

And worst of all, Sygate seems to have abandoned the home market altogether lately. Their 5.6 Pro beta is 3 months old now, without an update, and when you download it, it says it's good for 30 days. The 5.6 Pro update has been expected now for ages. When it will actually be released is anyone's guess.

Sygate is not perfect... none of them are...

 

This have all the sense, at least, on my system...

I use Outpost for more than 2 years and didn't had any problem with it, and the last version improved its used resources...

 

Here's a CD run firewall I'm going to try out Sentry Firewall CD version 1.5.0-rc16 I now that should be a secure firewall as it's 'read only' check out what comes with it hp://www.sentryfirewall.com/docs.html I'll burn it to disc tomorrow and give it a run.

peterc