Wish I knew of this Place Weeks Ago. Need Advice

My older P3 1.2 Ghz runs with 512 megs of 133 RAM. I have ZoneAlarmPro 6 installed and what is great about it is that it provides 100% stealth. I tested it and no ports were open at all. The thing is it is a memory hog and I have issues with it from freezing screens, to slowing down internet loading and surfing, to shutting it down in order to game (not online!); I have had it even interfer with offline Office Word work! (I've got to keep this PC protected without so much system resource being drained) From my extensive reading it seems many are having many of the same issues as myself. Another issue is my subscription is only days away from expiring.

Can you suggest a really good firewall that has a small footprint, providing both inbound and outbound protection as well as stealth? I've looked at many, including Sunbelt's Kerio 4.xx, Bitdefender, etc., but I read conflicting reports of what is good and not good.

To be honest I am totally out of my realm when it comes to this subject. The only firewall I've known over the years has been ZoneAlarmPro in its 4, 5, and 6 versions which means that it's interface/form of set-up is the only experience I have had with firewalls. So user friendly would be a real plus.

Your help and suggestions will be most appreciated. Also, for my brand new s939 build, what would you suggest? Thanks.

 

Hi, Zom17

Welcome to Wilders Forums.

There are very many post on what you have just asked.

But to get the small footprint. I would say Look'n'Stop is the smallest with both in and out Protection.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

ill second Look n Stop. its very light and not too complicated.

of course, u should try it urself and see what u think.

 

Hi, WSFuser

I alread have it.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Hi, Zom17

Also Look'n'stop is one of the Very Best Firewall.

And setting LnS up is easy with Blackspear's Setup and Settings for Look ‘n’ Stop. there are Blackspear setting for the best AV over on the NOD32 Forums.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

i meant the OP (Zom17) should try it

 

Hi, WSFuser

I know, I was only joking.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

As gkweb had said...a firewall is not a 100% solution for protecting your pc from hackers. Multi-layered protection is a must. ZoneAlarm is one of the easiest firewall to set up, even beginners can easily use it out of the box. But the problem w ZA is that it's heavy on the system, slow start up, and aside from that some webpage will not properly load, also it can slowed down surfing...and so on and so forth problems with it. That's why I uninstalled it. But, overall it's one of the best. But if you're the type of person who don't like to be annoyed by constant pop-ups coz it can really can distract your work even if you're offline, then one suggestion is to just use the built-in Windows XP/SP2 firewall. Some will raise their brows but it protects inbound effectively, and also makes the pc stealth, also it will not annoy you of too many pop-ups that can raise you blood pressure & temper into rage. Install ProcessGuard, GhostSecurity Suite (AppDefend/RegDefend), Ewido plus, WinPatrol, HardenIT, SafeXP, Windows Worm Doors Cleaners, Anti-phishing like SiteAdvisor & SpoofStick, Port Explorer, SpywareBlaster, Firefox browser, and a very good anti-spyware and Anti-virus that you can obtained.

Of course, if you insist on those firewall with both inbound/outbound protection its up to you... as they've said...Look N'Stop is very light just use the enhanced built-in ruleset in it. But you have to accept the fact that it will always "notifies" you with lots of pop-ups.

 

Hi, sweater

I agree with some of what you said.

But Zom17 for a small footprint so ZA is out.

Also asked for IN and OUT so WinFW is out.

Sort of correct, there are pop-ups but not necessary lots, because it depends on how you many Applications need internet access and on how you allow them.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

LNS is a nice firewall, but they tie their license to you hardware. This is one of the most irritating forms of licensing and requires you get a new license if you ever change your machine. I have used just about every personal firewall out there and they are the only ones that do this. If they ever go out of business and you change machines... say bye bye to your software. It's happened to me before.

Other good choices...: CHX, Jetico (New version soon), 8Signs

A little heavier: Kerio, Outpost Pro

Easy and the best Intrusion Detection: BlackICE (No outbound)

Many people argue that outbound protection is useless because the system has already been compromised. There are some good complimentary applications to firewalls like CHX or 8Signs like:

ProcessGuard
System Safety Monitor
AppSecurity

You may also consider using a Sandbox when testing new apps or browsing:

Sandboxie
BufferZone

 

Thanks for the welcome and a BIG thanks to all of you for your help. I've learned a lot in just the 2 hours I've spent reading here and so I've made these forums as one of my "favorites.'. I will be getting NOD32 along with Webroot's Spy Sweeper (great spyware program). I already have a Linksys router. It has been the firewall that I have found where the most debate seems to occur and I haven't found anywhere on the net - except here - where there is a dedicated place for the discussion of firewalls. As I said in my title, I wish I knew of this place weeks ago because you guys answered more in a few posts than what I've been reading and researching previously.

As sweater points out ZA is the easiest to set up and I love its stealth ability. But, as sweater also points out, it is heavey on system resources and I have had too many issues with it (as I've already listed and that others experiences as well).

Thanks again and I'll definitly be reading more posts.

 

Hi, smf

It is only fixed to the HDD.

If the Code Changes for some reason all it takes [from my experience] is an email to LnS support with the changed Code and they [The Look 'n' Stop team] will send you a new Licence number.

Outpost is not a small footprint. [I have OP with a lifetime Licence]

where as LnS is only 920KB Installed and that's including 108KB of Phant0m's Ruleset.

Very good Idea, I have and use ShadowUser.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

One more thing guys:

We hear of programs that are "light" in system resource demands while others make "heavey" demands.

1) My question is, what are the parameters that determine whether or not a software is light or heavey?

2) In other words, I can understand if a software utilizes 15megs of RAM while running/functioning as being light. But where does a software program such as a firewall (antivirus, etc.) begin to be labled as heavey in resource demand, i.e., system hog?

For example, Sunbelt's Kerio Personal Firewall version 4.2xx has a resource demand of 64 megs of RAM (straight from their tech support to my inquiry). Is this heavey? How much RAM usage would make a program labeled "medium," or "light"? Sorry for the lack of knowledge, but as I said earlier I am out of my realm here. Thanks again.

 

programs can act different on people's computers so while someone may say KAV or Dr. Web runs well on their comp, they tend to run slower on my comp.

also, a program can use little memory but then tie up all of ur CPU or vise versa.

third, a programs minimum requirements arent a reflection of it real-world performance or resource usage.

lastly, how a program was coded and how u configure its option can also have an effect on it performance.

 

I think it's pretty much a relative thing. One firewall may run light relative to or compared to another. For me, anything that uses say 10mb ram or less and no cpu is 'light'. This would include ones like LookNStop, Kerio 2, Jetico perhaps, CHX-I, and so on. Then there is a middle range, ones which use say from 10 to 25mb ram. On my system Kerio 4 used 26mb consistently, Outpost ran around 20mb, ZoneAlarm Free around 17, and so on. For me, this is the mid-range. Then anything over 25mb I would start to call "heavy".

People will have different opinions on what is light or heavy, that's just my view on it. Most of the firewalls I have tried use little or no cpu when idle, so I judge lightness or heaviness mostly on ram usage. Some of the heavier ones may also give you a kind of bogged down system feeling or lack of responsiveness in general also.

 

Hello,
I don't know the level of your expertise, but you might wanna look into Sygate or Jetico (this one is a learning ho though).
Mrk

 

Just to give you guys an update I went ahead and went with Sunbelt's Kerio Personal Firewall version 4.2xx for both my older P3 and my new socket 939 build. A single license was $19.99 but little did I know that when I bought two at the same time the second one was 50% off (!), and so two one year licenses only cost $29.98. Not bad!

I knew I was taking a chance being totally unfamiliar with anything but ZoneAlarmPro through versions, 4, 5, and lastly 6. It was 6 that got me to change.

Anyway, I installed both and I am more than pleasantly surprised. First, my old P3 loads so much faster. Second, I ran Shields Up! various tests and I passed on both rigs 100%. I have stealth!

 

Hi, Zom17

Well you should.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

I was just browsing various firewalls and watched the demo for BlackIce they now have Application control added.
I don't know how light the firewall is or anyone who uses it - they seem to have tutorials on the site.