Best firewall?

It will not be officially, but I think a fiewall that does so much beside its firewall job, may be considered as a kind of security suite.

 

Outpost uses plug-ins for the following:

Active content filtering, spyware monitoring, ad blocking, attachment quarantining, attack detection, content filtering and caching DNS addresses.

Any or all of the plug-ins can be disabled or even removed, if desired, making it very easy to configure it into a firewall application only. I have been using OP since the 2.1x versions and it is an excellent security utility. The latest version, 3.51, is IMHO the best so far. However, I can hardly wait for version 4.0

 

Yeah i'm looking forward to version 4 as well. O/T i tried out the lavasoft firewall a few days ago and it seems to be a modified version of outpost. Anyone have any idea which version of outpost its based on?

 

I do not know on which version of Outpost Lavasoft firewall is based but I've found only 1 plug-in there: Attack Detection. All other Outpost plug-ins are missing.

However I am jumping from one firewall to another very often as I like testing and playing with different security software. So maybe existing users of Outpost will comment later on.

 

I think too many of us suffer from this obsession on this forum

 

This Lavasoft Firewall vs. Outpost Pro Firewall may shed some light on the differences. Basically, the Lavasoft fw is a watered-down version of Outpost Pro.

 

I've experienced the some slowdown (especially at start up) also with Outpost using the default settings. But since I don't need to use the logging or AS features. It's not a problem. Can't wait for Version 4 .

Just thinking about all this reminds me, I should disable EMON on Nod32, as I don't use Outlook.

 

I am a Beta-tester of Agnitum Outpost 4.0. Although we're not allowed to get into details, I can assure U that this is high-quality stuff. We just got the latest version (Outpost Firewall Pro ver. 4.0.941.6824 (579) today, and we'll have one week for final testing. Of the features I just mention some here: Anti-leaking protection, self-protection, gaming-mode, MACRO-s (for rule-setting, e.g. DNS-servers).

 

Dummy question: why all of you hate Security Suites ?

I'm looking for the "best" protection set for my notebook, coming from FSecure Client Security which I found quite heavy for my resources. About 70megs with all those modules loaded and a bootup time of more than 2 minutes!

Tried ZAP, but found too slowing down for my internet access.
And conflicting when using torrent or p2p

Found Outpost (3.5) and loved it... [side question: ETA to final 4.0 ?]
But...
Beside the firewall (and the boundary anti-spyware Outpost has), then I needed features I had before with FSCS:
- system startup protection
- browser anti hijacking
- antivirus

Then I tried WinPatrol for the startup protection.

AV ?
KAV 6 was the best choice for me, but everything went slower. Besides, I found some conflicting issues between its system protection and outpost.
Then I changed to NOD32. Much lighter, even requesting more ram than kav, when in idle. But it seems less accurate, IMOH.

At the moment I'm looking for the best firewall to couple with NOD32... Desperately seeking lightness along with effectiveness. Original, isn't it ?


This long history to come back to my original question: wouldn't be much better a single suite, without inside conflicts, with LESS memory and resource used than the amount of all those different tools ?

Thanks everybody

 

for a personal firewall to complement nod32 i use looknstop. runs very light and its good for p2p.

as for suites, ill just refer you to this poll:

Which Do You Think Offers the Better Security, All in one or separate Applications?

i personally prefer separate applications because it runs lighter for me, it usually results in less running processes, and because I like having a good antivirus and good firewall and good HIPS. suites may sometimes excel in one area only to do poorly in another.

 

A 'suite' is a nice idea and many find the concept appealing, but most of the suite makers aren't the best at all types of software, i.e. firewalls, av's, anti-spyware, etc etc. Usually with a suite, you get one strong component, say the firewall, or perhaps the av, but the rest of it is usually just so-so. While many of the suites are pretty good, I think most people prefer to hand pick what they consider to be the best components rather than use a suite.

 

Actually its the other way around. Most people prefer to pick a suite than buy an individual product. Its much cheaper for the consumers. Also many security companies have now realised that they cannot survive (survival to them means having profits) any longer if they don't start producing suites. Only the geekier people amnong us (which I guess is pretty much anyone on Wilders) tend to be the picky ones about software.

 

Yep, I was pretty much speaking for us geeks...

 

A suite allows the novice user to install "one" set of software and not have to worry about trying to make sure all of the separate items are compatible. That is why people like to buy auto options in standard packages as opposed to trying to add a lot of things after the car is made. The first car that I got did not have A/C installed from the factory and I got it put in later. Suffice to say that it did not operate quite like factory installed A/C. A large number of computer users are mostly email, music, games, and other entertainment users and have little knowledge of firewalls, antivirus, and antispyware issues. If you read through many of the help forums, whenever they have a problem with their computer they either trash the system, reload it from a backup, or refer the issue to a tech support person.

 

Currently, I use ZA Firewall, which works just fine in my opinion. But, I have seen Comodo and looks even better, but I heard configuration can be a pain. I MIGHT just give it a try, but not anytime soon (sticking with ZA for the time being).

For Windows Firewall, its a great basic firewall (for being free and with the Windows XP OS), but at the same time, its is VERY limited. It might not be able to handle much stronger and stealtier threats. People should make the switch to a good free firewall, like ZA or Comodo, if they want to be more protected against malicious software.

 

Comodo takesdown all!

I wouldnt rely on firewall leak tester til they use latest version of comodo which blocks every test which i tested myself

 

Hello...
Than, can anywone tell me what firewall i shoud use...PLZ
In the moment I use ZA Firewall, but I think that I will remove ZA and install Outpost Firewall...WHO IS BETTER

TNX IN ADVANCE...

 

windows xp2 firewall does the job

I have tried many of those comm. firewalls and all of them cause all kinds of troubles.All of them will slam you with all kinds of pop ups to make you believe they work real hard.One hell of a show.
Got rid of them all,turned on xp2 firewall,have cyberhawk,spywareblaster,crapcleaner,avg free,ad-aware se.
System going a-1 without any interference from those programs.
Fed up hearing about outbound bad guys,just don,t let them in.

Adding a littlle note here---i am far from being a microsoft lover.