Firewall Recommendations

Hey.
I've got Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spyware Blaster and NOD32.
I'm not sure if I need a firewall. I can use Windows Firewall if that's OK. Or if Windows Firewall really is that weak, plz recommend me firewalls; one freeware and one shareware is good.
I do P2P, gaming, net browsing and IM.
Comodo is strong and free but it consumes a fair bit of system resources or slows computer?
What I want from a firewall is quality (incoming and outgoing traffic), low on system resources, minimal PC slowdown and minimal interaction.
Thx.

 

windows firewall is fine if u dont want/need outbound protection.

for free i recommend comodo pro. it resource usage is fair; not very high but not the lowest either. youll need rules for your p2p and games though.

for paid i recommend either looknstop or outpost pro. looknstop is light but, like comodo, youll need rules. outpost is heavier but easier to use.

 

Zonealarm is a pretty good firewall. Its free and easy to use.

 

Jetico is about the lightest I have seen. It is very "busy" the first week or so that you use it which is one reason I switched to Comodo. But I run NOD32 and Jetico seemed to get along well with it. Plus it's free. BTW- I only used version 1 and never tried their version 2 beta.

 

Windows Firewall is as good as any other, except it does not block outbound on XP.
I use WF on Vista for inbound and Comodo for outbound and they work in a harmony.
WF is a great firewall, it takes minimal resources, asks almost nothing, works awesome.

With Aplication Behaviour and Component Control disabled in Comodo, you will get just that.
The same in Outpost Pro, with Component Control and logging disabled, it works like a charm.
Disable asking in both and you even forget, that you have a firewall until sthg will be blocked.
As for myself, I do it, I use p2p (torrents) and both firewalls never took me more than 5% CPU.

 

First off I cannot recommend enough a nat router/hardware firewall; Linksys, Netgear...etc. They are reasonably priced, some you can get come with parental controls or P2P friendly with storage space, but what is really great is in the nature of them, when something is not expected you are well protected.
Windows firewall will do the job but here are my recommendations for software,
Jetico, Outpost, Look n Stop and Norton Personal Firewall.

 

Hello,
For gaming and P2P - WF or Sygate.
Mrk

 

How do I know if I need outbound protection?

 

Its just a personal preference. Some people like/want outbound protection, while others dont.

 

lol. umm... only concerns for outbound connections are spyware. yea?

 

well some people also like to restrict (or rather control) where an app connects to or sometimes block it altogether.

for example, a person may choose to block windows explorer or IE from connecting out.

 

That is right, eg I limit WMP to connect only to streaming radios and I block the rest (URGE).
Or windows processes like svchost and other aplications just "leak" too much by calling home.