Does anyone have a recommendation for a free firewall that works well with virtual provate networking?
Free Firewall: http://www.securepoint.cc/en/products-pcfirewall.html Free VPN Client: http://www.securepoint.cc/en/products-vpn.html Free IDS: http://www.securepoint.cc/en/products-ids.html Free Network Test Tool: http://www.securepoint.cc/en/products-tools.html Free Log Analyzer: http://www.securepoint.cc/en/products-tools1.html
Most firewalls should work with VPN software but you need to specify what VPN you are using and how it operates (does it use PPTP, L2TP, IPSec or SSH for example) to get a more definite answer.
Someone recently tried to install the Cisco VPN on my laptop, which has been using the free Sygate firewall and the VPN could not function. It sounds like this is just an issue of configuring the firewall.
Cisco's VPN includes a ZoneAlarm client so this could well be a software conflict with Sygate. This is a problem with Outpost firewall also and there is a thread in the Outpost forum Outpost And Cisco Vpn Solution which may help in this.
Yeah, VPN client software usually makes some low level modifications to the TCP/IP stack and so they can cause conflicts at times with other low-level software like personal firewalls. Also, as Paranoid points out, many times the various VPN clients come bundled with a software firewall as well. I believe he is right about the Cisco VPN client, and I know that Juniper Networks NetScreen-Remote client could be purchased either stand-alone ("VPN Client") or bundled with a licensed version of the Sygate firewall ("Security Client"). Although, I believe that the actual NetScreen VPN client was licensed from SafeNet. SSH Communications Security used to have a product called SSH Sentinel, but last I heard they sold off that product to... tada... SafeNet. So I guess there has been some consolidation in the VPN client software space.
