Want a new firewall

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by fredsone, Jul 20, 2013.

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  1. fredsone

    fredsone Registered Member

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    Hi.
    I am in the process of trialing firewalls but oh dear there are lots and lots of choices.
    I am looking for a secure (Free or Paid) 2 way firewall that lets me control what accesses the net and when it gets to do that.

    A couple of years ago I had a firewall that I could set to Allow-Ask-Block each net access attempt. What I liked about this firewall was the fact that once I had attributed a rule to all my systems net access attempts, all Ask notifications occurred only once and then my choice to Allow/Block would remain until the computer was restarted (or until I went to the Firewalls rules and changed the rule).
    Unlike my recent trial of Kasperskey which drove us nuts with an ask notification every time something (not blocked or allowed) attempted net access... god there were hundreds of popups :( .

    Does anyone have a suggestion?

    Regards.
     
  2. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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  3. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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  4. Maldoran

    Maldoran Registered Member

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  5. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    no windows 8 support.
     
  6. kronckew

    kronckew Registered Member

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    i'm prejudiced,

    try outpost firewall or the security suite. at agnitum dot com.

    win7/8
    x86 & x64 versions.

    has 'learning' mode for apps that you can use initially, then turn off. hips portion will ask a lot 1st time you run an app, then will remember until you update or change it. rules are IP and port based. logs are informative and have customizable levels. ad filtering, blocklists, etc. etc... see their website for the full specs.

    free version of the security suite is a bit dated, the free firewall even more dated. the full product has a 30 day trial period before you need to buy it. advanced settings lets you customize a lot of the niggly bits.

    they have an excellent user run support forum with (usually) friendly moderators of superior charm, wit, handsomeness, beauty and intelligence who try their best to keep out the trolls and cut the arguments found on other fora out asap. most of the mods also play around here at wilders when we're not at home at our own forum.
     
  7. fredsone

    fredsone Registered Member

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    Hi
    Thanks for all of the reply's...
    (We have Vista ultimate)


    I currently have Webroot and Armor running, so far so good, there isn't any noticeable system load and net speed is good.
    To date, I have trialed Bitdefender and Norton I gave up on both because of a lack of customisable firewall functions, Bitdefender's forums are worse than useless and Norton slowed my system down.

    Armor appears to be a good product (a bit hard to customise though). I will have a go at one of the others soon :)

    Thanks for the reply's

    Regards
     
  8. fredsone

    fredsone Registered Member

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    LOL
    It sounds like you have tried the Bitdefender forums :D.
    So many of us have gone there all bright eyed with high hopes and ended up getting seriously ~ Snipped as per TOS ~ and walking away swearing :mad: .
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 22, 2013
  9. kronckew

    kronckew Registered Member

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    haven't tried that one, but i know what you mean. :D

    we're strict, but i hope, fair & reasonably consistent. constructive criticism is welcome. uncalled-for argument and trolling is not. personal attacks will get you punished.
     
  10. gery

    gery Registered Member

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    i am not an expert but i would gladly pay for a lifetime license of Agnitum Outpost firewall or just Online Armor. The first one is silent
     
  11. guest

    guest Guest

    Windows built-in firewall + Sphinx's Windows firewall control.

    or

    Online Armor or Comodo Firewall or Privatefirewall.

    Just some links:
    hxxp://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall-protection.htm
    hxxp://dottech.org/100803/windows-best-free-firewall-program-review/
     
  12. Disney

    Disney Registered Member

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    Outpost is great . As for the forum , disregard Kronck . He is the least helpful of the bunch . Online Armor is very good . Both are top tier firewalls .Comodo does a good job too . Just do not trust those guys much .With Outpost , you need to remember that they release new builds way before they are actually ready . If you go with Outpost , do not just upgrade to a new build because it is available . Read what others have to say about it first. There are other good ones too but these two are pretty much as good as it gets .:)
     
  13. merisi

    merisi Registered Member

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    If you're behind a router then Windows Firewall will be fine. You could also try out PrivateFirewall. It's quite light and gets the job done.
     
  14. fredsone

    fredsone Registered Member

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    Again, Thanks to all who ave replied :)
    I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to fiddle with Armor but it appears to be a good tool (I did manage to completely screw up media players net access for a short time :D ). So far my only complaint is that the small font and "pack it in" format style of some of Armors windows does tax the user a bit.

    I will give Privatefirewall a go next.

    Regards
     
  15. 0strodamus

    0strodamus Registered Member

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    I'm going to follow suit and throw out a pitch for my favorite firewall, Jetico Personal Firewall.

    I could just leave it at that, but I also took the time to think about whether my recommendation can actually give you similar functionality to what you requested.
    I used PingPlotter to test, but this would work with any application.

    In Jetico, I have a rule set for PingPlotter in the Network Activity table.
    netactivity.png

    I also have a rule in the Access to Network table, which I normally set to Allow. This doesn't help your situation because you want to be prompted. So I changed this rule to Ask.

    accesstonet.png

    The result is that when PingPlotter first attempts to make a network request, you will be prompted. As long as PingPlotter remains open, network access is allowed. Once you close PingPlotter, you will be prompted again when you relaunch it (this assumes that at every launch, you select "Allow Once" and don't create another rule).

    So in summary, Jetico Personal Firewall almost accomplishes exactly what you want. The only difference is that it "forgets" what you told it to do after an application exits and not at reboot.

    I hope this is helpful and best of luck in your search for a new firewall.

    EDIT: I should also mention that it might be helpful to initially create an allow all rule with logging for the Process Attack table. I had an issue with an nVidia application on Windows 7 that would cause my system to freeze. I couldn't figure out why until I created that rule and rebooted. You can then use the log to help set up your rules as needed for process attack and delete the allow all rule.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2013
  16. FleischmannTV

    FleischmannTV Registered Member

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    If you don't have the specialist skills to answer that question for yourself, how do you come to the conclusion that you would be able to deploy that software in a way that provides you a significant benefit?

    What exactly are you trying to achieve when you want to
    This question I ask in regards to the assumption that you have
    a) a clean system and
    b) taken the necessary precautions to keep it that way.
     
  17. Disney

    Disney Registered Member

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    Just a quick reply that Jetico is very good as well. I had forgotten about it as development is slow . A good choice
     
  18. kronckew

    kronckew Registered Member

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    i am sorry you think so. i try not to start personal attacks tho, unlike some.

    it is also besides the point of this thread.

    if i was unable to assist you in your particular problem, i'm sorry. hopefully someone else did.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2013
  19. FreddyFreeloader

    FreddyFreeloader Registered Member

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    Router hardware firewall + Windows firewall = good enough.
    Outpost if you must have a paid firewall.
     
  20. hayc59

    hayc59 Updates Team

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    A personal attack on a mod from another forum Outpost Forum seems very rude and childish........If you have nothing good to say I suggest keeping your mouth shut tight Big D.!!
     
  21. fredsone

    fredsone Registered Member

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    We have recently changed from Armor to try out Private firewall.
    I think Armor is quite a good product, definitely my pick so far, but still we still have a couple more to try out.

    Thanks to all who took the time to post constructive answers, much appreciated :D

    Regards
     
  22. 0strodamus

    0strodamus Registered Member

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    You're very welcome and thanks for keeping your thread updated. I'm curious to hear what you finally settle on.
     
  23. nickster_uk

    nickster_uk Registered Member

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    I'm also on the lookout for another firewall.

    I'm currently using ESS but if I'm totally honest, there have been a number of bugs since v4 was released. We're now on v6 and the problems continue.

    I haven't been completely happy with a firewall since using Sygate Personal Firewall Pro. It did the job extremely well and was very light too.

    I've got about 8 months left on my ESET subscription but if the issues continue, I'll be cutting my losses and looking elsewhere.

    It seems Outpost and Comodo are fairly well rated here so I may give them a go soon.
     
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