What is the strongest free FW for security/protection?

The suite has the highly regarded Kaspersky AV engine. You can save $20 off the Kapersky 2012 IS version with the Zone Alarm AV/Firewall suite.

 

Application Control in ZA Firewall is more like an IDS. I run OA Free Armor's full blown HIPS alongside it and that provides full coverage.

 

Do you recommend using the full blown free OA FW with OA HIPS without any other FW/HIPS running along the side?

 

Sure... you can enable the OA FW with HIPS or run it as a standard firewall. You can choose your level of protection.

 

You've got a great, free firewall sitting right at your doorstep.

 

I have three layers of security plus Norton DNS.

AVG Free, Online Armor Free, and Mbam Pro.

Any malware will have to be very determined to get threw these layers.

These layers don't slow my system down.

 

Comodo FW using Chiron's setup and free AVG 2013 here, with Comodo Dragon browser and Win Vista with all updates and only 2G RAM, all sitting behind a hardware firewall. No slowdowns or problems.

 

I have used AVG 2012 free in last 6 months .On two 32 bit OS-es ,W7 and XP ,i had to manually uninstall the thing from my PC-s. I wanted to remove it after the last incident.Their uninstall tool simply did not worked ,neither the add/remove.
No problem on x64 with the uninstall though.

Did they fixed the startup bugs/issues with AVG 2013 ?!

 

No problems with startup here. It's a bit slow, but I haven't had a problem yet, and I've had it since it came out. I'm on 32 bit Win Vista. Not memory heavy, scans fairly quickly and I'm happy so far.

 

i had the same using for years and kept me safe . i never got infected

 

Use the Windows 7 firewall in default config. if your behind a router with a good firewall. That is all you really need.

Yes, all outbound traffic will be allowed. So what? If your PC is clean of malware, you don't have to worry about outbound connections.

If you do a lot of Internet financial transactions, buy Zemana Antilogger.

 

I'm using Private Firewall alongside Avast Free (version 7) and I haven't seen any conflicts at all.

What's most important, the latest version of PFW removed all the bugs I complained about for years. Your PC is fully stealthed and the rules created (automatically) are not as from other firewalls allow all-to and from, they have fine tuned a lot of the windows services too.

Of course, it also has IPV6 so you won't come short there either. I fully recommend it. The only downside is the lack of language support, it only has English.

 

I am trialling Private Firewall on Windows 7 (64) currently. It is working fine so far, however there is a learning phase (for both Private Firewall and myself) where you can choose to let "Personal Firewall" allow or block traffic based on allowing it for observation over a predetermined period of time (learning time), or you can have it prompt you for such decisions.

Once you have worked out what rules to apply to Windows services and other existing utilities and applications the process becomes easier. I like the way "Private Firewall" groups services and applications in the rules user interface section.

I believe it is a secure and stable program once it has established itself (learnt your system). It is free for home use. It also encompasses an executable behavioral monitor that I think can be enabled or disabled separately from the firewall to make it a more comprehensive HIPS application and in theory, will do away with the need to use these signature based AV programs. I have only just started my trial, so can't say much else about it yet!

 

Is there a way to stop the splash screen at startup of Privatefirewall?

 

File > Settings > Disable startup splash screen.

And you're done.

 

Thank you, MasterTB.

 

Np. Glad to help.

 

I 2nd that. PFW is best installed on a clean windows system. After that you will have zero problems.

 

Get a router.

BUT the answer is windows 7 2 way FW properly set up to block executables that dont deserve to access the www and hardened.

 

When the outbound block option is enabled, it blocks everything already by default except those applications that have an allow rule created and enabled for them. Iow, it's a whitelist concept, so block rules are unnecessary.

 

Online Armor of course.

 

That's good IF the op user knows which exe need a rule and which don't.

My policy grants zero cred to vendor defined white lists. But this method is NOT everybodies cup of tea!

But yes, with no rule no connect. The other issue is leaks where an executable without a rule that should be blocked by the white list sneaks an access by transfering data to a exe with a rule that is "white"

It is not white in my view if vendor logic lets that happen!

Right now I'm trying to rein in Roboform and my FW is ignoring it's own settings in one case. I'm in a bad mood due to that.

 

using Avast free (RT set to scan all files on opening) + Emsisoft AM (RT set to scan on exec) + Online Armor Premium (all features activated) under Diskshot virtualization = quasi-bulletproof protection.

OA free is good enough and will run flawlessly with Avast.

 

Outpost Free is good enough and runs flawlessly with AVG.

I have no doubt Outpost Free will run flawlessly with avast.

Best of all, Outpost Free is 64bit. Online Armor is only 32bit.

 

It is assumed that there is a minimum knowledge, otherwise there is no point in discussions. So.
You know from experience that your PC doing the same although there is no internet connection.
Therefore, try to simulate this situation.
INPUT DROP, OUTPUT DROP, or for Windows -inbound connections: block, outbound connections: block.

Now we'd like a little internet, for browsing we need a browser (IE, FF, Chrome) connections, all right.That's why we make a rule for browser connections, like:Google-Chrome\Outbound\Allow\chrome.exe\TCP\80, 443, done.

So do for the mail client connections, download client, windows update etc. No system rule, do not care anything out of what you need for your desires.

The average user needing 10-15 outbound connections rule, eliminating unwanted in-out connections, eliminated the mythological fear of boogeyman which houses the deep darkness of the net and that just waiting to eat the fool.

And that's it.