Which personal firewall do you like the best ?

I use Zonealarm free. it has served me well for 2 years

I had a very bad experience with Looknstop when I was using W2k (since moved to XP pro). LNS buries itself deep inside your OS and it doesnt uninstall itself properly if you get a problem as I did. My problem became worse to such an extent that I had to buy a new hard disk and start afresh . The LNS support was modest but couldnt sort his at all, obviously not tested on W2k but this was 2 years ago.

I wouldnt touch LNS again personally because of its ability to completely trash your system.. I wouod like to post more objective info on this but couldnt get much explanation out of LNS at the time. I guess its part of their proprietary method of prevent malware from disabling its fucntion.

So far , touch wood, i havent had any further problems but have had some near missess via email.

I notice this site doesnt seem to have any Linux users represented? prehaps they dont yet have the M$ problem. I read somewhere that it is possible to generate a similar security threat in Linux but it hasnt happened because the user base is too small.

any info greatly appreciated.

rgds to all and my sympathies if you are suffering - been there myself.

Headcase

 

I am kin of fond of sygate. When I started using it firewalls were a bit of a mystery to me and I'd had a really bad experience with NPF. I liked the application based rules and for some reason ZA would block my net access repeatedly. Now I'm becoming more familiar with Sygate I'm able to set up specific rules to tighten it up .

da cat

 

Zone alarm pro is the one to use ya know,

no other firewall has as much go,

you may search high and low,

but you'll never get better protection for your dough.

 

Having used practically everyfirewall I could find, outpost comes out on top as it is the only one that makes me sleep at night . However I have heard good things about 8signs so i may give that a trial next

 

Been using ZoneAlarm for years. Love it! Hard to believe there is something better.

 

Long term Outpost user here so no surprise as to how I voted. Did try ZoneAlarm a while back but found the lack of control frustrating (no ability to really crack the whip over what applications can get up to online). Look'n Stop could be a worthy contender if they added application level rules - but Outpost's plugins would still give it the edge in my view.

 

I use ZA free for now. I tried Sygate first, but no matter what I did, it refused access to everything.

 

I voted for Kerio. Kerio 2.1.5, that is.

 

I like ZA free V.3.7.211. No nagging or other nuisances. I give it an odd check
on GRC and get full stealth each time. I wouldn't change it.

 

look n stop is the best firewall in the world (notes of 17/20 compares to ZAPRO 11/20)... and nothing more to say except it may be difficult to use for noobies... but there are many all made rules on the official site.

 

ZA is not protecting U... you want a proof. .. take Emule or Edonkey how many intrusions you ve got at the end of the day ?

look n stop can get 200 000 per day and even more ! It blocks all intrusions, not as ZA which leaves gate open

 

I use Windows XP Service pack 2 RC1's built-in firewall. It does a rather pretty good job in keeping all the dirty crap out from my computer.

 

I like Zone Alarm, mostly got it because of it being promoted a lot on the
computercops.biz site. The Pro version, though, as the free version is sort
of like a demo of a game where you can only play one level...

 

I use ZA. But i have a friend who has never even had a firewall ever! And he never has had a serious problem(and he goes online daily). BTW he doesn't have an anti-virus either. He uses the free virus scanner for aol customers. This really amazes me and makes me wonder if the makers of all this expensive stuff (firewalls & antivirus makers) have overblown the need for alot of their products.

 

Three possibilities - his ISP is filtering traffic to block the most common attacks, he is keeping bang up to date on Windows Updates and (very likely) he does have problems but simply has not noticed them yet (for instance, if his PC was being used as a spam relay or being used to host other people's illegal content, without a firewall he would only notice if he kept a very close eye on network traffic).

On my router firewall I am currently getting two incoming connection attempts per minute (this is quiet - I have had one every 2 seconds during busy times) - most of these are on port 135 which is most likely Windows Messenger spam. Port 137 is next and this can cover a variety of nasties including all the DCOM/RPC exploits like MSBlast and its ilk. On that basis I would regard a firewall as essential and would not connect a PC to the Internet without one installed. Costwise, some are free while the best ones should not cost more than US$40 - which is not expensive in my book.

A firewall, an antivirus and a web/spyware filter are the basic security tools that everyone should run. If you receive files from questionable or anonymous sources (IRC, Usenet, P2P) then a specialised anti-trojan should be considered also. The paranoid could then add a further layer of defense using an application firewall like System Safety Monitor (free) or install Process Guard to protect their other security software from being shut down by any malware that slips through the defenses.

 

Tried ZA,Sygate and Norton....they all had various things about them i did not like....found OP and very happy about it.

' I am currently getting two incoming connection attempts per minute (this is quiet - I have had one every 2 seconds during busy times) - most of these are on port 135 which is most likely Windows Messenger spam. Port 137 is next and this can cover a variety of nasties including all the DCOM/RPC exploits like MSBlast and its ilk. '.....................me too

strongarm..please point your friend to what Paranoid2000 wrote ( the man knows ) and maybe we will have one less zombie out there

 

People stop posting ( ~snipped~ )

Before you do a post about your firewall, and say this is the best, go and download these little programs at :http://www.firewallleaktester.com


Then you can see if you have a good firewall !!!!

The most firewall are leaking.


snipped objectionable word==bigc

 

well i voted for other, mine is currently tiny personal firewall 5.5

it blocks everything, including 99% of FWB backdoors..


others i've tested/had installed

ZAPro for 3 years(ZA and ZA+ too)
Mcafee
f-secure intenet security
kerio( both 2xx and 4xx)
L'nS
sygate pro and free
Norman

 

I love Look'n'Stop 2.05.

Using around 1,500 K of MB, whereas ZAP 5 (vsmon, etc) used...a much larger number of resources.

My page rendering times improved also ^_^

 

Anon, those leak tests are not actual forms of malware, their just testing devices. If there was malware designed in a similar manner to one of them, i'll bet it would be found by your AT/AV. Because these tests are just that 'tests' and not real forms of malware. Maybe your firewall could even block them if they were real malware. Besides, you have willingly put the leak tests on your own harddrive yourself. Who says they could ever get on your computer in the first place if they were real forms of malware? Unless you don't pratice safe hex.

But anyway i like ZoneAlarm pro.

 

I use ZA free on my XP and 2K boxes with really lame dialup. Also use SpywareBlaster, Ad-Aware, Startup Monitor, Lookout Express (yeah, yeah, I know), WinMX and IE. I try to stay current on Windows updates. NEVER use Windows Media Player.

Passed the leak test and shields up test.

Never noticed any problems, but I'm not an expert and Paranoid2000 may be right, I just haven't discovered the problems.

And I may find the free version inadequate when I go to wireless internet in a few weeks and install a router.

Any router recommendations??

nmmng

 

I prefer linksys but that is my personal choice, it works very well. Any decent software firewall that filters outgoing request's will work just fine with a router. Wireless or hard wired. I use a linksys BEFW11S4 wireless and it works without a hitch. I use kerio 2.1.5 soft firewall, works just like it is supposed to filtering all outgoing. The router takes care of the incoming.

 

Right back to normal these days. Kerio 2 and NetGear rp614v2 router. Works great.

 

I now use Sygate PRO firewall , excellent because one option actually allows me to set a specified number of seconds ( between 0 and 999999 ) to block known attackers' IP addresses. I put 999999. So, all attackers IP addresses are blocked automatically for 999999 seconds.

 

Outpost Pro does this as well.