11 replies to this topic

[marko]

When it comes to firewalls, you'd be amazed at how many people I've known without one.   From friends to colleagues, they all say the same thing, "what do I need that for"? ... well, the first thing I'd say to that is every antivirus software has it's weaknesses, it can't possibly catch 100% of the nasties all of the time, and when that little gem does get through it's probably going to enjoy calling home or sending all kinds of data from your machine.   With a firewall in place, that's often prevented outright and you're alerted to the fact something or someone is trying to send data from your machine.

There have been bag loads of firewalls released over the years, though we've listed some of the most popular freeware one's and we're asking you to choose which one you would consider the best ... if you can't see your favourite just reply and I'll add it to the list for you to choose

Me, personally, I favour PC Tools Firewall Plus, not one of the major players but for me it does it's job well, get's on without constantly hassling me to make a decision and uses minimum resources!.

Marko

[FreeWareFan]

Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.61 and Comodo 2.4 for XP.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall for Vista.
Built-In for Win7.

[James (Jim) Hillier]

Just Windows Firewall for me (in Windows 7).

All 3rd party firewalls are an annoyance if you ask me. Just that some are less of a nuisance than others.

I've sort of tolerated them in the past, had Online Armor installed in Vista for a couple of years, it wasn't too bad but I'm glad I no longer have to put up with the interruptions.

The trouble with most firewalls is that they flag everything which is deemed even remotely suspicious, so they have a fairly high propensity for issuing false alarms. And the onus is generally on the user to make the final decision....harmless or not. That can be both worrying and confusing for many not so experienced users.

[Margo]

im very new to all this.... i downloaded peerblock, im assuming that is a firewall? I'm not even sure how to work it or if I need to work it.... I got some letter a while back for a movie my roommate had downloaded and i figured i would try something to block all that...

[marko]

Peerblock uses IP addresses to block unwanted entrants to your computer, generally unless you're comfortable updating this type of software I would suggest using any of the firewalls in the list above, from my memory I really don't think Peerblock will provide you much protection at all.

[Anatolij]

I spent two years They are used Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free + avast! Free Antivirus.
This tandem is very happy.

[campart]

I agree with Jim's comments. I would add, however, that you have to accept the MS philosophy wrt firewalls, that incoming protection alone is adequate. My view is that this one way only position is fine for stand-alone computers and that additional upload scanning is really only required on networks with unsecured terminals.
Regards
Bryan

[mogginski]

Being a Mac fanatic I use Little Snitch. Easily enables you to selectively block any connection between your computer and software suppliers who might not be too impressed with your "extended" software trials!!

[BobC]

Actually, I use two different firewalls because I run both XP and Linux (Ubuntu). I use the Ubuntu "ufw/gufw" firewall that is installed via the Synaptic Package Manager. On XP I use Zone Alarm (free version). I had some problem a while back in applying the updates and after attempting a re-install, which failed every time, I switched to the PC Tools free version. While it worked, it continuously nagged every time I went to the same site (would not remember the previous setting). I eventually cleaned up my XP system and found out I could re-install Zone Alarm. I find Zone Alarm to be easier to use and choose how I want to interface with various sites. PC Tools was such a pain in the butt at times, that I would actually disable it when it interfered when I was navigating certain trustworthy sites.

[BigB]

Comodo seems to be the best of the free varieties. At least for me. I was using ZA but that didn't work 64bits at the time.