Windows Firewall?

Is windows firewall alright to use on it's own?

I currently use MS Essentials and was using PC Tools firewall until about 30mins ago. The reason I no longer use it is because it was killing my broadband connection to less than .5Mbeven though I have 20Mb connection.

If I used speedtest.net it told me that my speed was 13Mb, but if I downloaded a file of say 210MB then the average download speed would be 402KB.

I was on the phone to Virgin Media for and hour and a half, went to the highest level of tech support for them to tell me to unistall my firewall as it was malware, I did and sure enough my speed went to what it should be.

Feeling a bit pissed at the thought that the free firewall could possibly be malware, I went to Znet and downloaded it again to just make sure i hadn't downloaded a dodgy copy. I installed it again and tested my speed and I had the same problems again. So I have decided against using it as it is choking my web connection.

Hello Anthony,

Yes, Windows Firewall is just perfect to use on it's own. However, you may want to use the free program Windows 7 Firewall Control with it to make using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security options in Windows 7 a lot easier to use.

However, if you would like more protection, then also using a router with a hardware firewall included would give great incoming firewall protection.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Also read Donna's review How to Use Windows 7 Firewall

I rely on incoming protection from the NAT features of my hardware router and rely on the Windows firewall to protect me from myself. Never really felt this was inadequate in any way and it has met my needs and kept me safe.