Solved PC Tools Firewall discontinued. Looking for replacement.

Indianatone · Oct 12, 2012

PC Tools Firewall discontinued. Looking for replacement.
Hi,
Over the years I have used a bunch of firewalls including Zone Alarm and Comodo. Still use the Comodo firewall on a couple of DVR PC's that are used for home theatre stuff only and streaming Netflix. I settled on PC Tools free firewall as it did everything I needed and it was easy to use and configure. However it has been discontinued after PC Tools was swallowed by Symantec and they would be pleased to offer me a security suite for $55 per annum per machine. I use Avast anti virus, Malwarebytes and Spybot so don't want this at any cost even free. Can anyone suggest a good free firewall and provide a tutorial if needed ? Not sure if I want to use Comodo as it is hard to get rid of. I am fine with it on a DVR as no one is playing games or surfing websites on those 2 PC's. Free is good as I have just gone onto disability due to heart issues.
Thanks in advance
Tony.

marsmimar · Oct 12, 2012

Tony, I've been experimenting with TinyWall for a couple of weeks now. It seems to work great. And it's free.

TinyWall - A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall

alikhan · Oct 13, 2012

Indianatone said:
PC Tools Firewall discontinued. Looking for replacement.
Hi,
Over the years I have used a bunch of firewalls including Zone Alarm and Comodo. Still use the Comodo firewall on a couple of DVR PC's that are used for home theatre stuff only and streaming Netflix. I settled on PC Tools free firewall as it did everything I needed and it was easy to use and configure. However it has been discontinued after PC Tools was swallowed by Symantec and they would be pleased to offer me a security suite for $55 per annum per machine. I use Avast anti virus, Malwarebytes and Spybot so don't want this at any cost even free. Can anyone suggest a good free firewall and provide a tutorial if needed ? Not sure if I want to use Comodo as it is hard to get rid of. I am fine with it on a DVR as no one is playing games or surfing websites on those 2 PC's. Free is good as I have just gone onto disability due to heart issues.
Thanks in advance
Tony.

Hello ;

Zone alarm basic firewall is amongst the most downloaded and widely used FREE firewall software available.it is very friendly with computer resources even while blocking attacks.
If you are novice you can leave all the settings to their standard values, and the computer would still be safe, as together with a powerful av software ,zone alarm will be able to block basically every single malicious file.

Here's the link - Download ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 10.2.081.000 Free - A basic inbound and outbound firewall application - Softpedia

Hope this helps

Borg 386 · Oct 13, 2012

In the past Zone Alarm has had conflicts with Windows 7. If they have resolved this recently, I do not know.

You may wish to consider using Windows own firewall. This article has several links at the bottom pertaining to Windows Firewall:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/542-windows-firewall-add-remove-exception.html

Indianatone · Oct 13, 2012

Borg 386 said:
In the past Zone Alarm has had conflicts with Windows 7. If they have resolved this recently, I do not know.

You may wish to consider using Windows own firewall. This article has several links at the bottom pertaining to Windows Firewall:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/542-windows-firewall-add-remove-exception.html

That is why I have unconsciously ruled out Zone Alarm, caused me hell and all grief in the past with blue screens and denying access to certain computers and not others and blocking websites and internet access on machines. (Usually the wife's machine

).
I'll give it a try on a virtual machine this weekend. Is the windows firewall good enough?

Layback Bear · Oct 13, 2012

I use Windows 7 built in Firewall on two computers and have not problems.

Alejandro85 · Oct 13, 2012

The easiest thing is trying the Windows Firewall. I'm using it and it works OK for most things, however it has some important shortcomings in some aspects and if you're technically skilled it might annoy you. I like the extensive configuration options in the advanced panel (the basic control panel applet is quite incomplete). Maybe it's worth a try at least.
I also tried ZoneAlarm but discarded it since the configuration options were too few and can barely setup rules.
Softperfect personal firewall is good, but lack the "filter by program" option, which I consider essential, but with good popup messages on unwanted connections.
Not tried anything else so far.

marsmimar said:
Tony, I've been experimenting with TinyWall for a couple of weeks now. It seems to work great. And it's free.

TinyWall - A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall

TinyWall is NOT a firewall. It's just a front end for managing Windows firewall with a nicer interface.

marsmimar · Oct 13, 2012

marsmimar said:
Tony, I've been experimenting with TinyWall for a couple of weeks now. It seems to work great. And it's free.

TinyWall - A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall

TinyWall is NOT a firewall. It's just a front end for managing Windows firewall with a nicer interface.

You're absolutely correct Alejandro. I failed to make that clear.

Thanks for the clarification.

autechs · Oct 13, 2012

Hey,

I agree with Alejandro, Windows firewall is actually pretty good

I used to use Zonealarm a long time ago, but due to conflictions with Kaspersky Anti-Virus I stopped using it and have never looked back.

Indianatone · Oct 15, 2012

OK, I bit the bullet and removed PC tools from my 3 PC's on my desk. That was 3 versions of 7 on one machine, 2 versions of 7 on another and 1 version on my oldest machine. All of them are now just running the windows firewall. I had a look in the advanced features and to be honest never knew the windows 7 firewall was so good. So far so good.
Thanks Borg 386, [URL="http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=74329"]Layback Bear, [URL="http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=216131"]Alejandro85 and [URL="http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=52246"]marsmimar.[/URL][/URL][/URL]

M1GU31 · Oct 16, 2012

marsmimar said:
Tony, I've been experimenting with TinyWall for a couple of weeks now. It seems to work great. And it's free.

TinyWall - A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall

I use this also,very easy to block out connections and control your windows firewall with

greyhnd · Oct 25, 2012

I'm going to continue to use the PC Tools Firewall. It still works fine, but there will e no more support for it if I understand things correctly. If for some reason it stops working its magic I'll go with the Windows Firewall.

DylanWindows7 · Oct 26, 2012

TBH i would use Comodo firewall. They have a really good rep and lots of other products! :eek:

jadinolf · Apr 7, 2017

Here it is 2017 and I am using PC Tools Firewall Plus.
It seems to work fine.

gfr92y · Apr 26, 2017

Have you ever gone to a party, walked in, looked around, and had no idea what the hell was going on?

Well, I read above about some compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Windows 7 above, but do not think I have seen any (or at least did not recognize any) for years now.
What kind of compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Windows 7 did you experience?

The same is true for Zone Alarm and Kaspersky. Have had any problems for years, unless I simply did not recognize them when they appeared.
What kind of compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Kaspersky did you experience?

Lady Fitzgerald · Apr 26, 2017

gfr92y said:
Have you ever gone to a party, walked in, looked around, and had no idea what the hell was going on?

Well, I read above about some compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Windows 7 above, but do not think I have seen any (or at least did not recognize any) for years now.
What kind of compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Windows 7 did you experience?

The same is true for Zone Alarm and Kaspersky. Have had any problems for years, unless I simply did not recognize them when they appeared.
What kind of compatibility issues between ZoneAlarm and Kaspersky did you experience?

I've been using Zone Alarm's free firewall ever since XP (and, now, on Win 7) and have never run into a compatibility issue. The only complaints I have ever seen for Zone Alarm's free firewall are for the pop-ups it generates. Once ZA has been "trained" (that can take a few days to a few weeks depending on your usage), the pop-ups become infrequent. However, many people are just too impatient or can't be bothered to read the pop-ups to determine the appropriate action to take.

I've never used Kaspersky so I can't comment on that.

jadinolf · Apr 26, 2017

I'm sticking with it.

[

Solved PC Tools Firewall discontinued. Looking for replacement.

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