Firewall choice?

[hatemf23]

Hi all,

I have been dealing with programs for a long time, Ive never had a problem choosing programs that do their job and that suits me, except with firewalls, always a problem for me, and since I want alittle more protection that Windows firewall il have to go with a 3rd party firewall.

So which one do you recommend?

To narrow down the options heres a few things Im looking for:
Installs/uninstalls cleanly.
Works silently in background/does not show a popup every few mins.
Is a good firewall in preventing hacker attacks etc. (obviously).
Win7 64bit compatible.

Some recent posts about ZoneAlarm were not very encouraging and and my experience with Comodo was not a nice one thats why Im looking for others.

 

[severedsolo]

well im going to start by recommending you stay away from Zone Alarm, i have used it for many years, and have always loved it, but the latest updates completely killed my windows 7, luckily i had a system image to fall back on, and it was definitely ZA that broke it, as i replicated the problems 3 times, each time it borked just after installing ZA,

as to my recommendation for which one to go for, Windows 7 Firewall does a very good job, if your looking for a little more control, then you can use this great little program called "Windows 7 Firewall Control" which once it learns what programs are and arent allowed Internet access (obviously you have to configure it the first time, so for maybe the first half hour you will get alot of popups) you can get the "control program" from here:Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software (and yes, there is a free option)

 

[maranello]

the firewall topics are becoming a tabu subject, everybody has something to say about a product but they don't say it because someone else will come and trash it immediately...

nevermind that, i can make a suggestion based on my experience with all kinds of firewall products.
i used comodo for a long time, but i got bored of it and wanted something new and with an easier ui, so i tried the free version of Best Firewall Software - Stops Hackers, Malware, Viruses, Keylogger & Online Banking Protection - Online Armor and honestly i'm very glad that i made this choice, it's very easy to use and has an intuitive ui, it's fast & reliable, all the threats detected in the past by comode and others are also detected by OA, it's kinda like comparing the giant & heavy NAV with the slick & fast NOD32, small but strong

 

[polarbear]

well im going to start by recommending you stay away from Zone Alarm, i have used it for many years, and have always loved it, but the latest updates completely killed my windows 7, luckily i had a system image to fall back on, and it was definitely ZA that broke it, as i replicated the problems 3 times, each time it borked just after installing ZA,

as to my recommendation for which one to go for, Windows 7 Firewall does a very good job, if your looking for a little more control, then you can use this great little program called "Windows 7 Firewall Control" which once it learns what programs are and arent allowed Internet access (obviously you have to configure it the first time, so for maybe the first half hour you will get alot of popups) you can get the "control program" from here:Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software (and yes, there is a free option)

Totally agreed, I have been using "Windows 7 Firewall Control" for sometime now and have never looked back... GL

 

[manhunter2826]

have a read here too:
http://www.sevenforums.com/security-basics/75541-free-software-firewalls-windows-7-a.html

 

[Corrine]

have a read here too:
http://www.sevenforums.com/security-basics/75541-free-software-firewalls-windows-7-a.html

+1. Just what I was going to suggest!

 

[CarlTR6]

have a read here too:
http://www.sevenforums.com/security-basics/75541-free-software-firewalls-windows-7-a.html

Excellent. Good referral.

 

[not so gray matter]

What exactly didn't you like about Comodo? If it was the constant pop-ups from applications trying to get internet access, that will happen with any firewall that controls both inbound and outbound access. However, after a week or so it slows down almost to nothing because you choose which programs to give permanent access. The menu itself isn't intuitive but once you learn how to use it it's fairly powerful. You can tell a program that it can use UDP or TCP, only use one port, etc etc.

I used to use Zone Alarm but I've found that it isn't the best on Win7. It's comparable to Comodo though, and has a bit more of an intuitive menu system. Those are the only firewalls I'd recommend, atleast the free ones that is.

 

[PeteC]

More protection? Well, I use Windows Firewall and have never, to date been breached, That would seem to indicate pretty adequate firewall protection to me.

In terms of configuation flexibility, then I have always done wel in the past with Norton's, but frankly, with the current Windows 7, combined with MSE and Windows firewall, I see no advantage to spending money on any third party option. I guess if I ever get "borked" I may change my mind, but at this time, i see no compelling reason to change.

 

[CarlTR6]

What exactly didn't you like about Comodo? If it was the constant pop-ups from applications trying to get internet access, that will happen with any firewall that controls both inbound and outbound access. However, after a week or so it slows down almost to nothing because you choose which programs to give permanent access. The menu itself isn't intuitive but once you learn how to use it it's fairly powerful. You can tell a program that it can use UDP or TCP, only use one port, etc etc.

I used to use Zone Alarm but I've found that it isn't the best on Win7. It's comparable to Comodo though, and has a bit more of an intuitive menu system. Those are the only firewalls I'd recommend, atleast the free ones that is.

I tried PCTools free firewall for a while and liked it. I'm currently running Comodo and it does fine. I have not found a firewall as easily configured as Zone Alarm. Maybe their new version plays better with Windows?

 

[caretaker]

After trying most firewall Software I found "Sunbelt's VIPER the best. It's not free but you don't get ANY pop-ups eider. Plus it's not as resource hungry as most of the others. And if you combine it with the Viper security you won't even know it's running in the background. Absolute minimum resource usage less then any other Security software. Well worth a try.

 

[CarlTR6]

More protection? Well, I use Windows Firewall and have never, to date been breached, That would seem to indicate pretty adequate firewall protection to me.

In terms of configuation flexibility, then I have always done wel in the past with Norton's, but frankly, with the current Windows 7, combined with MSE and Windows firewall, I see no advantage to spending money on any third party option. I guess if I ever get "borked" I may change my mind, but at this time, i see no compelling reason to change.

Windows firewall is OK. It is not the best out there in terms of blocking according to several tests. But it is definitely adequate and it is not resource hungry.

The reason I don't use it is it is not easy to configure to control outgoing which is my primary requirement in a software firewall.

Before I was behind a hardware firewall, a guest downloaded a Trojan (using XP). ZA caught it as it tried to connect to the internet. I was able to clean it up promptly before it could do any damage. Since then, I want a software firewall that I can easily configure for outgoing. Windows firewall would not have caught that outgoing for me.

ZA is the easiest to configure of the free firewalls I have tried. Comodo is next followed by PCTools. PCTools had a better security rating than Comodo in two of the three tests I reviewed.

All that said, a properly configured hardware firewall offers the most security.