What is a good firewall?

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sneez

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2001
11,047
113
Preferably free.
I had ZoneAlarm before but it's major suckage. Blocking stuff randomly + hogging system resources.
Back in the days I had the oldskool version of sygate but that's also shit now.

So, which firewalls are worthwhile atm? I like a 'basic' firewal, just blocking programs until asked permission.
After googling only F-secure and 'NeT' (?) looked nice, but it seemed they are also for a prize.

Any other recommendations?
 
softwarefirewalls are pretty useless when you know what you do.

When you've a decent router with firewall then the windows firewall is mre than enough. :P
 
I'd ignore the XP firewall and go with Sunbelt - I spent a while going through various ones and being turned off them for one reason or another, but Sunbelt is the first one I like everything about. PM me if you want a link.
 
Thanks for the replies :)
The firewal made by Softperfect looks nice, gonna give that a try later on today.
 
softwarefirewalls are pretty useless when you know what you do.

When you've a decent router with firewall then the windows firewall is mre than enough. :P

I think he wants to stop s/w from going out rather than protect himself from incoming attacks. Unless you've got a L7 router, stopping specific s/w from going out is a bit tricky :)

I hope you have a real router with firewall sneez!!
 
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Im no firewall expert but im using Kerio, named now Sunbelt firewall iirc. Easy in use with some nice advenced options doesn't suck much of your memory.
 
I think he wants to stop s/w from going out rather than protect himself from incoming attacks. Unless you've got a L7 router, stopping specific s/w from going out is a bit tricky :)

I hope you have a real router with firewall sneez!!

Yeah that's what I ment, ZoneAlarm was good at it, everytime something was trying to connect outwards it had to ask permission, that is what I am looking for.

I tried Softperfect firewall but it doesn't work well with Vista :(
Going to try Kerio/sunbelt now.
 
Tried Kerio, and it's a really nice program (bandwith limiter, not heavy in system resources, built in anti virus/mail/ftp scanner and much more) but when trying to connect IRC / MSN it doesn't ask permission anywhere? Even after browsing the options and setting some rules it (or I) still failed. Not what I'm looking for when playing alot of online games + running a server once in a while.
 
Kerion/Sunbelt Firewall is one of the best to easy controll outgoing packets... you should really go for that as its fast in speed and need not much ressources...

If theres an outgoing programm connecting to the internet and you not get asked for setting up a rule/permission... well then it's your fault... you can make kerio so sensitiv that you have to confirm every port...

A good Firewall is also COMODO it's freeware and it runs with x64 witch Kerio/Sunbelt is not supporting...

Btw... running this s/w firewall without a router is not safe vs. Virus/Trojans/Malware
 
s/w firewal probably means software firewall I guess?
Heared often of Comodo yeah, going to give that a try now.