Free Software Firewalls

[thewasp31]

I am sorry guys, but I have to bring this subject up again. :lol:

Last time the firewall subject was up I was a Sygate Personal Firewall supporter. But due to Symantec buying sygate up, development and support has now ceased.

I liked Sygate, it was simple and light weight, offered me a level of configuration I needed and gave me meaningful warning messages. 😎

The question is, should I replace this firewall with one that is being activly developed? If so which one do you guys reccomend?

IF going for another one I have to stress that it be free, student and other comps etc.

The software firewall is mainly used to stop outbound programs as I am reasonably comfortable that my NAT router is protecting me from incoming traffic.

I'm rather uncomfortable with Zonealarm (the last time I played with it it was buggy and very bloated), but have things changed? Also I'm not too keen on firewalls that limit me everywhere, I know Sygate did have a pay version but I really hate it when companies try and force feed there "Pro" version down you throat when everytime you click something in there prog you get "This feature is not available in the free version" type annoyance, Sygate Personal Firewall to the extent I saw, never did this to you.

I know this might be repetitive :blah , but imho, I think the "Free" software firewall arena has changed alot recently (appears to be dying away ).

 

[Quakester2000]

Zonealarm is probably your best bet or there is Tiny personal firewall. Or if your running windoes XP use its internal firewall.

 

[thewasp31]

Anyone had any expiernce with ZoneAlarm?

I do run XP, however Windows Firewall doesn't really give me all the protection on OUTGOING applications that I'd feel comfortable. I was listening to Security Now! on grc.com and they said windows firewall was much like a mini NAT firewall, good at protecting incoming attempts, but very little to stop outgoing conections, like applications calling home.

Any advice appreciated

 

[thewasp31]

Just to let people know, i went with Kerio Personal firewall.

I dismissed it at the beginning of my search cause i heard it had been discontinued. Apparently just a company called sunbelt bought it and are continuing it.

Everything seems great so far, just as much - if not more - features and control as sygate.

 

[Runik]

I don't want to alarm you, but I just read an article this week on a network security magazine comparing 4 of the most used personal firewalls (including zonealarm and kerio).

And the 4 of them were highly vulnerable to any hacking attempts ...

The guys running the tests were professionals accustomed to security breaches on any OS around, but the conclusions of the article were that :

A/ having a personal firewall was just giving the illusion of being safe

B/ there wasn't any good hackers out there (luckily)

 

[thewasp31]

Ha! Why can't these damn things just work 😛

I have a NAT router, so reasonably confident on incoming traffic. The only reason I wanted a software firewall was for outbound traffic, not so much as to protect me but to control apps which are trying to access the internet.

I've been trying of late to really lock this security down as far as I can of late. I'm a sensible user - generally 😛

What do the rest of you use for firewall protection? NAT routers? or more?

 

[Runik]

Originally posted by thewasp31@Mon, 2006-01-30 @ 01:54 PM

I have a NAT router, so reasonably confident on incoming traffic. The only reason I wanted a software firewall was for outbound traffic, not so much as to protect me but to control apps which are trying to access the internet.

[post=143909]Quoted post[/post]​

Why don't you install Microsoft Antispyware ? It's free, and does control applications accessing to internet ...

It even warned me about a batch file that I was running for testing dos apps 🙂

 

[thewasp31]

Acctually i do run Microsoft Antispyware. But I've NEVER had it asking me if I want to give apps internet access permision. Are you sure?

My PC security software is:

NOD32 Antivirus

Kerio Personal Firewall

Microsoft Antispyware

 

[Runik]

I'm quite sure yes (you should check your options😉 )

 

[thewasp31]

well i'm lost, in the options i have no options to restirct outbound program internet access. Where abouts is it?

 

[Runik]

You don't have options to check outbound connections, the program is just asking when it happens ...

Otherwise, you can try to configure Windows XP firewall (if you have SP2 installed), it'll control all your connections (in and out)