free firewalls

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Guest

does anyone know of a freeware firewall? ive seen zone alarm and other that
are free but i dont want to use them without someone elses input. thanks
 
ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
Only evaluate one at a time. Turn off the XP firewall. ZA seems the most
popular.
 
In
van said:
does anyone know of a freeware firewall? ive seen zone alarm
and
other that are free but i dont want to use them without someone
elses
input. thanks
Click to expand...


I'm happy with the free version of ZoneAlarm.
 
Zone Alarm is to firewalls what AOL is to interenet
service providers. everything in the program is very
pretty and graphical. Zone Alarm is also setup for people
who are new to computers that dont understand complicated
programs. Because it is setup for people that are naive,
it tries to give these users a sense of being protecting
by popping up these "hack attempts" on your computer
about every five minutes. People that use Zone Alarm are
usually some of the most paranoid people on the internet
because ZA makes them think that people are constantly
trying to hack them. The irony of this lies in the fact
that the level of protection provided by ZA is not
sufficient enough for when someone who really knows their
kung foo tries to hit you. Actually, most of these "hack"
attempts logged by ZA are actually just your computer
communicating with servers and is in fact not anything
malicious at all. the last time i personally tried ZA (i
do silly things like that sometimes, i even tried Kazaa
one time to compare it to my KazaaLiteK++) it did not
protect me from DOS attacks, nor did it provide the IP
addresses of these supposed "hack attempts". It did
however overstep its bounds as a firewall by blocking
popups and cookies, most of the time in a way that caused
me more inconvenience than help. i dont want a firewall
to block popups, cookies, spyware, do my laundry, or wash
my dishes. i just want a firewall that protects my PC
from REAL hack attempts. Sygate does this, and it does it
well. Sygate even tells me what kind of attack was put on
me, whether it was a port scan or DOS or whatever AND it
gives me the little b@st@rds IP address.
 
A long way of getting there but I agree Sygate is pretty good "straight out
of the box" as they say but offers a lot of configuration when required.
Also it has the smallest system process out of Kerio,zonealarm, and outpost
might not bother you to much but its one of those things I like to know
about.

Andy B
 
Hey ... Yep I agree that Sygate Pro is a pretty good firewall and I know I
wouldn't ever use ZA again ... Also AVG Pro Anti Virus is pretty good too
 
Andy said:
A long way of getting there but I agree Sygate is pretty good "straight out
of the box" as they say but offers a lot of configuration when required.
Also it has the smallest system process out of Kerio,zonealarm, and outpost might not bother you to much but its one of those things I like to know about.

Andy B
Click to expand...

Make that 3 votes or more for Sygate Personal Firewall... the free
version, in my case. For all the reasons
previously stated. I've used it for several years with ease.
bj
 
Another endorsement for Sygate.
Also, their scan test site is pretty good: Scan.sygate.com
Tiny is another option... Sort of easy to use and configure with good rule
and filter options.
ZA is problematic on XP, as is the Symantec Firewall.

Steve
 
Van, if you are running windows xp with sp2 you have a firewall.
Click to expand...


Please note that, despite what many people think, the presence of a firewall
in Windows XP is *not* new with SP2. There was always a firewall in XP.

What's new in SP2 with regard to the firewall are some improvements, but
primarily the fact that it's turned on by default.

But both in the original XP firewall and SP2's, only incoming traffic is
monitored; nothing is done to protect against rogue programs trying to call
home. For that reason, almost any of the third-party firewalls, such as the
free version of ZoneAlarm, is a better choice.
 
True, but not a particularly good one.

WinXP's built-in firewall is adequate at stopping incoming attacks,
and hiding your ports from probes. What WinXP SP2's firewall does not
do, is protect you from any Trojans or spyware that you (or someone
else using your computer) might download and install inadvertently.
It doesn't monitor out-going traffic at all, other than to check for
IP-spoofing, much less block (or at even ask you about) the bad or the
questionable out-going signals. It assumes that any application you
have on your hard drive is there because you want it there, and
therefore has your "permission" to access the Internet. Further,
because the Windows Firewall is a "stateful" firewall, it will also
assume that any incoming traffic that's a direct response to a
Trojan's or spyware's out-going signal is also authorized.

ZoneAlarm, Kerio, or Sygate are all much better than WinXP's
built-in firewall, and are much more easily configured, and there are
free versions of each readily available. Even the commercially
available Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall is superior by far,
although it does take a heavier toll of system performance then do
ZoneAlarm or Sygate.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
van said:
does anyone know of a freeware firewall? ive seen zone alarm and other that
are free but i dont want to use them without someone elses input. thanks
Click to expand...
There are free version of Sygate, Outpost, Kerio, ZoneAlarm firewalls.
You can try to install one.
But free version firewalls are old, so after trial better to buy one.
 
Ben wrote in microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics:
There are free version of Sygate, Outpost, Kerio, ZoneAlarm firewalls.
You can try to install one.
But free version firewalls are old, so after trial better to buy one.
Click to expand...

Not true, at least in the case of ZoneAlarm -- the version numbers of the
freeware version and the paid Pro, Pro with Anti-Virus, and Security Suite
versions are largely the same; the only difference is the feature set.

IMHO, if the freeware version works fine, I'd say stick with it. But if one
needs the extra features that the pay versions have, I'd go ahead and pony
up the cash.
 
Glenn said:
Ben wrote in microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics:




Not true, at least in the case of ZoneAlarm -- the version numbers of the
freeware version and the paid Pro, Pro with Anti-Virus, and Security Suite
versions are largely the same; the only difference is the feature set.

IMHO, if the freeware version works fine, I'd say stick with it. But if one
needs the extra features that the pay versions have, I'd go ahead and pony
up the cash.
Click to expand...
You can try to learn how to use the new features.
If you can offer it, why not buy the newest one.
The leading technologies will be used in the future,
if you can have it now and know how to use it,
you will be a cool one.
 
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