Any Free Firewalls?

[trinifawk 0]

Hello everyone. I'm in the market for a free personal firewall to use on my Windows XP machine. I used to have Zone Alarm, but the most recent 'update' of it was trying to make me buy a copy from them. I guess that Zonealarm did away with their whole free firewall thing, so this leaves me kind of bummy.I have had this firewall on my computer for 3 years without any kind of problems, so I'm looking for some help in finding a new one, since I'm a bit out of touch with what's up to date these days. Some suggestions would be helpful. By the way, I'm not a big fan of the built-in Windows firewall, so I don't really plan on using it for long. I'm going to put it on temporarily until I can find a good free personal firewall program to use. Thanks in advance for your replies and suggestions!Best, Trinifawk

[Sten 0]

i know its pretty crappy but i have to use the windows firewall :l
i have pc cillin internet security except that costs a heap and u want something free. i have to use the windows firewall because pc cillin wont accept my brothers wiis mac address.

https://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

you couldve just googled "free firewall"

you might as well give it a go. ive heard of it before but ive never used it.

[ethergeek 0]

I've used comodo for awhile now...it's a pretty good product, kinda like iptables for windows, if you want to set it up that way. It's also not very resource intensive.

[wutske 0]

I also have been using Comodo firewall for a while an it's a good one. In the beginning it might be a bit confusing and it's not the most user-friendly firewall available, but it's powerfull and secure.
Another great, but older firewall is Sygate Personal Firewall. Imho it's the best (free) firewall ever made, until Symantec took over Sygate . It's not supported by symantec anymore and you won't get any updates anymore, but that doesn't make it a bad firewall (in fact, that's a good thing because hackers arn't looking for security leak in SPF anymore ). You can download it at softpedia: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[Mordent 0]

I also have been using Comodo firewall for a while an it's a good one. In the beginning it might be a bit confusing and it's not the most user-friendly firewall available, but it's powerfull and secure.

Another great, but older firewall is Sygate Personal Firewall. Imho it's the best (free) firewall ever made, until Symantec took over Sygate . It's not supported by symantec anymore and you won't get any updates anymore, but that doesn't make it a bad firewall (in fact, that's a good thing because hackers arn't looking for security leak in SPF anymore ). You can download it at softpedia: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I used that for an absolute age, although the fact that it's literally years old now means that I'm at least a little skeptical of its ability to actualy work. Sure, no one is looking for ways to get past it any more, but that doesn't mean it's overly secure. That said, I did find that, during the time I used it, I was certainly happy with the way it worked. I still made the switch back to Zone Alarm though, if for no other reason that the fact that it just didn't feel right using a firewall that hadn't received anything that even looked like an update for so long.

 

Still, I'm curious why you reckon Zone Alarm don't offer a free version any more. It's by no means their full internet security suite, but a quick google search shows that they still have the Zone Alarm Free Firewall available to download. Just make sure you click on the basic firewall download instead of the 15-day trial link after you follow the "download now" button on the right.

 

I haven't had any prompts to pay for my copy, and as it's still there for download I'd imagine they're still running it. Hope this helps!

[Miles 0]

I don't really know, on the internet I protected by computer by hopping between free trials of security software and magazine cover discs. I'd say you should google it, and when you find one that looks good, google it's name and get peoples opinion on it, after that you can decide to get it or not to.

[kelvinmaki 0]

Still, I'm curious why you reckon Zone Alarm don't offer a free version any more. It's by no means their full internet security suite, but a quick google search shows that they still have the Zone Alarm Free Firewall available to download. Just make sure you click on the basic firewall download instead of the 15-day trial link after you follow the "download now" button on the right.

Just confirmed that Zone Alarm are still providing free Firewall, and just Firewall. If you are talking about the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite, then you will need to pay. I've been using the Free Firewall version all along. Downloaded, upgraded and using the free firewall now. So you don't have to switch.

[faulty.lee 0]

I would also recommend Comodo. Especially the latest version 3. It's really good. Plus it comes with Defense+, more like a anti-virus/spyware thing. It detect suspicious activity from application that run. It helped me prevented a few incident from those file I downloaded off p2p network. The antivirus I use never complaint about the problem, lucky Comodo save my day.

[vdesignlabs 0]

Hi Trinifawk,

You should check out Online Armor.

I have posted a topic here: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/94765-topic/?findpost=1064382695. Do check it out.......



Cheers!!

Edited January 10, 2008 by vdesignlabs (see edit history)