Whats the best firewall?

[Elvenmunky]

Zone Alarm seems to be the most popular but is it that good? (i have sygate myself)

[Wolfmight]

Zone Alarm is good, but I do notice it slows the internet connection down a tad. Most people would prefer the added security though.

[werdims]

I will strongly advice you against sygate. I had sygate pro 5.x my self and in some firewall test (including sygates own test) it had some open ports.
So my conclusion is that it does not give the best security.
Right now i use zonealarm pro 6, and it is secure in all the test i tried, and it doesnt slow my pc down.

[Nickthestick91]

I use ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, and I LOVE it. I like it so much that my copy isn't pirated, I bought it. :D

[zaphodiv]

I don't like zonealarm and there are lots of reports of it casuign problems with filesharing programs.

Sygate is for advanced users.


I will strongly advice you against sygate. I had sygate pro 5.x my self and in some firewall test (including sygates own test) it had some open ports.
So my conclusion is that it does not give the best security.

Sygate works fine. The usual cause of this is that the firewall test actually hit your ISP's web proxy or a conection sharing device between your computer and the internet. If it's not that then you don't have it confiugured properly and yes it requiring some knowledge to configure is a reason for using somthing else.

[james_bond_rulez]

ya zonealarm has everything in store, firewall, antivirus, antispy, the whole 9 yards

[cool skill]

I use the latest version of ZAP. (Zone Alarm Pro)

[peat moss]

Ah hard question to ask ! Look "n" stop was one of my fav's but have used many flavours of Zap . You just have try them all, you decide because what works me may not be your answer . Symantic client has never failed me but even System Mech. has one now so you have to config for certain things like p/p2 for a better answer.

[zak2210]

I'm using Mcafee Security suite along with Peer Guardian 2 as a P2P firewall, these 2 programs secure my PC very well.

I had used Zone Alarm once and I thought it was rubbish! Slowed down my
P2P speeds drastically and disabled my IE connection if the program weren't running, maybe ZA just isn't for P2P users like me..

[erRor67]

I like Zone Alarm, SyGate and Outpost.. In my opinion three of the best firewalls.. Another good one (but crappy GUI) is Look n' Stop. It looks shitty but it gets the job done which is the important thing. ;)

[Chewie]

I've used @Guard, ZoneAlarm, Norton/Symantec, Tiny, Sygate and Outpost; I found they all worked fine - excepting ZA v5.0, but they fixed that.
@Guard and Sygate are now Norton/Symantec and Tiny don't offer a free version now.

I use Outpost v3.5 now and it seems to be doing a great job; it detects a lost of ad/spyware and it's blocking facilties are terrific.

[Spiteful]

I like Zone Alarm, except I've read that it can be bypassed by people who know what they're doing. I've been told Windows XP firewall is safer in this sense

I still use it though, good spyware and hard drive cleaner options as well as other privacy controls that no other firewall I've seen has

[nanotek]

sygate is the best

[PRT]

When I used a firewall, I found ZoneAlarm to be very good.

but now I just rely on my router. Have done so for a year or 2 now and no security problems of any kind have occured

[yarivot26]

I used to use Norton Firewall, my computer didn't moves at all

moved to ZAP, got no trouble with it.

so I use ZAP with Peer Guardian 2, do the job for me

[erRor67]

I like Zone Alarm, except I've read that it can be bypassed by people who know what they're doing. I've been told Windows XP firewall is safer in this sense

I still use it though, good spyware and hard drive cleaner options as well as other privacy controls that no other firewall I've seen has
Almost anything can be bypassed if you know what you are doing.. And from what I read, Windows XP firewall doesnt really help you.. Id rather use some third party firewall (like the ones mentioned by me above). :)

[Barbarossa]

ZoneAlarm is pretty good, because it tells you about attempted outbound connections as well as incoming ones, but if you're really worried get a hardware firewall, not a software one.

[Chewie]

ZoneAlarm is pretty good, because it tells you about attempted outbound connections as well as incoming ones...
Any software firewall worth its salt will do that.

[Barbarossa]

The windows XP firewall doesn't.

[Chewie]

It's not worth diddly then.
:)

[4play]

outpost is my favourite and always wins in any of the firewall shootout tests i have seen.

[Chewie]

Yes, Outpost has certainly impressed me.
It's the only one since @Guard that I've installed and immediately thought Yeah!

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

Do you guys use Outwood and a seperate Anti-virus prog.?
Because does'nt Outwood have an anti-virus built in?

[BrolyBoo]

i got ZAP and its pretty good

works for me

[Boogieman117]

If you have an old box and some time, try m0nowall a whirl.

[skelley521]

XP's firewall only blocks inbound not out.
I use ZA v4.5 as this is the version that the federal gov. ask the makers to lighten up so they could have access. I also use XP's and have tested my system on several port/firewall test sites and this configuration works well with my system.

TechTV had a hacker test and dropped all firewalls;opened all ports;posted their IP and anyone that could access their system; open notepad and write their name would win a $5,000 pc.
Nobody won.

[confite]

I have Agnitum Outpost and works great for me (The best so far of three that i have tested, outpost, zone alarm & symantec firewall).

[ZaZu]

XP's firewall only blocks inbound not out.
I use ZA v4.5 as this is the version that the federal gov. ask the makers to lighten up so they could have access. I also use XP's and have tested my system on several port/firewall test sites and this configuration works well with my system.

What did they do to "lighten up" or did they?... do you know?

[RealitY]

My last use of ZA was some time ago which seemed to be the cause of differnt issues to the point that the system had to be reformatted which may have been from it causing corruption in the cmd tables though cant be sure that was the cause. However at that time switched to Sygate and never looked back and have never had issues with it. Ive always been curious to test some others but have had no reason to. As for the new look of ZA it just seems a bit bloated to me something similar to Norton although cant say as havent used and most likelt never will...

[nabeelisnabeel]

I hate firewalls. never use them and ,yes, I use windows 98.

[Fischlein]

I use a long Time Sygate Personal Firewall Pro.
It is the best for me.

Greetz

[Hairbautt]

Yes, Outpost has certainly impressed me.
It's the only one since @Guard that I've installed and immediately thought Yeah!I had AOL McAfee, I just switched to Symantec Corp. Edition V10 for Antivirus and Outpost because I saw your post. :) I gotta tell ya I love my new security setup. Outpost seems to be very hardcore. I also have less memory usage and my computer seems to be faster.:)

(I'm completely gone from AOL now.) :w00t:

[Chewie]

Yes, Outpost has certainly impressed me.
It's the only one since @Guard that I've installed and immediately thought Yeah!I had AOL McAfee, I just switched to Symantec Corp. Edition V10 for Antivirus and Outpost because I saw your post. :) I gotta tell ya I love my new security setup. Outpost seems to be very hardcore. I also have less memory usage and my computer seems to be faster.:)

(I'm completely gone from AOL now.) :w00t:
All you've got to do now is switch to Kaspersky or NOD32 antivirus and you're all done.
:)

[Hairbautt]

I had AOL McAfee, I just switched to Symantec Corp. Edition V10 for Antivirus and Outpost because I saw your post. :) I gotta tell ya I love my new security setup. Outpost seems to be very hardcore. I also have less memory usage and my computer seems to be faster.:)

(I'm completely gone from AOL now.) :w00t:
All you've got to do now is switch to Kaspersky or NOD32 antivirus and you're all done.
:)I've heard mixed feelings on NOD32. Kaspersky? :dry: That just sounds stupid...:happy: Nah, but I've never heard of that one and I just used up some of my ratio on Oink for Symantec :ermm: so I'm a gonna use that for a while. :ph34r: Ninja Stealth Firewall ON! :shifty:
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Off Topic: Man, I'm currently being bombarded with MediaSentry, AdBrite, Inc., Comverse, Inc., and SafeNet, Inc. (billion of them!) IPs. MediaSentry & AdBrite are port 80, and I'm only on this website...Dude:mellow: ...:cry:

[scrambler]

Norton - never had any problems with it really except one day it just kept on getting disabled. So i switched firewalls. Norton, although known for its resource usage [and the zillions proceses u see in taskmanager], it was ok for me.

Zonelaram, i installed it and everything but whnever i tried to connect to the net, i got that blue screen of death. So uninstalled it quickly.

I use outpost now and everytime i do a test, everythings stealthed and passed with flying colors. I have to thank outpost for encouraging me to learn about rules and ports etc [something i never bothered with norton]. I love outpost's logging too and its detail. The inbuilt plugins are great too. So outpost gets my vote :) The only gripe i have with outpost is that it doesnt work well with my tv capture card.

[joker-]

I've tried zone alarm and I didn't like that softaware at all. Someone comes always through and crashes my computer. :( But now i'm using Norton Internet Security 2006 and no problems at all. My recommendation goes to Norton.

[sear]

I have used Blackice and Zonealarm and wasn't happy with either of them and have now moved on to Sygate. the only reservation I have is as it's a discontinued line so to speak is that a worry I mean how long will it still be relevent considering how fast things move in the IT sector? other than that I think Sygate rocks.