Best Free Firewall

Best security advice, remove Windows, install Freespire.

Linux base OS with Windows type friendly front end GUI.
Kids were browsing away in minutes, all drivers detected in a 10 minute setup.
Office suite included free (OpenOffice), CNR (click n Run) downloaded all updates required and away we go.

Now malware, trojans and viruses are all but a thing of the past!

I had a real problem with Comodo firewall, and decided to change to Online Armor.
Boy, do I wish I hadnt done it. The FREE version has its "Software Installation" button disabled in the free version, so trying to install a program is a complete pain in the neck. In the case of a photo software package I installed, it stopped me over 40 times, to ask if I trusted the program.
I have had a look to see if I can get around this problem, but it seems that this is Online Armor's way of "encouraging" users to upgrade to their paid product.
Previously, I thought that Comodo was a pest, but Online Armor gets my vote for that now.

Anyone know which uses the least memory?

"Unlike other firewalls which have forgotten their main role, GhostWall is simply a firewall, mainly designed to replace the standard Microsoft firewall with better features and performance."

One of the best firewalls for those who only want an SPI firewall.

http://ghostsecurity.com/ghostwall/

I had zone alarm and it okay. After reading this, I got rid of it and tried NetVeda Safety.Net firewall but found it a dog of a program. So I switched over to Webroot. It is good but I preferred for its user interface zone alarm.

Windows XP firewall works just fine people. You just need to keep up

with it, always check your firewall on a daily basis. Zonealarm is highly regarded by me if you want my opinion, it really works and stealths pc for real.

Just go to this site and check out your pc:

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 (shieldsup)

this will scan the first 1056 ports, and also will scan alot of other security features of your pc. I had it run what it could at my pc, everything from spam me and pinging and you name it , never got a response from my pc not once, like I wasnt there....lol....they replied they threw everything at me they had to throw, they replied very rare do we see a pc security enabled. They also decided to try tricks that hackers would use still no response from my pc.....lol....MY PC IS 11 YEARS OLD!!!!LMAO XP TIPS AND TRICKS

online armor supports windows vista 32bit

I have use Comodo firewall for a while but it blocked Utorrent no matter what I did, including setting up exclusions in Windows Security Advanced options. Eventually, I just set the security settings in Comodo down to very low which kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, Comodo seemed to get messed up at one point so I thought I would try to uninstall/re-install it. I had a terrible time and spent a whole afternoon trying to fix the problem. I could not uninstall it. I first tried using add/remove programs and that removed the entry for Comodo in the add/remove programs windows. However, when I tried re-installing it, I kept getting an error message saying “COMODO Firewall Pro is already installed. Do you want to un-install it now?". I manually removed the Comodo folder from the 'Program Files' folder but this did not solve the problem either. I tried this running under windows safe mode as well but when I re-booted I kept getting notified by Windows Security that Comodo was not operating properly even though I had uninstalled it. Finally, after googling for a while I found this on the Comodo user forum. The link here outlines the the lengthy process that is necessary for uninstalling Comodo. The person who posted the lengthy and tedious procedure states in his post 'My contention is that no software should be this difficult to remove and/or install.' and who would disagree. The instructions for the uninstall are found here: "http://forums.comodo.com/help_for_v3/comprehensive_instructions_for_completely_removing_comodo_firewall_pro_3_info-t17220.0.html". After spending a lot of time messing around with uninstalling Comodo, before I found this post, I am not quite so sure that I want to re-install Comodo. While no one should look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes, I still think that anyone who creates software has an obligation to make sure that the software can be uninstalled safely, easily, and most of all, completely, so that nothing is left behind to cause problems down the road.

I used to use comodo firewall pro 3.0 but when I added multiple users to the computer it didn't seem to like it if multiple users are open simultaneously. When I switched user to another user and back, my taskbar icon had a 'no entry' sort of circle with a line through it over the original icon, otherwise Comodo Firewall was perfect and suited all my need perfectly. I guessed that the icon meant it was not functioning normal, so I uninstalled it and installed Online Armor. I do not like the main menu from the taskbar or the user interface of this firewall software. I am currently browsing for other free affective firewalls.

- Dan

Sunbelt firewall has just informed me that it has turned off some of its features (so much for free). I decided to try Comodo. When I followed the link to its website I was only given the option to download their Internet Security package, which includes antivirus.

I'd already decided to ditch Avira Premium at the end of the trial period (mainly because I was misled into thinking I was getting rather more than a one month trial - see other posts).

So I uninstalled both Sunbelt and Avira and have installed the Comodo package. Question is: is the Comodo antivirus any good? Its not mentioned in the antivirus section of this website.

David

Problem with Comodo - please help

After running some time with AVG and Zonealarm on my (now somewhat aging) pc, I became a bit fed up with the recent bloat on these two tools and decided to try Comodo as my new firewall + antivirus, and then keep an additional antivirus for on-demand scans (e.g. Avira). I'll still keep Spybot as the anti-spyware 'belt' (and as a reg monitor, yay for Teatimer!), and Superantispyware as the 'braces'.

So, like a good boy I uninstalled AVG and Zonealarm, rebooted and installed Comodo. Then the weirdness started. In the form of:

- firewall which does not let anything through, and does not 'learn'
- firewall which reports that it is NOT installed properly and needs a check, so I run the check and it says firewall IS installed properly, but it's still not ...
- virus signature update which does not work (get error 0x8000-blah blah)

So I cry "Crud software!" and uninstall, except:

- both firewall and antivirus STAY BEHIND even after uninstalling (and rebooting), they are reported by Security Centre as the firewall and antivirus currently in operation
- after DELETING Comodo installation folder from Program Files, firewall is gone but antivirus still stays behind

"It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed."

Surely it can't be this bad?! Can anyone shed any light on this? Any help will be most appreciated.

Cheers,

S

I currently have to drop use of Sunbelt FW (after around 4-5 years of use since it still was produced Kerio) as it has great conflicts problems with my new laptop WiFi card.
I used Sunbelt on a Dell Latitude D810 and the Intel 3xxx series WiFi card and it survived perfectly cycles and cycles of hibernation on a Windows XP SP2 (I think I reached around 100 days without a single reboot of my laptop).
Now I'm using a DELL XPS 1530 downgraded to windows XP pro and the intel WiFi Link 4965AGN and Sunbelt generates blue screen.
I liked Sunbelt very much but I can't afford blue screens and reboots.

I used to use PC Tools firewall on one of my computers, but that blocked a few of my programs and stopped them from being able to use the internet even though i told it to allow them, i had to completely disable pc tools firewall just to use the programs, comodo is much better, so if you want a firewall just get comodo

I just read this on a website....

".....It is 'a good thing' to run a firewall while connected to the Internet. Most home 'routers' contain firewalls (which don't usually cause problems) and 'Windows XP Service Pack 2' provides a software firewall (which can be used with a router firewall). And so if you are using a home router (with firewall) and Windows XP SP 2 you don't need a software firewall....."

My question is (actually I have a few) :-
1. I satisfy those requirements so can I happily get rid of Sunbelt Firewall ??
2. Does having a firewall like Sunbelt provide better security than XP SP2 + Router ??
2. Will scrapping a software firewall speed things up ??
3. What are the pros and cons ??

Is this page going to be ever updated?
Advice to wait for a couple of months for comodo is hanging here forever.

I've tried Comodo and didn't like it as too intrusive and seemed to muck up my laptop and don't want anything with too many ads on it like some of the others recommended here. I have been using Windows Vista Home 32bit firewall but recently installed ZoneAlarm free, as recommended to me by someone at work. Have I done the right thing or is windows own firewall better? Would it be worth running the two firewalls both turned on alongside each other (i am doing this at the mo)? or does that result in conflicts that would actually be detrimental to security?

Hello Everybody! I wasn't quite sure what section to post this in considering this(MooO Connection Watcher v1.3) is not a actual firewall but in fact monitors your TCP/UDP IP addresses & will tell you exactly what they are & where they originate from, etc. My brother actually found this at download.com & has tried it & is very pleased. Said it provides info like Sygate logs do! I, being a ex Sygate user am now using Online Armor v2, & although I am very pleased with OA, I wish they would incorperate a extensive logging system like Sygate(with backtrace capatibilities)had as OAs logs can be very confusing to interpet. I & others have written OA regarding this logging matter, so we will see what is in the works. This MooO Connection Watcher is not rated & I'm not sure if it is beta or not, but I was thinking if other people are having issues interpeting their firewall logs then mabie this would be helpfull! I will give it a try & post my findings at a later date & hopefully some others will to. Anyway, just thought I'd pass it along in case anybodys interested. Thanks!

hello,
i used online armor 1 or 2 months, then we made some tests at comodo and i was sure that OA would score great, but after lot of tests, i saw that OA was full of failures that is not tolerable for a firewall. OA updated is FW to fix all the bugs we found. and when i tried comodo, it was clear that i was on the wrong way by thinkin OA was the best product. comodo level of protection is far better than OA. in fact the module DEFENSE+ of comodo is one of the best choice to reduce the risk of running a corrupted system, result of unknow malware or not detected by the AV, wich are more and more totaly useless to protect users. i send undetected malwares very often to kaspersky, it's the solution i choosed as detection. it's true that comodo can be a problem for people that have no time to pass learning how comodo is working or for beginners but i use it for maybe 1 year now and i continue learning about how to config comodo depending of the exploit. this product is really impressive as it's free and it's maybe the best actual solution for prevention, cause what to do when the detection fails? most trust their AV as it says no danger except the engine just failed and they run a malware and they sure to be really protected. that's why prevention is a must have and comodo showed his possibilities, i'm actually testing the new build RC2 but without the AV module, i want the FW and the D+. this firewall works perfectly on xp or vista, and about OA i'm talking of version 2, i got licences, i helped them sometimes then i was not agree with the OA boss so i quit.
i was in comodo testing team, i told them about my participation in OA, they were ok, then when i came back home (comodo), it's kind of team i really appreciate, their work on the FW is a so nice job, moderators, admins are really cool, i like to go there, i post sometimes big stories that nobody cares at all but they respect users, always tryin to minimize tensions, even if someone post comodo is a piece of crap ! they ask about the prob, there's no dictature, it's really a nice democratic forum. and i'm proud to support this team and their product cause it really deserve it, i don't know a security freeware that can do better than most sharewares.
i didnt test pc tools FW, so i cant talk about it but for OA, this FW had no flood protection so i decided to start a huge flood over the product and the result was what i imagined, OA crashed in seconds, wasnt able to work with a so huge trafic it faced, now about OA 3, i don't know if it's now fully compatible with vista and if they decided to add a full flood detection and protection, i hope they finally decided to add window buttons to minimize, maximize or close the FW. the new comodo that will come final soon is said less hard for beginners that needed to reply sometimes a lot of alerts.
but for me i don't understand the prob cause if u sure about the app, u set a specific rule one time and it's done. the FW got all options to help u take full control of your trafic and the defense+ is able to protect u from unknow malwares by sending all alert activities the file would try to do and access the memory, so depending of the alerts, u can see if the file wants to do bad things or not and u can kick it if u suspect any bad activity.
there are many options to take full control of your system, and if u reply bad, it can sometimes block your OS to work fine, but if u reply about things u don't understand and block important files, is it a comodo bug ?
now there are certainly very good products but i found in comodo what i needed.
the matousec site was not updated cause people at comodo decided to stop ordering tests as we were not agree with results, and we can test too all products. i'll certainly start again new tests when new comodo will come. and as i know OA, it will be time to see what improvments offer both products.
i think last final comodo must score as good as OA and outpost that are not very far from old build tested on matousec. coders fixed tests that failed (possible not all, no one is perfect) and anyone can join testing team, our tests are completly impartial, and if comodo fails somewhere i will not hide the info cause it would put users in possible danger and our objective is to give full infos to users as the most important is to keep users safe from any bugs of any product to protect them the best we can.
new tests are coming, but we need people to help, it's better to have just not 1 personn testing a product, that way we can compare results, and if we agree then we can post results with less errors we can.
anyway, there's a product for each case, it's not cause i'm a total comodo user that i'm right when i say it's the best product available, it's just my opinion. but on vista i can tell that comodo is really working great.
it's not the case for all products.