Firewall recommendation

[mhl]

I have been a user of Comodo Personal Firewall for some time - v2.4 under Win2K, then v3.x under WinXP. I liked 2.4 a lot but it no longer cuts the mustard. Although v3.5 is one of the top-rated firewalls (see Matousec), I find it a bit obtrusive - too many pop-ups. So I tried the latest free version of Online Armor - also reviewed at the above Matousec link - and I am most impressed. There is also a straight comparison of Comodo vs Online Armor here. Online Armor is produced by http://www.tallemu.com/ - a company with which I have absolutely no connection.

Just wanted to alert others here to what looks like a very good product. Comodo has been mentioned and recommended here, but I have not seen any reference to OA previously.

[Train]

My old Sygate paid for version still does the trick.
Updating for the sake of trying to sell firewalls, is nuts in my book!

If you use a router between your modem and pc, you will notice a drastic, but pleasant, drop in the firewall alerts.

Might want to check, as I have been finding more and more modems have built in routers and or firewalls.

[mhl]

Train

I already use a router which has NAT/SPI, so I'm not troubled by internet alerts. Comodo v3.5 can produce a string of pop-ups when trying to install a new app, even when set to "Installation" mode, or it forgets which apps are trusted.

[fink]

Some of the users in the comments on that blog say it doesn't work with Vista.

I do agree with excessive popups from Comodo but I find that using installation mode helps that a lot. I just wish there was a quicker way of setting that.

[mhl]

Some of the users in the comments on that blog say it doesn't work with Vista.

That blog is a few months old. I understand that the latest version of OA works with Vista 32-bit.

[Broni]

At their page, it says, it works with Vista.
I use it on my XP computer.

[HAN]

For several years, I ran free ZoneAlarm, moved to free Sygate and then back to free ZoneAlarm. I never had any issues. But I wanted better protection than just a firewall. After trying 2 behavior analyzers (ThreatFire and Mamutu), I now run Comodo's Firewall v3.5. I'm convinced that Defense + HIPS does make my PC safer.

As for the pop-ups, I switched D + over to Clean PC Mode. The number of pop-ups dropped to almost zero. Also, when I'm installing apps I know are safe, I just disable D +. Installation mode does a similar thing but as mhl notes, it sometimes doesn't see things clearly.

At this stage, I don't see switching to anything else.

(FWIW, I tried Online Armor free a few months ago. I had a few blue screen crashes, along with it forgetting my setting choices every once in a while. I quickly decided it wasn't for me...)

[Broni]

I use Comodo on Vista, and it's definitely very good protection.
I have Defence in Clean PC Mode, as well, and it really doesn't bother me to click couple of time, while using Installation Mode.
I remember, that ver. 2 had problems with remembering settings, but I'm not experiencing these problems with 3.0, or 3.5.
You have to remember though, that if you, for instance, install FF update, it'll treat it as new program, and it'll ask you same questions again. In this case, I'd say, better safe, than sorry.