Best free personal firewall?

[Lisa2k]

Lately I have been hearing that Zone Alarm isn't what it used to be. I can remember a time when everyone recommended the Zone Alarm free personal firewall, but now, I mostly hear of others that blow ZA away. Something about one called Kirio *spell?* and Tiny personal firewall? Any opinions? My Blackice will be expriring soon, so I would like to try a new one

[Ridgerunr]

I refused to upgrade my ZA and stuck with version 2.6. Works just fine for me. You can get this version at: http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=zalarm

[brindle26]

I've used zone alarm for years on my 98 os and never had a problem with it, so to date it gets my thumbs up. Am sure there are many good free firewalls available. One that comes to mind that is brought up often is (darn having one of those brain things) Sygate....http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.ht...search=+Go%21+ It's near the bottom of the page........

[Lisa2k]

Thanks guys. I had tried ZA before, and it crashed a few times, BUT I was also running Blackice at the same time, so that could have been the problem. As for Sygate, I have heard good stuff about that firewall also. I guess I will just have to keep trying some, and see which works best for my computer *ie: doesn't take up much space or RAM, stealths all ports etc*

[Fuelm@n]

Here's another firewall that's very good OutpostFirewall .

[MACH2]

YES ZA!! original like rigrunner states.

Important!! if you surf through some place like compuslave, Aol, or any isp with you pay to surf through their proxy Za will cause trouble unless you cut the security setting back quite a bit. Otherwise you will get errors. Also a lot of people choked up on i.e security having set it too high vrs default medium.

Black ice is not a true fire wall. It's more intended for networks and admins for intrusion detection. really a silent alarm that somebodys trying to get in. it doesn't really block the intrusion but fakes them out. on reboot/restart there are no settings and they can get in again.

I dropped bI and got za then pccillin. perfect match! small foot print on resources. Avg is supposed to be much better from reports from here. I had no choice at the time. Innoculate went commercial.

mach

[deltarho]

At the begining of the year I spent quite sometime comparing personal firewalls and got back issues of all the UK magazines which had done tests and went to quite a few security forums.

Sygate was head and shoulders above the rest.

I had tried Agnitum's Outpost Firewall (from a mag cover CD) but dumped it because it was unstable and behaved like the later builds of Zone Alarm.

The link above (brindle26) is a link to the commercial version of Sygate (the one I finally settled for).

The free version is at Sygate at the bottom of the page.

For all of you with firewalls Sygate have a comprehensive scan at their site - it takes a while to complete. The scan page is @ Sygate Scan

PS I should add that my version does not have a small footprint (I've got 384Mb and usually have a fair amout spare) but the free version may be smaller.

[Report_2]

I have been using Tiny since giving up on ZA. Been using it since October 3, 2002 and like it. The only link that I was able to find it on is no longer a freebie. It is a 30 day trial so unless you want to pay; Tiny is out.

I understand that Kerio, Sygate and the others are good though too.

[jenae]

Hi good to see you doing research on this Deltarho, and I agree Sygate (free) for personal home use would be my choice.

[deltarho]

If you cannot afford the Pro version then go for the free version and start putting a few dollars way each week; especially if you have DSL.

Here's the comparison: Free/Pro
and just below that chart is a 'click here' for a detailed comparison.

[PCSolutions]

Zone alarm 3.1.4 is buggy

Attempts to dial the internet wilt dial up on every boot

3.7 addreses this issue

It is by far the best firewall

[Murf]

I've used most of them, was sold on TINY, but about 6 months ago switched to ZA 3.7, and have it installed on all 3 system's networked at home. LOVE IT, will keep it.

I also have a router so a hardware firewall in place.

[deltarho]

"It is by far the best firewall" - very scientific.

"I've used most of them" - that's more like it.

[MACH2]

Thing I prefer about ZA is ease of flexibility and tells you when a program has been modified. I like the ability to deny server status. I suppose sysgates pro version is better, I did try their free version long ago, I suppose that is better now than before, but like anthing else why spend the money if on one pc? And usually freebee's can carry a 3 machine free licence.

Just a firewall.


Who knows.. maybe za and sysgate are partners.

[Enki]

FWIW,

You can get older versions of ZA, and other software, here .