Best Firewall?

S

Spider

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The ultimate and neverlasting question for internet security asked by many a system's administrator or just the plain ol' paranoid!
Which is the best Firewall right now in the market?
Common options include
1) Zonealarm/Pro
2) Tiny Personal Firewall/Kerio Personal Firewall
3) Sygate Personal Firewall
4) BlackICE Defender
and so on.
 
If you are using broadband I recomend hardware routers/firewalls. If using dialup i find XP's internal firewall adequate.

JJB6486
 
either get yourself a hardware based firewall or if you have an old PC lying around you can use Cyote Linux. All you need is a 486 or faster with a couple of nics and a floppy drive. If you can not do either of theses then Tiny Firewall or ZoneAlarm.
 
Zone Alarm Pro 3.0 works wonders for me, and I would recommend it to any home user. Sygate Pro 5.0 is more industrial in strength, and like Zone Alarm, checks outgoing as well, but go's a lot further with the ability to keep checks on system files, partition / drive sizes / integrity and is extremely configurable.
 
Haven't used any of these. I use Norton Internet Security. But, I would like to see what you guys think of these others.
 
i would say zonealarm, BUT

i mean, its awesome - when its working. i can't figure out what's the deal with pro 3.0.

i can sometimes hit my ftp and sometimes can't (take off zonealarm, right after i can't hit and it works)

i initially had remote desktop connection working and now its absolutely not.

i read the manual, the [pathetic] faq, i've searched on google, can't figure this out.

last night it asked to authorize Serv-u (my ftp server again), even though it was previously authorized. i have since messed with every setting i can find, ports, etc... the problem is definately zone alarm, as soon as I stop it, I can do anything.

if i connect with remote desktop first, then start zonealarm, i get kicked off.

other then these 2 issues, i love the program, but its driving me CRAZY!


edit: not to crosspost, but i'm going to post this in the forum too, it's relevant in both places and maybe i can get an answer.
 
I have a friend who works as a network admin and we were so bored last night we decided to stress test all of the Firewalls in this poll, and as far as we can figure out, they are all as good as one another. All of them withstood the attacks, and were fairly bright in what they allowed to access the net.
I would personally recommend ZoneAlarm, if only for the fact that every bugger seems to use it :), ergo, any problems you have someone else is likely to have it.
 
A linux based firewall would be the altimate "software" firewall...

Besides that Zonealarm always worked,,, but AtGuard is still probalby my favorite...
 
Yea, AtGuard is great. Advanced rule creation all in a small simple package. Damn Norton for taking this small, simple firewall, adding a bunch of crappy features, and calling it Norton Personal Firewall.

AtGuard for life!!!!!!!!!!

JJB6486
 
as far as attacks to your computor, no problem, any firewall will be ok,...the internal firewall in xp is excellant, but as far as letting buggers out, that's the question, and most have leaks, I know tiny and za are fine, avoid black ice like you would avoid kazaa (had to slip that in, as they're most ofthe buggers trying to get out), ...go to gibsons site, and read
 
AtGuard, Sphinx, Outpost. Outpost is still new but looks promising. Its like AtGuard by it can handle plug ins, it has the custom rule creation and stuff. Sphinx works but its really hard to customize things. It has a custom rule creator but I could never figure it out.
 
I'm behind my router and I also use free ZoneAlarm. :)
ZoneAlarm alone will pass all the test that I have found.
 
go to gibsons site, and read [/B]

Gibson is an unqualified idiot who is a blatant liar and has NO BUSINESS telling ANYONE about firewalls.

His Spinrite utility is BS and makes claims that are easily proven lies. His "nano probe" technology is another lie when all it is, is a 10 port scan that isn't even accurate at time (and remember it only scans 10 ports out of 65536 and that doesn't include the 65536 UDP ports) And now he claims to have invented a broken packet..um yeah, he also claimed that windowsXP would bring about the end of the internet because he has no idea how a raw socket works

before you EVER listen to Steve Gibson goto

www.grcsucks.com

Sorry about the rant...but I absolutely hate people like gibson who go on about stuff they have no understanding of and actually get recognition for lies!!!!
 
have to agree on most of your post about gibson, I do want people to read, most of his paranoia has foundation....he did invent/concieve of the adaware program, so....
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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