Good free firewall (not ZoneAlarm)

Hi.

What's a good free Windows XP software firewall that's not ZoneAlarm?

Windows XP firewall, if you're not so picky about outgoing traffic.

I think sygate personal firewall might be on some shareware sites, thats a good choice, although its not developed anymore since Symantec bought Sygate.

thanks. I'd like something that monitors outgoing traffic, and that still gets updates.

Is http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm my best bet?

The only other free one I have heard of is 'Comodo Personal Firewall 2.0'.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Here is a review of it:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1969225,00.asp


More free ones mentioned here:

http://infrastructure.webbuyersguide.com/reviews/4001-wbginfrastructure_reviews.html

Thanks puki, Comodo looks good.

What's wrong with ZoneAlarm, Peter? Just wondering.

We heard you the first time. :o>

For starters it's not free, nor is it particularly good. Last I used it, it started silently blocking websites I visited regularly (like userfriendly.org).

Anyway these days I mostly use XP's built-in firewall. It isn't particularly good either (in the sense that software can silently add itself to the list of software not to block), but I only need it until Feburary.

ZoneAlarm is indeed free, things like ZoneAlarm Pro isn't.

ALL FREE: with reviews and screenshots::
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/security/fwfirewall.html
:)

@big10p : Zonealarm ( Free version ) has stopped working on two seperate computers with the last update. It installs and the "truevector" service is running, but the GUI part wont launch.

@Rook : Thanks I'll take a look, but besides Zonealarm, I don't think they are mainstream enough for me.

Right now I'm on Kerio, but I'll try out Comodo next.

Yeah ZoneAlarm does seem a bit shonky - especially on win98SE. It regularly screws up my net connection and/or causes a BSOD, requiring a re-boot. The only reason I'm still using it is for the up/download indicator in the systray. :P

I keep zipping back and forth between Kerio Personal Firewall and ZA...

@Peter: Though, just as a thought, maybe mainstream has been more examined for "holes" so off the beaten path???
:)

>> especially on win98SE. <<

Since M$ has published the latest vulnerabilities, you can't go anywhere with win9x anymore. This happens below the level a WinApp could prevent it, as far as I know. This doesn0t neccessarily mean with XP you're save :/

Personally I use a small linux distribution as a web terminal on a seperate Notebook. No windows has direct web access any longer.

Hey there, I recommend sygate personal firewall, it keeps it simple as basic. I use to use zonealarm (Untill it got anoying ).

A small caution here:

I was asking myself this same thing last week, and I found my way to Comodo as part of that.

While there I was attracted to their anti virus package and felt a trial might be in order on my laptop. Well I installed it and it updated and all sorts of wonderful things that looked ike it was going to be really quite good.

Then it settled down and I noted that it was not being noticed by Windows as being a virus checker. So I went and read their forums and sure ehough they expect that to be sorted out during this present July that we are all currently experiencing.

OK, I thought, I may as well uninstall it, keep looking at others and then revisit once this has been fixed as advertised and see how I like it then.

That's when it started really, to cut a long one short, this is almost as hard to get rid of as Norton.

Since finally getting rid of it, I've not felt the urge to try their firewall oddly enough. ;O) (It was this "" much from a reinstall of windows to loose this thing! The windows was a fresh install, virgin copy of XP with SP2, 100% legit, so having this sort of trouble with an uninstall was fully inexcusable)

It also more clearly focussed my thoughts on the whole firewall thing, what I really want is a firewall that does outgoing only. I mean I got the windows one for incoming, why reinvent the wheel? A really smart author would come up with the outgoing half that's missing about now, and probably clean up for their trouble. If anyone spots that smart author, please pass the URL as I'd rather like to support their plainly clear thinking on all this.

Kerio is my recommendation. It is THE firewall that least screwed up my net connection. Never tried Comodo though.

Windows XP firewall is the only firewall I have encountered that actually works properly.

ZoneAlarm has been a piece of poo since v5 and up. The new core has been known to BSOD or crash/hang many computers - ZoneLabs official response? ZoneAlarm does not support an 'always on' (ie broadband of any sort) interent connection AND P2P programs. Which translates to their code base not being able to handle many simultaneous connections. Since they have known about the issue for practically ever and have done nothing about it, that tells me their code is either too ugly to work with, is so rediculously flawed it requires a major rewrite, or their programmers just aren't talented enough. Either way, they probably shouldn't be trusted with something as low level as firewall/antivirus stuff...

I still recommend v4 for anyone running Win2000 or older.

I would highly recommend Sygate Personal Firewall, but some git of a company bought Sygate and it's no longer available.

I'm sure if you google about you'll be able to find a download somewhere.

Does anyone uses a firewall on osx?

I don't use P2P but still get regular BSODs with ZoneAlarm. :/

I could host the sygate install file if you guys want it, its what im running right now.