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I am looking for no install firewall.

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f0dder:
Router with NAT + Windows Firewal,l and you're all set... isn't much reason for using anything else, really.

40hz:
Router with NAT + Windows Firewal,l and you're all set... isn't much reason for using anything else, really.
-f0dder (July 17, 2008, 07:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

I agree. A cheap hardware router will block anything you're likely to encounter that wants to come in from the outside. Pair that with a basic inbound firewall and a good anti-malware app and you're pretty much bulletproof.

Just be careful with e-mail attachments and software downloads. If you're careless about them, then might want some outbound protection as well. Online Armour is a good one to try. Less "in your face" than some of the others.
Download from:

http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall-protection-software.html

kartal:
I have a router with a base firewall embedded. I am mainly worried about malicious net activity of the apps I use. I am just looking for an easier software that will show me what is going in in my system.

Carol Haynes:
Probably the answer is not to use dodgy software you can't trust.

At the end of the day the function of a firewall is to stop people getting in. It is nice if Firewall's stop data leaking too but from what I have encountered (and the reviews I have read) very few firewalls actually achieve this ... most seem to fail even simple leaktests even when they say they block unauthorised outbound traffic. The only ones that apparently pass leaktests seem to be very heavy on resources and particularly intrusive in use.

At the end of the day if something nasty gets on your system it is pratically impossible to stop it forcing a connection to the outside world.

I spent so long looking for a firewall that did the works without making it impossible to use the computer that I eventually gave up. Now I use a Netgear NAT router with a hardware firewall and just let Windows Firewall run in XP. If you use Vista the Windows Firewall is supposed to be even better and have some outbound blocking. I haven't been aware of any issues with this setup but I do have a machine that is considerably less bogged down and much zippier and I am not irritated by blizzards of prompt windows that become so annoying that eventually you just end up saying 'yes' to every one just to get your life back!

f0dder:
What carol said :)

Outbound protection is, unfortunately, pretty much a pipe dream - even if it seems like a nice idea. There's just too many ways for malware to catch a free ride to the highway. The only real efficient outbound protection is from a hardware firewall that traffic *has* to flow through (so, basically on a router) - and even that has the problem like not knowing which application the traffic comes from, so it can only block on ports and (if sophisticated) protocol level. But it's possible to smuggle contraband data in a perfectly legitimate looking HTTP request, so...

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