Best free firewall for Windows?

[40hz]

You are wrong Mrs. If you turn down sensitivity level a tad you will see and get over it. Regardless, this thread is about firewall not your concerns for other members well being.

-Bamse (October 30, 2009, 08:39 PM)

@Bamse: Actually, it's a very legitimate concern.

And comments like your previous one don't go over too well here.

Perhaps after you've been here a little longer you'll start to show a bit more courtesy towards your fellow members; and hopefully develop a better appreciation for the social norms at Donation Coder?

Just a thought.  

[Innuendo]

And comments like your previous one don't go over too well here.

Perhaps after you've been here a little longer you'll start to show a bit more courtesy towards your fellow members; and hopefully develop a better appreciation for the social norms at Donation Coder?

-40hz (November 09, 2009, 06:27 PM)

I'm hoping that as it appears that Bamse is not a native English speaker he doesn't mean the brash way some of his remarks are coming off.

[Darwin]

And comments like your previous one don't go over too well here.

Perhaps after you've been here a little longer you'll start to show a bit more courtesy towards your fellow members; and hopefully develop a better appreciation for the social norms at Donation Coder?

-40hz (November 09, 2009, 06:27 PM)

I'm hoping that as it appears that Bamse is not a native English speaker he doesn't mean the brash way some of his remarks are coming off.

-Innuendo (November 10, 2009, 12:25 PM)

I was going to post in a similar vein (as did 40hz), but chose to take it as Innuendo has done - I hope he and I are right!

@Bamse - your tone does come off as confrontational and intolerant of others' views...

[tomos]

I guess I was guaranteed to get the reaction I did (by calling his post 'bitchy') = I not perfect either (that was a land :p)

[tomos]

FWIW I'm really liking Online Armor's new pricing structure with $19.95 for a single user license for OA Premium.

-sajman99 (November 09, 2009, 12:38 PM)

getting back on topic - anyone know does that work well with AntiVir (Avira) (full version)

edit/ found this via search

[...] my normal defense system of Avira and Online Armor is generally strong [...]

-Steven Avery (June 08, 2009, 10:27 PM)

[IainB]

Thought this might be of use to someone:
I don't know much about firewalls, having only used BlackICE for a couple of years and later, ZoneAlarm - which latter I still use. However, I took a look at some of the reviews for the free Privatefirewall that @Bamse had linked to, wondering why no-one had mentioned it (as he had - in 2 separate threads on this forum, one where he mentioned that HIPS didn't work on it).
Came across this at:
http://fileforum.bet...irewall/1059097279/1

Reviews of Privatefirewall
  Rating 4 out of 5 stars
  by CyberDoc999
      Reviewing 7.0 (Oct 15, 2009)
      Firewall Works great......
      and it is free !
      the HIPS (Host-based Intrusion Prevention System)
      is Lame.....
      I tested it on 5 differents programs and it blocked none of them....
      HIPS that worked would make this a killer app

Has anyone else on this forum tried Privatefirewall out? If you just wanted a firewall and no HIPS, then presumably this could be quite a useful firewall proggy.

[sajman99]

FWIW I'm really liking Online Armor's new pricing structure with $19.95 for a single user license for OA Premium.

-sajman99 (November 09, 2009, 12:38 PM)

getting back on topic - anyone know does that work well with AntiVir (Avira) (full version)

edit/ found this via search

[...] my normal defense system of Avira and Online Armor is generally strong [...]

-Steven Avery (June 08, 2009, 10:27 PM)

-tomos (November 10, 2009, 12:55 PM)

Yep, I've never had any issues running Online Armor with its Program Guard enabled (ie. classical HIPS) along with Avira AntiVir. Just don't go overboard with security and try to add something like Threatfire into the mix-- that would likely be asking for trouble.

[tomos]

thanks sajman

[...]
http://fileforum.bet...irewall/1059097279/1

Reviews of Privatefirewall
  Rating 4 out of 5 stars
  by CyberDoc999
      Reviewing 7.0 (Oct 15, 2009)
      Firewall Works great......
      and it is free !
      the HIPS (Host-based Intrusion Prevention System)
      is Lame.....
      I tested it on 5 differents programs and it blocked none of them....
      HIPS that worked would make this a killer app

Has anyone else on this forum tried Privatefirewall out? If you just wanted a firewall and no HIPS, then presumably this could be quite a useful firewall proggy.

-IainB (November 10, 2009, 01:26 PM)

this one is also free for commercial use (havent tried it)

[Armando]

I tried to find a thread where to post my latest results with Online Armor. Seems like this one is a good one even if a tad old (!!). Online Armor was mentioned a few times here.

I've been using Online Armor for more than 2 years and it's been working fine. However since I renewed my license a few months (4-5) ago and upgraded to the latest version, I started having problems. But these were intermitent : sometimes when coming back from standby, 1- Everything was slow and most apps were inaccessible, 2- windows was giving me some privilege warning (i.e. : Couldn't access that file because I didn't have the rights, etc.), 3- I could not access the task manager. There was no way out of that an I always had to do a cold reboot. That happened almost once a week.

I didn't thought it was OA as I never had problems before. But 2 weeks ago I decided to try removing OA and replace it with something else -- I installed the new Comodo.

Well, guess what... 2 weeks without a single problem. So I guess I spent money for nothing + i lost incredible amounts of time.

I don't event feel like trying to get OA to work again as I already spent so much time diagnosing my machine... And Comodo is free.

This kind of situation happened so often to me in the past (not just with firewalls...) that I sometimes wonder why I bother spending money on those things.

Maybe somebody else experienced similar problems with the newish OA versions ?

[Curt]

I am almost thrilled by the timing... Just today I got fed up with OA++ and went back to Outpost Security Suite. And now everything is going faster!

[Gwen7]

i've been generally happy with comodo's offering provided all you use it for is the firewall.

the rest of the "internet security" features comodo bundles in cause more headaches than they're worth imho.

however, if you're sitting behind a hardware home router with basic security features there's also good argument that the built-in firewall that comes with Windows is more than adequate.

[CodeTRUCKER]

...
however, if you're sitting behind a hardware home router with basic security features there's also good argument that the built-in firewall that comes with Windows is more than adequate.

-Gwen7 (September 02, 2010, 08:07 PM)

It still is an experiment, but this is what I have lived with for months, but then again I never open any attachment that I do not recognize the sender.  Even if the sender is known (it can be counterfeited) the subject and body must reflect the contact's writing style and habits.  

Oh yeah, I don't go just "surfin'" and download anything I find.

I'll be sure and post back if I get burned. 

[Armando]

I am almost thrilled by the timing... Just today I got fed up with OA++ and went back to Outpost Security Suite. And now everything is going faster!

-Curt (September 02, 2010, 04:56 PM)

So I'm not the only one. I wonder what they did because, really, it worked perfectly for at least 2 years. This really annoys me.

i've been generally happy with comodo's offering provided all you use it for is the firewall.

the rest of the "internet security" features comodo bundles in cause more headaches than they're worth imho.

however, if you're sitting behind a hardware home router with basic security features there's also good argument that the built-in firewall that comes with Windows is more than adequate.

-Gwen7 (September 02, 2010, 08:07 PM)

I'm only interested in the firewall. I still have my license for NOD32 but it's finishing soon and so I'm already experimenting with Microsoft Security Essentials. Really, I like what I see. And the idea that I won't spend a single $ for security is pretty interesting -- especially considering my last experiences.

I use a laptop and so I can't rely only on my router's firewall. Plus, even if many here believe HIPS is stupid useless garbage, I actually find it useful. Just about a month ago, I was sleepy and downloaded some version of clipmagic... I think... Well not sure actually, but I think it was clipmagic or some other free clipboard extendered to try.  Yes, the website seemed funny... But I was sleepy.

Anyway : I installed what I downloaded and the installer started to install a few malware, and these malware instantly started phoning home... And Online Armor instantly blocked  all of these apps. I know they were all blocked as I compared OA's reports with the new *.exe and other files that were installed in the last few minutes.

So here you go. HIPS can be useful (for me at least, maybe not for the other superhumans here) when, once in a while I act stupidly. I'm generally careful, but when I lack sleep, I sometimes do stupid things... 

[CodeTRUCKER]

...
So here you go. HIPS can be useful (for me at least, maybe not for the other superhumans here) when, once in a while I act stupidly. I'm generally careful, but when I lack sleep, I sometimes do stupid things... 

-Armando (September 02, 2010, 10:55 PM)

Oops!  I'm not superhuman or immune from "stupid."  Maybe I should reconsider.