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The Definitive "BEST FIREWALL" thread

Asked by MxxCon,

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The Definitive "BEST FIREWALL"  

881 members have voted

  1. 1. The Definitive "BEST FIREWALL"

    • Black Ice
      23
    • Kerio/Tiny Personal Firewall
      99
    • Norton Firewall
      108
    • McAfee Firewall
      24
    • Zone Alarm (Pro)
      259
    • Sygate Firewall
      113
    • Outpost
      80
    • Any *nix solution
      35
    • Windows XP Built-In
      66
    • Other
      74

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351 answers to this question

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Grand Master

PseudoRandomDragon

Posted
Posted

Took a look at Mcafee and found it to be good, maybe just a small notch below Norton. I wonder why they don't get as much votes? Why has Mcafee declined so much? They were like THE antivirus program on just about every HP computer. Now all their products lost so much popularity. What happened?

  • 0
Grand Master

Evolution

Posted
Posted
How the hell did ZoneAlarm get so many...

:unsure:

because most people go with what's popular and something simple enough that even a non-computer user can figure out :p

BTW the only disadvantage that the sp2 firewall has over zonealarm is that it doesn't do md5 checksums.

  • 0
Rising Star

Sumi

Posted
Posted
it keeps alerting me every day that there are attempts to get into my computer from an unknown ip address. it blocks it everytime.

whether this is true or not, i will never know.

When I used used norton it did the same thing - but with network ip's: 192.168.1.9 is trying to gain access to your computer, attempt blocked... Yea - my mom is trying to access the shared docs folder...

Not that I dislike Norton in any way - remember disable pop-ups....

But now I use ZoneAlarm and ICF - And with disabled pop-ups...

  • 0
Mentor

Jexel

Posted
Posted
When I used used norton it did the same thing - but with network ip's: 192.168.1.9 is trying to gain access to your computer, attempt blocked... Yea - my mom is trying to access the shared docs folder...

Not that I dislike Norton in any way - remember disable pop-ups....

But now I use ZoneAlarm and ICF - And with disabled pop-ups...

Firstly from years of experience never use nis in conjunction with zap as you'll get stuff flying everywhere. I personally suggest zone alarm pro as it is reliable however nis does have a popup blocker which is quite useful. Anways when u first install either firewall i.e. clean install you'll get notifications of a server attempting to portscan u. Nis will block this ip for 30 minutes. This IP is basically ur ISP!!! And after clicking okay in NIS u'll find that u'll have trouble accessing ur internet through ur web browser. The easy way is to unblock the server and add it to ur exceptions list.

Overall Zonealarm is ultra 1337

  • 0
Grand Master

vip

Posted
Posted

Ok, I just read through this thread ... i know it's kind of late, but hey .. what can I say, I'm slow. I'd really like some facts comparing outpost to ZA PRO4 (zapro5 sucks) .. i've heard from other people that the filters ZA Pro installs slows down internet speeds, and p2p apps like Bittorrent.. I'd like to give outpost a try, but going on 'outpost rocks, or outpost is my choice' doesnt really convince a person. Why do the people that use outpost prefer it to anything else?

  • 0
Proficient

Daedalus

Posted
Posted

I prefer Outpost. It has a very easy to use interface and advanced features. It is also very light on system resources. Here is an except from the review over at PC Pro:

If you throw in the reduction in CPU load by more than 50 per cent and memory hogging by 40 per cent over previous versions - thanks to the new logging system - the case for Outpost Pro gets even stronger. Of all the software firewalls we've tested in the last year, Outpost has the least impact upon system resources, despite its ability to handle up to 1Gb/sec of continual traffic and monitor 200 simultaneous connections.

Of course, no software option could claim to be the perfect firewall, but Outpost is the best of its breed and fully deserves its A List placing.

The full review can be found (surprisingly enough) in the 'Reviews' section. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/

Hope this helps.

  • 0
Rookie

Duluoz

Posted
Posted

Hardware firewalls are of course the best setup. However...

I currently use BlackICE. But when Iused to run a chat server that would get SYN flooded and Frag'd to death on a daily basis, I installed everything from BlackICE Server Ed - ZoneAlarm Pro and about 10 others inbetween. I have to admit that 8Signs Firewall was the BEST by far at detecting when a SYN attacks were going to happen, successfully block it, as well as allow me to apply rules to still allow traffic to flow that should be permited. The overhead to the CPU was extreamly low as well. However, the down side is that its not all for the novice user. But when you getting DoS, SYN, and Fragmented File attacks, its in my opinion, the best software defence. For you Win2k users consider editing your regitry to accomidate for SYN attacks as well; it does help.

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