Definitive Best Firewall 2009

[Barney T. Administrators]

An updated "Best Firewall" poll for 2009. Please use this as a reference when researching Firewall utilities. As time goes on, the poll can be updated to add further options.

Happy Voting!

[toasale]

Symantec Endpoint Protection's firewall

[fix-this!]

hands down comodo.

[Mostly Corporial]

Windows Vista Built-In Firewall and hardware NAT.

[cork1958]

Kerio Personal Firewall, the old version. Not SUNBELT's version.

Simple, still effective, uses virtually no resources. I like that!

NAT router also included.

[Kevin.]

Hardware Firewall + Comodo for me. Comodo is very good at catching everything and hasn't failed me once so far.

[The_Observer]

My favorite Sygate isn't on the list and I know it was put into the mothballs several years ago by Symantec/Norton, but I loved Sygate and I had tried all of the firewalls and I felt Sygate was above the rest. Its really a shame Symantec didn't try and freshen up Symantec, put a new paint job on it and get it back out there. I think it had a pretty loyal following and still is being used.

+1 i loved it before symantec bought it, it was simple but very great at catching anything that wanted access!

[Syonisus]

Online Armor for me.

[toasale]

Online Armor for me.

DITTO OA

[persona non grata]

Interesting to get viewpoints from people who have subjective experience with one or a few of these products, but I can't see how that makes, "Definitive Best Firewall 2009". That's really stretching the truth.

I was expecting some kind of objective comparative testing results.

Polls are interesting for gauging opinions, but they say nothing about the basis of those opinions. Polls are not useful for objectively comparing or determining the relative efficacy of products such as these, where each participant in the poll does not necessarily have access to all the data about all the firewalls.

[HipHopaholic]

With Comodo, what does it mean when it states

The firewall has blocked ____ intrusion(s) so far.

[Astrophizz]

It means it has blocked that many connections to your computer that it believes were bad. I'm not sure how to phrase it better than exactly what it says in the app.

[Harlem39s Finest]

COMODO

[kikaha]

My favorite was Net Limiter but it has compatibility problems with 7 so I've been evaluating Fort Knox Personal Firewall. I've used it before afew times and it's pretty good except that it can be a tiny bit paranoid sometimes.

[starburst1980]

Where is iptables?

[Tai]

After the latest version of ZA Pro started acting up I moved to Comodo and it seems to be a vast improvement on when I tried it a few months ago - not nearly as many pop ups and doesn't tax my machine as much as ZA Pro did.

Anyone recommend a good leak tester (or suite of leak tools) to test it ?

[0--JLowzrif]

Take a look here

[DigitalSnow]

Jetico v1 - Because it is light, simple, clear, powerful, and free. (though I do not know if Jetico even offers it for download anymore.)

If I were to buy one it would definitely be Jetico v2.

Thanks for the link 0--JLowzrif, it is very interesting to see their reports.

[chevyordeath]

Windows firewall + Router NAT. Really can't beat that combo.

[Premgenius]

Recently moved onto ESET Smart Security and is brilliant

[NeHoMaR]

I have many years without firewall at all, even the Windows one is disabled. I used firewalls in the past, but I think very different now, the only priority for me is a good and up-to-date anti-virus; I think you don't need a firewall in a updated (Windows update) computer, plus being clean of virus.

[Orien]

Router firewall.

[way2quik]

Bought KIS for cheap.

Using both firewall and av.

firewall does not seem to be too obtrusive compared to Comodo and such.

Well done Kaspersky.

[Tarzan]

Privatefirewall is now freware http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html site is a joke, GUI is a joke - and firewall very good :) Those who believe in ghosts and making up for poor prevention/computing check it out at Matousec "Very good" 88%. Note that process monitor do not work under 64bit. Take product tour but get over looks, really is nice. Seems to eat about 20mb as private working set. Actually, Online Armor is my clear favorite but no 64bit. Free Outpost feels a bit heavy if not buggy. Zonealarm annoying as always. PC tools even more.

No need for firewall? May be so but when I used tons of illegal software I often found a need to control programs outgoing calls. I thought that was reason no. 1 for a "better" firewall, no villains left? Degree of paranoia were proportional with amount out of incomings and sad attempts to crack properly :) Sometimes still control freak so might hang on to Privatefirewall. If OA worked on 64bit Im pretty sure I would use it.

[Kronir]

Other than my router's built-in firewall, I've been using Comodo for quite a while (with it's anti-virus disabled since I use Avast for that).

[Revolver]

Online Armor