Personal Firewall

[-HaVoC-]

Please vote or post here for your favoprite personal firewall and why you like it. I used Blackice for two years and liked it.

I'll post later why, the baby's crying... gotta go...

[Folic_Acid]

You forgot Zonealarm. I like it pretty well.

[Evan]

How about a router with NAT?

[FarginMofo]

Havoc, check out http://www.grc.com. Find your way to the "Leak Test" and read up on BlackIce.

I use router with nat...plus norton personal firewall.

Originally posted by Evan
How about a router with NAT?

That's not a firewall though

I added Zonealarm to the poll and voted for it

[-HaVoC-]

Zone Alarm seemed annoying when I ran it. Always asking if I want to give a specific app access. Do you guys find it annoying?

[residue]

yes, za can get very annoying. it pops up in the background when starting bf on a friend's computer forcing him to reboot the machine and disable it.

[Weasel Meat]

Originally posted by residue
yes, za can get very annoying. it pops up in the background when starting bf on a friend's computer forcing him to reboot the machine and disable it.

Just tell it to always allow access to bf, or any other games or frequently used trusted programs.

[residue]

Originally posted by Weasel Meat
Just tell it to always allow access to bf, or any other games or frequently used trusted programs.

this only happens when i use his machine. he doesn't play bf. sadly, if he did, he'd be a smacker.

I don't use a personal firewall. I use the LAN's.

Provides great protection. Although it blocks p2p . Will get one after I leave this apartment complex.

[jnkcrp]

I've had good luck with zonealarm. Once you go through the initial setup the rest is a breeze.... and even the setup is cake. I was amazed at how many port searches I was getting from china....

[RCglider]

Some firewalls I've used:
1) ZA, ZA Pro- Both really aren't true firewalls in the purest sense. You don't have total control on what's going in and out. ZA is not bad for free though.

2) Tiny/Kerio- Kerio is basically the old Tiny firewall but updated; two separate companies now. You have to know what you're doing; easy to get messed up if not careful. Free version available. Not for beginners. The latest Tiny Pro is very complicated, didn't like it much.

3) AtGuard- Used that, was good in it's day. Norton bought it out and used for the core in their firewall. Personally, I wouldn't use Norton.

4) Outpost- using that currently. Like it a lot. Easy to use, gives total control, yet is user friendly. For novice to advanced users.

There's so many firewalls it can be hard to know which one to get. So far, Outpost has worked very well.

http://www.grc.com doesn't cover all the bases and hasn't been updated in a long time. http://www.pcflank.com is more thorough. http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/prefcan.asp

[RCglider]

Originally posted by jnkcrp
I've had good luck with zonealarm. Once you go through the initial setup the rest is a breeze.... and even the setup is cake. I was amazed at how many port searches I was getting from china....

One major complaint about Zone Alarm is if you choose the auto configure when installing, it allows M$ to call home. If that doesn't bother you, it's fine. I always set it up manually. The other problem is even though you block connections/apps (mainly Windowz), it somehow resets and pops up again.
When I start an application, I want to know what ports are being used, and what is going in/out. What I don't like about ZA is it's either all or none, which is why it's not a true firewall. That's why many don't like it.

[Camel toe joe]

I used to use ZA, bur the way my DSL was set up i didn't feel i needed it because I was behind a router with NAT... which is a big pain in the ass if you can't configure it yourself. Chacal used to teach network security so I'd like to see his input

[Sidekick Floppy]

I have NAT and Norton (got it for free from ISP).