Thread: The best free firewall

I had been using Sygate Personal Firewall Pro for about 4 years, until recently I noted an application freely accessing the internet while I had blocked it in Sygate. I knew it was time to change since the firewall had not been updated ever since Sygate was acquired by Symantec in 2004. I first checked out Outpost Firewall Free but found it to be buggy with Avira installed and the alerts were confusing. I quickly moved on to Online Armor Free Edition. And I was pleasantly surprised.

The free edition of Online Armor has two components which are enabled, and which I suppose are the only ones necessary. The first component is the ‘Program Guard’ and the second is the firewall itself.
The ‘Program Guard’ is a HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System) component. HIPS works by confirming with the user, any actions that a program takes on their system, taking the controls from the software to the user, thereby preventing harmful actions by viruses or spyware. There are many HIPS available, some free like Comodo, but I found them very obtrusive and confusing. But the ‘Program Guard’ in Online Armor is the most unobtrusive of all. It works on a whitelist, containing a lot of genuine applications for which the user would never have a popup for. The user would not even know that the guard is active until an unknown software runs on the computer.

The firewall is great for the novice as well as the experienced user. It offers options for configuring advanced rules for each application installed on the computer as well as offers real time network monitoring, displaying applications which currently have connections to the internet, and offering to terminate individual connections with the click of the mouse. It has an option to automatically grant internet access to trusted applications sparing the user from many popups asking whether a process should access the internet or not. The memory footprint of the firewall and program guard comes to around 30mb, nothing compared to the level of security it offers.

The pro version of the firewall has secured the top position in tests carried out by third party testing facilities. The free version comes in at fourth place. The results can be seen on this page: Results and comments - www.matousec.com

well i believe the BEST firewall to use is ZONE- ALARM. Apart from a firewall the best anti spyware is SUPER Antispyware. i have been using both of then for past 3 yrs. and my windows havent even crashed once.

Originally Posted by India Broadband Forum

...moved on to Online Armor Free Edition...
There are many HIPS available, some free like Comodo, but I found them very obtrusive and confusing. But the ‘Program Guard’ in Online Armor is the most unobtrusive of all. It works on a whitelist, containing a lot of genuine applications for which the user would never have a popup for. The user would not even know that the guard is active until an unknown software runs on the computer.

The pro version of the firewall has secured the top position in tests carried out by third party testing facilities. The free version comes in at fourth place. The results can be seen on this page: Results and comments - www.matousec.com

I got a free one year subscription of online armor full, installed it and returned to Comodo in a day. I find Comodo the best - btw, Comodo is better than free online armor in the same quoted report.

Last, you can choose a low-popup configuration for Comodo if you like.

After i installed Comodo, my computer became unstable. :sad:
its the most horrible thing and most of it. It never updates :32:

I am using Comodo.I dont have any problem except that is asks permission for anything and everything that any application wants to do.

Originally Posted by speedy

I am using Comodo.I dont have any problem except that is asks permission for anything and everything that any application wants to do.

so what kind of a smart firewall is it??

You can change the settings if you don't want it do so.Just put the application you use everyday in trusted application zone.
No-more irritating notifications
But by using this I came to know about many applications trying to connect to internet without my permission and blocked them
And you should remember that it is for free so those features are good enough.

Use your own firewalls.

"Your own " means the windows firewall or something else
I didn't get you

Originally Posted by Luke Skywalker

Use your own firewalls.

you mean using my own firewall settings??

Originally Posted by Luke Skywalker

Use your own firewalls.

you mean I can actually create my very own firewall?

^^yes he meant.. but i still cannot figure out or in what his this statement actually meant...

i hope i am alive till he responds. .hey luke we are here for something.. clarify..

Originally Posted by panchabhut

you mean I can actually create my very own firewall?

Yes using iptables.

^^ gr8 thanks for this info Luke..

Originally Posted by Luke Skywalker

Yes using iptables.

can you please elaborate on that. May be a new thread.

O.K. Will do morrow it will be a long thread. Until use this it is workable:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IptablesHowTo

If you are an ubuntu user.

AS I will be going to sleep & have don't much time.

I use Zone alarm. Quite happy with it.

But the free version of Zone Alarms has a very limited number of features.

I don't have any knowledge of windows firewall. Can you post the image of how you set using that? A firewall should be easy to customize.

Originally Posted by speedy

But the free version of Zone Alarms has a very limited number of features.

I can identify and block the programs which access internet. My need is limited to this. It also serves the basic function by protecting the system. Please point out any specific function which will require our attention.

@ Luke

Will post the screen shot tomorrow.

It doesn't have OSfirewall which monitors suspicious activity of applications.And the firewall is also a basic one and allows trusted applications in its list(created by zonelabs) to connect to net.My PC connected to Microsoft server without my notice(my bad I enabled automatic updates but it should have at least informed me ).

That happens if you enable auto learn feature. Instead of using the zone alarm alarm suit first and then shift to basic firewall version, take only firewall version. It will ask permission for each and every connection.

The best free firewall is not being connected at all!

Firewalls you might not need but your computer will need communication indirectly & can be compromised.

comodo WITH DEFENCE+