which firewall?

BlackIce was the dogs danglies a few years ago (5+) , TBH they have been living on their reputation for the last few, and there are/were security issues with it, which may have been sorted by now ? Do a net search on it , you'll so find out if its been sorted or not.

ZoneAlarm is ok for a first firewall, easy to setup etc But it has too many issues , crashing , conflicting with software etc. I haven't used it personally for years, but had it setup (and kept updated) on the old mans comp until last march, TBH its just a pain in the arse.

Sygate didn't have a free version when I was looking a few years back so never tried it, but from what I've heard, security wise it seems ok, no idea on ease of use though.

I use Kerio Personal firewall (was called Tiny PF), small and rock solid (even on low spec K6-2 450), its not really hard to setup but its rule based so you will need to have some idea of ports and protocols etc One thing I like about it, is it allows you to bring up a window to see what software is connected to which IP's and on what ports etc in real time, lets me keep an eye on whats going on. Handy for paranoid feckers

Norton, wouldnt have any of that stuff anywhere near my comp, tends to be bloated, too many bell n' whistles for the job, which always feck up. A lot of the time when people have constant problems, seems norton is never far away. Just a personal opinion.

I havent looked into windows firewalls for a few years now, but the same names I looked into, cropped up in this thread , so I thought I'd post. Best thing to do to get an up todate idea, is a net search on the programs people have mentioned and see what's said security wise. Even though I still use Kerio, because it was the best I found at the time, it could well be the leakiest piece of crud out here these days, even though I've never had a single problem with it in the last 5 odd years.

<crusade mode on>
Even though people may be using a FW and AV , its still far far to easy to get compromised when using IE and Lookout Express (learned through bitter experience) , if you were serious enough about security to get a firewall, then take the next logical step and dump that M$oft crud
<crusade mode off>

 

I have zone labs zonealarm full version, if you want it contact me on MSN or drop me a PM!

(this is a long the lines of me offering adaware pro free)

also new XP SP2 includes a firewall which is pretty darn good i have to say!