Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Secure, Small Firewall (Read 19285 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #25
Tried only Kerio and Sygate from third party firewalls. I seem to remember hearing good things about Zonealarm, but with my current experience, I just try to stay away from any non-Microsoft-made-or-certified driver apps (and firewalls count as those) when only possible.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #26
I would have used Kerio Personal Firewall ("KPF") v2.1.5 on my WinXP system, however it wouldn't run correctly for some reason, the configuration was always being lost, etc., don't know why, it just wasn't working.

Sygate Personal Firewall ("SPF"), only seems light and stable on Win2000, and WinXP machines in my experience. SPF in the past (circa 2000, 2001) had the tendency to do really weird stuff to Win98 -- in that it would completely f'up the desktop to the point of having to restore the system registry from a backup. However, I have been successfully runing v5.5 Build 2710 on both my Win98 and WinXP systems without any problems, stability issues, or resource eating issues.

One thing about SPF though is, if it blocks a worm, virus, etc., and it gets logged into rawlog.log and your anti-virus detects an infection in rawlog.log, it will cause SPF to crash when the av program tries to either delete rawlog.log, or remove the infection -- usually when that happens the log has to be manually deleted.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #27
Quote
I didn't read the entire thread, but have you tried Zonealarm?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281602"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Not since I discovered it was corrupting my downloads and uploads. Later versions are probably OK but it was a well known problem. Once bitten and all that.
daefeatures.co.uk

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #28
Quote
Quote
I didn't read the entire thread, but have you tried Zonealarm?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281602"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Not since I discovered it was corrupting my downloads and uploads. Later versions are probably OK but it was a well known problem. Once bitten and all that.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281748"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


hmm....I've been running Zonealarm for years and haven't encounted data corruption before.  Do you know which versions were affected?  I'm currently still running version 4.5.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #29
yeah i use Sygate pro 5.5 its good

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #30
When you consider what AV to install you generally take into account 2 things: how many viruses it detects and how fast it is. When you consider what firewall to install you generally should take into account 2 thigs too: how well it protects you and how much resources it takes (of course stability is a must like with anything else). Unfortunately the problem with choosing a firewall is that there are no comparisons which test the how-well-it-protects thing. To compare different AV software you simply feed them with a bunch of viruses and test how they handle it. It's not that easy with firewalls and nobody seems to do such tests, so lets face it - we don't really know which and if any of mentioned here firewalls are secure
IMO it's a hole in the market to fill, I would gladly see some Firewall Bulletin which would be giving Firewall 100% Award to software firewalls every few months.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #31
Quote
To compare different AV software you simply feed them with a bunch of viruses and test how they handle it. It's not that easy with firewalls and nobody seems to do such tests, so lets face it - we don't really know which and if any of mentioned here firewalls are secure
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


[a href="http://www.firewallleaktester.com/]http://www.firewallleaktester.com/[/url]

Features several leak tests against several firewalls.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #32
Great website! Thanks.

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #33
Quote
Quote
Quote
I didn't read the entire thread, but have you tried Zonealarm?
Not since I discovered it was corrupting my downloads and uploads. Later versions are probably OK but it was a well known problem. Once bitten and all that.
hmm....I've been running Zonealarm for years and haven't encounted data corruption before.  Do you know which versions were affected?  I'm currently still running version 4.5.
never had any issues with 3.7 or 4.5 free/pro either.
stay _away_ from the current 5.xx versions though, even the latest version (5.5.062.011) has big stability problems and real ugly interface bugs. at least on my setup.

Quote
Great website! Thanks.
Quote
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/
Features several leak tests against several firewalls.
yeah... see my first post in this thread 
Nothing but a Heartache - Since I found my Baby ;)

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #34
Quote
Quote
Great website! Thanks.
Quote
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/
Features several leak tests against several firewalls.
yeah... see my first post in this thread 
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281940"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Ops...

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #35
This version -the origional TPF 2.0.14/15 is ancient and runs on 486's - no winXP though.
TinyPerson

It hardly uses any resources and in my experience, will not ever crash on any machine.
Add to that 'protowall' and 'blocklist manager'  - its sure enough to keep the worms away.

Its terrible for all the commercial 'personal firewalls' that the best one ever made
was origionaly released for free years ago 
no conscience > no custom

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #36
Quote
Other than that, I've had no stability issues after running it and tweaking it quite a lot for a few days.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281595"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just found a pretty fucking annoying problem. Each time the warning window pops up it jumps to the left, I ended up in the position that it had jumped completely offscreen. Grrr.
I do still like the app though.


Quote
Quote
Quote
Quote
I didn't read the entire thread, but have you tried Zonealarm?
Not since I discovered it was corrupting my downloads and uploads. Later versions are probably OK but it was a well known problem. Once bitten and all that.
hmm....I've been running Zonealarm for years and haven't encounted data corruption before.  Do you know which versions were affected?  I'm currently still running version 4.5.
never had any issues with 3.7 or 4.5 free/pro either.

The problems I had were back with the 2.x series. I remember there was a warning about Zone Alarm corrupting files on certain P2P sites. A friend of mine was having trouble aswell. He blamed the P2P software, I blamed the ISP. He found this warning about Zone Alarm and we both made the switch, our problems were immediately fixed.
daefeatures.co.uk

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #37
Personally I tried kerio, the program blocker (asking permission whenever and unknown exe is launching) is a good feature, sometimes quite annoying!!!


I think it is worth to mention OUTPOST FIREWALL
it's something like foobar and winamp, supports 3rd party plugins
http://www.agnitum.com/

offers both free and pro version...of course the pro (30 days trial) is better
i am using the free one


some features in free version =
ad filter
active content filter for both mail, news, and browser (VB, javascript, activeX, java applets, cookies, referrer, pop up)
attachment filters
attack detector
DNS cache
logs


you did mention about system resource, this is outpost firewall's system resources
at a particular time.

physical memory = 2468 k
page file    = 6596 k

you can look for tones of other firewalls too
http://www.softpedia.com/

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #38
Quote
even if i like kerio, i think it consumes too many resources ... so, any other good firewall, that uses the least posible resources? i don't have to say that it must be secure above all things ...
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=280662"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


kerio pf 2.1.5 (sometimes crashes into BSOD)
kerio pf 4.x.x (the best but slows down the speed of local network)
kerio winroute firewall (not for home PC:) )
wipfw (well, as I heard it is goodbut I'm not ready for it:( )
outpost (if you can say me howto make rules for ports I think it would be a good one)
zonealarm (I don't remember anythng about it... )
windows firewall (LOL then ROFL)
grool!

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #39
Quote
Quote
even if i like kerio, i think it consumes too many resources ... so, any other good firewall, that uses the least posible resources? i don't have to say that it must be secure above all things ...
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


kerio pf 2.1.5 (sometimes crashes into BSOD)

Try tpf 2.0.14/15
[a href="http://www.brothersoft.com/Utilities_Security_Tiny_Personal_Firewall_1865.html]Origional TinyPFw[/url]
no conscience > no custom

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #40
Quote
The problem I have is that some WEB pages don't work sometimes...
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=281053"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Go to Configuration -> Web -> Privacy and uncheck everything. If you're using Firefox, there are extensions which will do the same for you.

 

Secure, Small Firewall

Reply #41
does anybody have any experience with BlackIce?
just wondering. I tried several firewall over the years, and though I'm currently setteld for ZA I'm far from beeing 100% content...
I know BA is more than just a firewall, but still.
Nothing but a Heartache - Since I found my Baby ;)