# Any good free firewall program for beginners?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 23, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171 "2007-01-23T23:16:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171/1 "2007-01-23T23:16:22Z")

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Just as the title says. Most beginners don’t know what it means when they get this popup from their firewall program:

> [@](#):
>
> troj-win-b32 is requesting access to the internet, so some bad person can use your computer remotely to get your passwords and bank account info\*

And they usually learn to click always allow to anything so they can continue to serf the net without problems.

- OK a bit of a exaggeration, but beginners do seem to learn just to click always allow after being locked out of the internet with a few wrong block clicks.

This leaves the firewall pretty much useless for them, as such I have given up on installing any firewall for them and just having them use the XP firewall.

Anything easy (and free) out there?

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**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171/2 "2007-01-24T00:13:18Z")

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ZoneAlarm

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2007, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171/3 "2007-01-24T09:01:33Z")

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I’ve heard good things about Zonealarm. I always tended to use Sygate Personal Firewall - the company was bought out by Symantec (hisssss) in 2005 and SPF was discontinued, but you can still download it from [OldVersion.com](http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=sygate)

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**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-free-firewall-program-for-beginners/389171/4 "2007-01-24T13:54:03Z")

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[QUOTE=kanicbird]  
Just as the title says. Most beginners don’t know what it means when they get this popup from their firewall program:  
And they usually learn to click always allow to anything so they can continue to serf the net without problems.

- OK a bit of a exaggeration, but beginners do seem to learn just to click always allow after being locked out of the internet with a few wrong block clicks.

This leaves the firewall pretty much useless for them, as such I have given up on installing any firewall for them and just having them use the XP firewall.

Anything easy (and free) out there?  
[/QUOTE]

The “always click OK” habit is a difficult one to beat out of people. I think Zonealarm together with a talking-to together with periodically checking the list in the program control section of Zonealarm to see if there’s anything quirky you should disable is about the best you can do for your friend. If they don’t like so much hand-holding or it’s not convenient, then I’d just mutter and leave the Windows firewall turned on for them (and make sure their antivirus program auto-updates).