Best Free Software Firewall?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Yes, I’ve read some previous threads on this topic, but I don’t see one since about a year ago.

I recently had a malware disaster and have decided to put up a software firewall. I want a free one because I’m cheap and tend to think there should be one that does a good job.

By the way, I’m on Windows XP: Home edition and the computer is not networked to other computers. I use it for Office, email, and internet surfing mainly.

Anyway, what is the best one? Here is what I’m basically looking for.

  1. I want to be easy to use. I guess I envision it asking me what programs it can allow access the internet, as I use them. For example, the first time I load Firefox, I assume it will ask if Firefox is allowed to access the internet. Once I say, “yes”, I’d like to allow it.

  2. I want it to block incoming and outgoing “attacks”. If I get malware/adware, I want it to prevent it from communicating with the internet.

  3. I want it to not be a huge resource hog. My computer is a little old and I can’t handle something that will totally bog down the whole computer. I have 512 MB RAM and things run smoothly for me; I’m not a gamer(obviously).

I’ve seen a few, such as Comodo and ZoneAlarm(?). Are they good?

Thanks!

:slight_smile:

2

I’ve used both Comodo and ZoneAlarm, and I prefer Comodo (in fact, that’s what I’m using now). ZoneAlarm has a bit of an easier interface, but Comodo is more useful and malleable overall. Neither one are resource hogs, so that isn’t much of an issue.

However, both will do precisely what you listed, so I’d recommend trying both and seeing which you prefer. For what it’s worth, Comodo has a much more attractive color scheme.

3

I’m a pretty advanced computer user, and I find Comodo to be confusing and disjointed. I really don’t “get” the interface design of this program. But it’s still better than ZoneAlarm.

4

This is a very timely thread, as I just unistalled Norton Internet Security from my PC.

I just turned on XP’s Firewall. What’s wrong with that?

5

It only handles incoming connections.

6

I’m in the middle of switching from ZoneAlarm to Comodo. I installed Comodo on someone else’s machine as a trial, and found it to be feature-rich and quite stable. Yeah, the interface is funky, but it’s funky in a way that I “get,” if you know what I mean. Your mileage may vary.