# Personal firewall for Windows 7?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 29, 2012, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309 "2012-04-29T09:17:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309/1 "2012-04-29T09:17:14Z")

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I want a simple firewall that monitors and prompts me about incoming and outgoing traffic.

I don’t want any of those bloated “security suites”, just the firewall.

Any recommendations?

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309/2 "2012-04-29T12:09:45Z")

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What’s wrong with the one that comes with Win 7? I use it and It’s been just fine.

Passes the test at [ShieldsUp!](https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2).

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309/3 "2012-04-29T12:26:20Z")

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It generally doesn’t block outgoing traffic and is not very easy to configure. With a personal firewall you are notified whenever a program wants to transmit and can allow it or block in several ways.

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-firewall-for-windows-7/620309/4 "2012-04-29T12:57:22Z")

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> [@Dog80](#):
>
> It generally doesn’t block outgoing traffic

That’s because you’ve not set it to do that. And it’s much the same as other packages to configure.