I’m in need of getting a good firewall software program. Can some of the PC pros on the boards recommend a good one? It’s just for my home PC, nothing big.
I’m not a PC Pro, but ZoneAlarm is pretty good, and if it’s just for your own home PC it is free.
A quick search on Google will find it.
I second ZoneAlarm. For a machine running a Microsoft operating system (and if you don’t specify which PC operating system you’re using, it’s probably a Microsoft OS) you cannot do better.
I second ZoneAlarm. For a machine running a Microsoft operating system (and if you don’t specify which PC operating system you’re using, it’s probably a Microsoft OS) you cannot do better.
ZoneAlarm. According to the latest Consumer Reports, it’s the best firewall on the market. And there’s a free version of it available that’s pretty good by itself.
Yep, ZoneAlarm’s a good one. Better than anything else, according to the reviews I’ve read. Plus it’s free; that’s a definite perk.
if you don’t care for the “wizardy” interface of ZoneAlarm, Tiny Personal Firewall is pretty good too. Version 2.0 is completely free for personal use.
-DP
Yes, I’d also recommend Tiny, or rather Kerio the new incarnation of Tiny. Bear in mind that it’s a significant bit more difficult to use, but I think that learning to use it is worth it. It’s a lot more flexible in letting you know what’s going in and out of your computer, and giving you complete control over it.
Start with Zone Alarm if you’re not too comfortable with Kerio. It’s also a good program.
And when you’re done, just clik here to see if you’ve done it right.
Consumer Reports just did a review of firewalls and anti-virus software. It just came in the mail yesterday. You could try their website.
Since this is a matter of opinion, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
I just finished taking an Internet Security and Firewalls class for my Computer Science degree. As part of the class we had to review various different firewalls by “attacking” them. We utilized such techniques as:
Denial of Service attacks (SYN floods, ICMP packet floods, UDP packet floods, etc.)
Port Scanners
IP Spoofing programs
Trojans (we’d plant a trojan on the protected computer and see if we could connect to it and use it from an unauthorized computer).
ZoneAlarm was one of the best.
Grim
Nah, Tiny’s not all that difficult. Sure, it takes a little tweaking to set up, but on a home PC it shouldn’t be a problem. I vastly prefer it over ZoneAlarm, because Tiny will TELL me what’s going on. Excellent.
Which is not to say ZoneAlarm is bad: in my experience, both offer decent protection.
did anyone notice the irony of little miss attitude asking us very nicely to ‘recommend a good firewall program please’?
apart from that - i know nothing about firewalls.