Free Firewall Protection - Comments Page 1

Useful article. I've had Zonealarm in the past, but currently use Comodo, which I find quite satisfyingly simple and, apparently, effective.

I don't need anti-spam as I always use web-based email, and wifi protection is equally unnecessary because of where I live. Comod's lack of technical support could be a bother, but personally I haven't found it a problem.

The COMODO firewall never worked and then crashed my PC. I would never ever consider using it again. it's called C*R*A*P*W*A*R*E

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lots of people use it and love it. Apparently you have something else on your system that it conflicted with. Were you trying to run two anti-virus programs at once?

I recently upgraded from cutting edge windows 98 to windows vista basic. My firewall was the latest free version of zone alarm. I could surf for about 1 hour before I needed to reboot. I switched to the free version of comodo and I can surf all day long without any reboot.

It might be worth posting this to avoid other geeks from having this frustrating experience.

I have XP SP2 and Norton 360 2008. Is that enough or should I add another layer? If you don't realize already I'm really paranoid. I do an awful lot of confidential research from my home. Being disabled I developed my own work at home biz. Some of the people I work with/for require a lot of security.

I don't have a router due to not want to have any chance of someone picking up any signals. Perhaps I really don't have a good understanding of using a router but I am always willing to be educated.

EDITOR'S NOTE: No router? Does that mean you're on a dialup connection? In any event, I think your concerns about having a router are misguided. If Norton 360 has a firewall, then you should not add another one.

Good article. I have used most of the Firewalls mentioned, but, now I use my DSL modem's hardware Firewall, with my own settings and it works great.

I would like to mention the Shield's Up program by Steve Gibson (www.grc.com). Gibson is the one who originally coined the phrase we all know today, Spyware. His Shield's Up program will check the first 1056 Ports, used in your Internet connection. The purpose of setting up a Firewall is to be Stealth, in other words, not seen by any other computer source. Shield's Up will check your Firewall settings by telling you if, you are Stealth or Closed or Open. Stealth is the ideal and Closed is fairly safe, other computers can 'see' you, but can't use any of your Ports. However, Open means real trouble. Open means most of your vital Ports are available for installing Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses, Worms, so on and so forth, from the Internet.

Even doing ALL of this, you still can get Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses and Worms from the Internet, these days. Phishing websites are a whole new ballgame, too! But the bottom line is, if you don't have a solid Firewall to begin with, you have lost the battle, right from the get go.

Although Zone Alarm is very good & I used it for years (full version), I find the fire wall from WEB ROOT (free) is much easier to use & more adjustable, and basically easier to use. I run two computers one w/Vista 32 bit & other Vista 64 bit, works great!

Great information for the 32-bit community. But if you live in a 64-bit world you might want to look at 'GhostWall' to fill the void. Free, very configurable and it has saved my butt a few time already.

Disappointing how so many 'major' vendors and information guru's ignore this sector of the computer community. Present guru excluded - ;-)

(Thanks Paul for the WEB ROOT tip. Will check it out. Don't you just love 64-bit!)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Is it true that no 32-bit software will run on a 64-bit machine? That doesn't sound right, since 16-bit code runs on a 32-bit machine.

The latest update of Zone Alarm has caused problems for many users. In my case it took over the CPU pushing it up to 100% on a regular basis thus making the machine disfunctionally slooooooooow. Checkpoint (producers on Zone Alarm) are aware of the issue but have not yet offered a solution. I uninstalled ZA and installed Comodo and life went back to normal.

I use COMODO Internet Security Suite which includes a basic Firewall and Antivirus program.

I also use ThreatFire, SpywareBlaster, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and I run Spybot - Search & Destroy once a week. Other programs I use are CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) and MRU Blaster, usually every day.

All are free and can be downloaded from these web sites:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/index.html

http://www.threatfire.com/download/

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-amp-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?cdlPid=11000454

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrudownload.html

Hiyas, Bob. I'm using Zonealarm firewall which is a free and very protective firewall. Thought the downside is. It will consume your CPU to 100% and makes your PC laggy and randomly freezes :(

I also have had similar problems with Comodo, and in fact uninstalled it this morning, replacing it with the Sunbelt firewall. The problem I had with Comodo had to do with how cmdagent.exe would fire up at random times, consuming the CPU. Rebooting would solve it, but I finally got sick of it. Plus, I've got to say, Comodo's UI was not the most user-friendly I'd ever experienced.

i use threatfire from PC tools free covers alot more than connections it keeps tabs on virus/ad ware making sure there up and running.

After having to restore my system, I'm trying a fresh reinstall of Norton. Windows Firewall was on beforehand, but Norton has its own "Smart Firewall." Do you recommend using the Smart Firewall, or Windows Firewall?

EDITOR'S NOTE: As a rule, I don't recommend anything from Norton. See http://askbobrankin.com/do_i_need_a_firewall.html

I have Windows xp and service pack 3,also Norton 360 2009. Do I need Norton 360??? Thank You

EDITOR'S NOTE: You need SOME anti-virus program. I recommend some good free ones here: http://askbobrankin.com/should_i_buy_antispyware_or_antivirus_software.html

I uninstalled zone alarm. My computer goes as far as the icons then shuts down only to restart. I can not start in safe mode because my key board and mouse will not work so I can not select safe mode. They are plugged in and new batteries. I tried putting in my recovery disk and start up disk but they will not run either. I appreciate any help. Thank you.

Actually, i think that free software firtewall can't be useful. It only can be not bad.
I'm using paid soft ProteMac NetMine. As for me it's good.
(www.protemac.com)

I recently started using a firewall called "Private Firewall", it's free and so far I am pleased with it. I use vista home premium, I believe this is only available for vista and windows 7.

www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html

I also use PrivateFirewall and I'm quite happy with it. Over the years I've used others that initially worked fine but eventually disappointed:

ZoneAlarm - It started to randomly block the router ports for our computers, required rebooting.

Comodo - It would hang my computer during startup and after running for a while. I also tried their sandbox which was very flaky. Sandboxie works much better.

I use Comodo on win7 and Private firewall on win10. I find Private Firewall has less interruptions when dnlding new apps or updating older ones. I would switch from Comodo but the last time I tried uninstalling it I lost Internet connection and spent hours trying to remove all traces of it so I could reconnect and install something else. it's a good firewall except for those two issues.

As to having "no router," I have a separate wifi router and a separate modem. My desktop is hardwired
through the modem. But I can connect the router to the modem through an A/B switch in order to use my laptop throughout the house. I do not have 56K dial up. I have 10 Meg/sec. broadband from the phone company.