A question for the senior members - related to firewall selection

I am posting this after doing a lot of reading. The confusion kept mounting the more i read :confused and I finally decided to stop my little research and come to MG for guidance.

Ok here is the scenario. My first firewall was probably Zone Alarm. A terrible product back then (I think that was a few years back). Then I tried Sygate and found it to be awesome but then it got discontinued and ever since I have been trying and looking for something effective. Am using Comodo but personally i think there's more hype to it. It never gives any notifications like Sygate used to and does whatever it want to do in the background and without any notifications. On top there are like 3 options to choose from and all in all it is a probably amongst the most complex and difficult to use products I have ever come across.

I have bee reading the posts here and turns out that I have the following options:

• PC Tools Firewall Plus 6.0.0.88
• Online Armor Free 4.0.0.44 (which has the highest rating amongst all)
• Outpost Firewall Free 2009 6.51 Build 2725.10028 (Amazing and highest # of downloads)
• ZoneAlarm Free 9.1.007.002 (maybe the current product is good)??
• Stick with Comodo till i figure it out :eek

To be honest I want to switch from Comodo. I liked Sygate very much (though i used it only for about 8 months) and it offered notifications every time something happened. I could easily block all traffic with a single click and so manually block/unblock applications. The interface was very very easy. Comodo never gives ANY notification and doesn't even allow me to easily define in real time which applications etc. i want to block and which one's i want to allow Maybe all of that is hidden somewhere in it's unnecessarily complex user interface with a zillion options :boxing

My PC has 2 GB RAM and the specs are decent enough for my home use.

Given all of the above, can the senior members please guide. I wish I could find Sygate :cry

Sorry for bothering you all so much. I hope i will get some help.

 

Thank you TimW for the link. I found that already (and should have actually mentioned that in my orig post). What I meant was that I wish I could find a latest (not outdated) version of Sygate; I know this is just wishful thinking since Sygate is history :-o

So I know that I have to select from the options listed in my original post and this is where I seek guidance from seniors. I have listed the selection criteria (though a newbie like me and given the expertise available on MG, i carry no weight age in defining selection criteria). Anyway, still worth sharing what are some of the things that are important to me.

I don't know. Maybe one of the those 5 are even better than Syagte.

thnx again really for your reply and for sharing the link

 

Just to let you know, whilst you are researching, there is a setting in COMODO (caps theirs) that allows you to block all ports and notify you of any incoming traffic.

In COMODO if you click on the Firewall tab at the top of the screen, then on the "steath ports wizard" link, you should get a window open. In that window choose "Alert me to incoming connections and block my ports on a per-case basis" or something similar. This will alert you to all incoming connections and let you decide what to do with them.

 

Hi TimW and collinsl,

I'll watch this thread for a few days and after receiving more feedback will toss the coin and decide

@TimW: Thanks for your recommendation. Appreciate your suggestion. Regarding the link by chaslang: That is one awesome post. I was first introduced to it by Halo. Have read that article twice and have learned a lot from it.

@collinsl: Thanks for the tip and it might do the trick. I'll try to explore Comodo as per your suggestion. However the is product pretty complex. I mean it offer 3 modes and I have tried all.... ahhhh.

Regards.

 

Hello, fwfan, I use PC Tools Firewall Plus, and have had no problems with it at all. Has lots of info. This link will show you some screen shots, and hopefully, answer any questions you have. I used teh "Normal User" on step 9, as I am not a professional, just a home user myself. PC Tools FW Info

I hope you find what you are looking for.

 

Hi TeeCee.
Thanks for your vote and the links. So you have also recommended the same as TimW. Right?

First: I have shortlisted 2 candidates - PC Tools Firewall Plus and Online Armor Free 4.0.0.44. Hope I have not made the wrong shortlisting decision.

I would like to ask the last but important questions addressed to TimW, yourself, or any other members who may be replying to this post:

1. If "you" are recommending candidate#1, did "you" by any chance evaluate candidate#2 or maybe have a second hand experience with the other?
2. IFF the answer to the above is a YES then what 3 features makes one stand out from the other?
3. What about the quality of logs and the ability to analyze them? I remember Sygate used to offer many types of logging options and the logging analysis part was not bad either. If i remember correctly, it also offered option to defined special rules which could further be scheduled and be defined on port level or whatever the things called UDP etc. etc. are... Juts asking these questions to quench my curiosity and learn.
4. What's missing in PC Tools Firewall Plus which Online Armor Free 4.0.0.44 offers and vice versa?
5. For home usage, is there REALLY any benefit of paying the extra and going for the Pro (non-freeware version)? This question is only in case I decide to go for Online Armor Free 4.0.0.44 (though at the very moment I'm undecided). Asking this because this is a one time important investment (only if it makes sense to pay the extra)

thnx.

 

Hi, fwfan :wave

I've used Zone Alarm free with XP pro and home for a number of years, and have not had any major problems with it. I know some new versions have come out buggy, but I avoid such problems by not updating right away . . . I give it a bit and listen to the forum chatter there before I upgrade as a general rule. My LAN is behind a hardware firewall, but I use a software one on all my computers as well. Zone Alarm plays well with Avast anti-virus, I have found.

I too used Sygate long ago (still do on a Virtual Win98 and a Virtual Win2000 I have set up) - but the free version is years old, and I think the company got bought out by Symantec.

 

Hi fwfan, I chose PC Tools Firewall Plus and did not download the ThreatFire, as TimW has already stated. I picked the this one, over the others, because I have a dial-up connection, and I like to have control over what comes in and what goes out.

I have PC Tools Firewall Plus v. 6.0 Logs are created, and easy to read and analize. I haven't had any problems with it. But like I said, I am on a dial-up connection... Maybe hi-speed would be different, I don't know. I also have XP, SP3.

The benefit I see, is you get the same protection, be it free or paid, so why pay for the same thing I am getting for free? I have had no problems with mine, and I also use AVG 9, which is also a freebie..

I still say, it is a matter of personal preference. Might I suggest this? Download one, and try it. IF you like it fine, if not, you can always remove it and download another. What I like may not be the same as what you might like; plus, if you go with PC Tools Firewall Plus, you always have the option to upgrade to the paid version if you choose, there is a button for that too.

 

Hi TeeCee
I do agree about the personal preference part but sometimes (based on my own experience and mistakes), the personal experience is so narrow that one fails to see (or even have the desire) other and better options. I guess this is especially true in the world of technology/IT where the options are countless... In short, I totally agree with what you have shared

Sadly i did exactly that a few hours back. I downloaded PC Tools Firewall Plus, installed it and it took good 20 minutes to initialize (that's the message that was displayed when I moved the mouse over)... after 20 minutes it started but when i went into the software, it said that the thing is disabled. I re-started the PC and the same thing again... again took 20 minutes to initialize and even afterwards, it was disabled. I played with all the options but could get it to stat working :confused

And then sadly i uninstalled it Have not tried the 2nd shortlisted candidate yet as I was planning to try out the one recommended by folks at MG.

Well just wanted to share the update from my side :cry

 

Hi Spad and thank you for your recommendation. Might end up giving ZA a try if the shortlisted one's don't work. Thanks again for your kind vote

Regards.

 

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Hello, again, I wonder if you just got a bad connection, and ended up with a bad download? I have dial up, and it didn't take but a few minutes...

One question: Did you leave your windows FW on when you dl it? That is a good idea, and it should be left on, because PC Tools FW will pick up stats from that, and replace it with itself. IF you had your FW turned off when you installed, that may have been why it took so long to initialize.. It may have been looking for current FW info.

I would try it again. this time, leave your Windows FW turned on, and see if that helps.. You do have XP, right? If you are using Vista, it may have a conflict , and you will need to dl the second one.. Do keep us posted. :wave

 

Hello again TeeCee.

No my connection is rather good and I download it from majorgeeks. Anyways I will give it another try. If the download was corrupted I think i would not have been able to install it in the first place.

thanks to all for your replies and help