Firewall compatible with AVG free 8?

I've got a desktop wired to a router and a laptop with a wireless connection. I'm using avg free 8 on both computers and windows firewall for both. I've just been reading the major geeks 'how to protect yourself' page, though, and after reading that, I tend to think I should have software firewalls. Not so sure the router may be enough, although I do remember back when I had the Norton's firewall with the desktop a couple of years ago, when it was connected directly to a dialup connection, firewall alerts were constantly showing up, but once connected to the router, Norton's didn't display any alerts. Nor did ZoneAlarm, when I was using the Internet Security Suite.

However, I would still feel better with a software firewall.

So anyone out there using AVG free 8 with a software firewall, and if so, which firewall? I would prefer a free product. I have Malwarebytes on both machines as well, the free version, and I'll likely be installing the free version of Superantispyware as well. (I like to install things one at a time with a couple of days at least in between to give things time to settle and evaluate for problems.)

I guess another option I could consider is upgrading my AVG to the paid edition. The free versions are behaving well on both computers.

For now, however, I would appreciate some feedback from other AVG users.

Thanks!

 

AVG 8 is a big improvement over 7, but am using Avast and like it very much, I believe both have versions for Linux operating systems as well. I would rather be without an anti virus than a software firewall, and our machines all run via a new wireless router. Used Comodo for a firewall until recently, after using commercial all in one versions ( Symantec and Trend Micro) and Sygate for years. Now use OnlineArmor Free by Tall Emu, and it serves it's purpose well. Malwarebytes also found things nothing else did, still use it, but stopped running SuperAntispyware after a week or two. Still fiddle with Spybot S&D now and then as he seemed to be the first on the block to get really serious about that problem, but don't have it regularly installed on any systems, although unlike the free versions of bytes and super it is proactive, realtime if kept up to date.:guns

 

g'day amethyst 08 i have been using avg free for several years and now still using version 8,i have also use zone alarm firewall free with this anti-virus for the same amount of time with no problems i also use a netgear wireless router.
you will get allot of different opinions about zonealarm free that it is a resource hog,but i have found that the newer version 8 uses allot less resources than the older version 7 it also has a much user friendly interface.
i have been told by a few computer techs that with this type of modem that i don't need to have a software firewall but i feel much safer knowing that i have this level of security. i have tried other freeware firewalls in the past like comodo and pc tools firewall but have always returned to using zonealarm.i myself feel really comfortable with this set up.i hope this helps you and have a great new year

 

Thanks, Bugballou. I had never heard of OnlineArmor before. I was looking into that last night after you mentioned it. I like Malwarebytes. I wanted it as an on-demand scanner. I don't mind having to update manually, as I actually prefer to do all my updates that way anyway, and Malwarebytes seems to be providing frequent updates. It also does the quick scan in less than 10 minutes, which I also like. I could have done without the addition to the right click menu items, but that's minor.

Iwunderdownunder, I have also been considering ZoneAlarm free. I uninstalled ZA Internet Security Suite from the desktop back in June/08. I had purchased 6.5 back in '07 and then ZASS came out with 7.x and a lot of people were having serious problems with it, so I didn't want to "upgrade" to that. When ZASS started winding down its support for 6.x, I figured it was time to go, even though I had nearly a year left on my license. How stable a computer is after the security software is on board is very important to me, so if I start reading a lot of posts about security software messing up people's systems, I stay away. I've never had any problems with AVG free 8, other than a little issue with outgoing e-mail a while back, but that resolved itself with the next program update.

If the ZoneAlarm free firewall behaves itself, that is one option I would seriously consider simply because I am familiar with it. A couple of drawbacks would be the huge download (since they bundle in the entire suite) and it's hard to uninstall, although I was perusing their forums last night and I see there is now an uninstall tool. (It's about time!) PC tools was another one I was looking into.

I noticed that with the desktop behind the router, ZoneAlarm registered no inbound attempts whatsoever, which actually says something good about the router (I do trust ZoneAlarm on this.)

 

I have used AVG Free edition for many years, currently using version 8 on everything I own except for the Ubuntu system. I have played with different firewalls over the years and have recently loaded Comodo and really like it. It will ask you what you want to allow once for each program/task and then it remembers so doesn't interfere. I also do a Malwarebytes run about once per week. Our household runs 4 windows laptops (3 XP & 1 Vista), one windows desktop and one with Ubuntu.

 

I use Online Armor FW as well, combined with AVG free 8. They play nicely with each other. Before I installed Online Armor I made sure that my computer was squeaky clean and all software programs as well. Then I installed Online Armor and set all programs to "trusted". That way hardly any pop ups.

Had Symantec Internet Security Suite (paid), then Zonealarm for years, tried Comodo and finally switched to Online Armor.

 

g'day again amethyst 08 i have also read allot on the net about other users having problems with zone alarm firewalls which truly puzzles me as i have never experienced any issues at all, i have uninstalled and reinstalled the software several times with no problems,in fact i have only once lost my internet connection due to a firewall issue and that was because of an error on behalf of a faulty update and that was corrected promptly by zone alarm providers.
the newer version 8 of zone alarm is only a 26.8 mb from mg's here " http://www.majorgeeks.com/ZoneAlarm_Free_d388.html " and like i said before it is vastly different from its predecessors.i am currently using the pro version at the moment which they were giving away a free 12 month subscription a short time ago.me personally i wont use anything else but its entirely up to you good luck.

 

I want to thank everyone who responded to this thread. I appreciate the input, always good to get info from people who have used the different programs.

RuidosoPC, from what I can see of Commodo now, it is both firewall and antivirus now, or are you using an earlier version that was just a firewall only? I went to Commodo's website here:

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

Actually, I see Commodo has a user forum, so I'll take a look there and see what people are doing with the program.

Iwunderdownunder, something I did like about ZA is the user forum--really good bunch of folks over there, very friendly and helpful. It looks like Online Armor has a good user forum, too.

Thanks again, folks!

 

Read about the Firewall test results from Matousec. http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

 

Oma, those test results are rather surprising, as it pertains to ZoneAlarm. I used to go to the Shields Up website to test ZA (years ago, Windows 98SE computer, dialup connection) and the results were always excellent--showed me in 'Stealth Mode'. My router firewall doesn't fare so well there. Nonetheless, when I did have ZA on my XP MCE desktop behind a router, ZA didn't show any incoming traffic being blocked. Nor did Norton's when I had their firewall in the same setup.

I've been digging around for more info re ZoneAlarm 8.0.065, since I couldn't figure out why the file is so much smaller than previous versions. There are no release notes on this version, which I find rather annoying, since it's been out since at least December/08. After all of this, finding out that the little 200 and some k file is a "stump" which takes you to an option where you choose the firewall or the trial suite, on the ZA user forums I just happened to come across a little bit of news that wasn't immediately obvious. ZA 8 requires Windows XP SP 3 or Vista SP1. So that rather ends THAT as an option, unless I go for an earlier version. I'm quite happy with XP Pro (and MCE) SP2 and it's gonna take a lot of force to get me to change. :-D

http://forums.zonealarm.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=84181

(I hope it's OK to provide a link to another message board. If not, sorry!)

I've been reading up on Online Armor as well, and I see that there are issues with systems freezing or experiecing BSOD's when coming out of standby, and that turning off Program Guard has resolved this 'for some people'. (Maybe this doesn't work for everyone, I don't know.) This is rather a deal breaker for me because my laptop is either being used or is on standby. I don't know how many times a day the laptop gets awakened out of hibernation, so crashes like that are just not tolerable. And doesn't turning off 'program guard' kind of defeat the purpose of a firewall, which would be monitoring programs for their behavior in accessing the internet? Online Armor says this is a known issue which they hope to have resolved in the next release. BTW, wonderful user forum over there. Folks are very nice, helpful, friendly, and the response time is very quick. So if I do go that route, it won't be with the current version, but I'll watch for an update.

PC tools claims to be easy to use, I'll read more on the user forums to see what sort of experience end users are having with it.

 

Hmm, not liking what I'm seeing on the PC tools user forums re the firewall. Looks like they still have some problems to work out.

http://www.pctools.com/forum/

The Commodo forums are rather hard to navigate, but I'll give that another go later.