Firewalls. whats good?

[travler]

Before some smartass tells me to do a search - i already have.

I am currently using Norton personal firewall 2002 on windows 2000 and let me tell you it sucks. It is more CPU intensive than my 3d games. This is because of some poor design that symantic has addmited to on their support site but apparanlty is not plannning to fix. I've heard alot of other similar complaints. Also the last time it I installed it it wouldnt let me use windowws update, or my schools secure site even when I shut it down. Had to do an uninstall and reinstall. Many others complained of this on their support site too. One would think they would fix the @!#$ thing.

I loved BID but as others have said it is not as secure.

I tried zone alarm and it is a pain to set up and maintain but is very secure. However, I have heard it contains spyware. is this true? if not ill give it another try.

I dont know anything about tiny firewall at all. Have many of you had any problems with it?

Are there any other good firewalls out there Im not aware of?

Thanks

 

[Mem]

I`ve a few friends that prefer Sygate personal firewall 5 which`s free ,so try that.

 

[aircooled]

I've never heard of Zone Alarm containing spyware (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

It works good and the price it right ;-)

If you have a broadband connection, I would also recommend I router/firewall (like a linksys) to use in conjunction with ZoneAlarm or any other personal software firewall.

 

[sean2002]

I think that sygate firewall 5 is probably the best firewall out right now.

 

[bob332]

i personally love tiny personal firewall. haven't any trouble with it for over a year. and its free!!

 

[TheWart]

i loved tiny personal firewall, tehn i found out that it is being further developed under the name "Kerio Personal Firewall" at www.kerio.com

 

[zzzz]

One more vote for Kerio/tiny.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: sean2002
I think that sygate firewall 5 is probably the best firewall out right now.

Using it now.
My rig is completely in stealth mode.
Low on system resources.

 

[BKR]

Had Zone Alarm and switched to Tiny/Kerio...much happier now.

 

[Rottie]

Last night I was reading Consmer Reports it says ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0 is the best buy but it doesn't say much about Tiny Personal Firewall. I am using AZPro it is ok for me because I bought it long time ago I wish I could switch to Tiny Personal Firewall but what am I gonna do with ZAPro 3.0?

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: sean2002
I think that sygate firewall 5 is probably the best firewall out right now.

I concur. I have been using it for a while now and have not experienced any problems with it.

My $.02,
eplebnista

 

[Chapter11]

Why has Black Ice by (ISS) Internet Security Systems not been mentioned?
It's a snap to set up, mostly automated. I've been using it for years and I haven't been hacked once.
So that speaks volumes enough for me.....
Although this might be a feature that other firewalls have as well, I especially like the application protection it has. So that no executable can be run without my knowledge and acceptance first.

 

[travler]

blackice was mentioned by me as "BID" (black ice defender)

And nobody else mentioned it because it has known holes in it.

thanks for the replies. I just had to uninstall norton again so i could run windows update. Im going to try sygate right now!

 

[JAXSCAD]

I'm having the same problem with Norton's firewall, and the lack of support from Symantec is unbelievable. The tech people send you to their message boards where you find at least 45 pages of people that have submitted the same problem in the past 2 days and still have no answers. The Norton programs of the past always worked, but this new stuff they peddle is CPU intensive and it's totally worthless.

 

[thorin]

"I tried zone alarm and it is a pain to set up and maintain but is very secure. However, I have heard it contains spyware. is this true? if not ill give it another try"

The problem isn't that it contains spyware the problem is that it doesn't stop spyware. It only monitors/prevents incoming traffic but not outgoing. (And I think your confusing BID and Zone Alarm. However I haven't read up on this stuff in a while so, check the writeup about LeakTest (personal firewall tester) @ GRC.com for more info).

Thorin

 

[EY2K]

been using kerio personal firewall for 2 days now, replaced ZA Pro 3.0 since it really slows my system down during boot up (that is, when windows begins startup). it takes a good 10 sec to just to load the "True Vector" service for the ZA firewall. tried sygate, but found out with the task manager in win2k that the damn thing uses >15,000kb of RAM, WTF? (i rebooted twice to verify this, lol.) kerio only using about 5,500kb on my sys (on par with ZA), and although it isn't as pretty as ZA it seems to be just as effective if not more?

my vote is for kerio/tiny now.

my system specs are in my sig.

 

[leftyman]

kerio/tiny works fine for me...so did zone alarm, really cant go wrong with either although it seemed that zone alarm would occasionally forget its settings in xp..

 

[MrBond]

I don't know about more recent security holes in BID, but all I was aware of was the allowing of all outgoing traffic. If you're vigilant and scan the stuff you're downloading with a good virus scanner, you shouldn't have to worry about trojans. It's always been a rock solid product for me.

 

[GiLtY]

Yeah, BID does have some holes in it. One time I was reading this article by GRC (Gibson Research Center), the article was about how the website was under attack and stuff.. At the end of the article he said that he tried zone alarm and BID to test how well they work against deteting attempted outgoing connections requested by the zombies, and BID never knew what hit them. I've had zonealarm for quite a while and I'm a happy camper

 

[travler]

well i tried sygate which worked well only it would disrupt my wolfenstein game. Cause major "lag" when i was playing online. So.. since my windows was now updated I reinstalled norton.

Next time i get pissed at norton I will try tiny.

 

[docgonzo]

Zone Alarm. Just have the freeware version for now, but I would not have any problems with shelling out $50. for the Pro version. I like it because it has an easy to use interface. It took less than an hour for me to configure it to my needs- including reading about all the options and such. After a week or two of it asking me whether this program or that program should be allowed to use the internet, it "quieted down." Now only a new program or a changed program sets it off. Also, it has a nice simple list of all the programs that use my internet connection and my choices as to whether or not to allow them access. And if at a later time I need to change my options it is just a click away. ZA has never crashed any of my programs, and I dont precieve any use of resources at all. Nice program would recomend it.

docgonzo

 

[travler]

Alright norton can go suck an egg. I installed ZA instead of tiny. so far so good. very secure and easy to set up without.
Im not sure why symantic feels the need to be so invasive to windows with their designs. If they want to screw up windows they shoudl go work for Microsoft.

 

[LANMAN]

Norton Personal Firewall or ZoneAlarm Pro

--LANMAN

 

[Sunner]

Correct me if Im wrong, but isn't Black Ice more of an IDS rather than a Firewall.
Haven't had any contact with it in a while, but when I did, it certainly seemed like an IDS.

 

[scottrico]

What?

Norton internet security 2002 works great for me.
Free from "you know where".
It has ad blocker and works fine with Norton a/v.
I never had a problem with windows xp and blocks all the attacks I get when using kazza.
I game online all the time and never had one issue.