I know this post probably won't be appreciated cos the mods here are "limited accounts solve all security problems" kind of people but here goes...
1. Threatfire - http://www.threatfire.com/
Complement to conventional antiviruses and antispyware. Tries to detect malware based on behavior rather than conventional av code signatures. Note: this was formerly known as cyberhawk.
Reviews + Technical tests.
http://www.av-comparatives.org...ebnisse/HIPS-BB-SB.pdf
http://www.techsupportalert.com/security_HIPS.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2084599,00.asp
http://membres.lycos.fr/nicmte...rs/unhooking_tests.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2191333,00.asp
2. Online Armor free - http://dl1.online-armor.com/do...neArmor_Setup_Free.exe
Link goes to prerelease version. The final will be released in a few days.
HIPS + firewall package. Lightweight, easy to use, aimed at ordinary as opposed to techy users (the typical targets of HIPS like System Safety monitor and ProSecurity), lot of nice features to reduce popup fatiage including the inital post-installation step of scanning the start menus looking for programs to trust , which it compares against a centralised whitelist, and the rest unrecognised are displayed for you to decide.
Despite that it is still a very powerful package, does the basic anti-execution, anti-process modification, anti-process termination, auto-startup controls etc. All this coupled with the firewall means it is nearly perfect against leak tests , only Comodo is better because it misses one due to a bug. Reportedly, this is now fixed.
I personally prefer it to Comodo firewall v2 (which does not have a full blown HIPS yet, but v3 does), which is much heavier and a bit flaky at times when handling OLE automation.
Main disavantage is that the *free* version does not allow you to filter on ips, though you can control outbound,inbound and ports... Might be too limited for power users. The free version also lacks webshield etc that filters activex, tries to detect phishing via heuristics but that is rather minor. The anti-dns spoofing feature where it checks with an independent dns server is pretty cool though. The paid version also has stronger antikeylogger detection.
3. Webroot Desktop Firewall - http://www.webroot.com/consume...ducts/desktopfirewall/
Haven't tried this yet.
There are not many free vista ready personal firewalls I know of besides Zonealarm, Pctools firewall and Comodo v3 (beta). Webroot (makers of Spysweeper) now add a fourth with their webroot desktop.
I haven't tried it, but it seems to be a rebrand of Private firewall . Because private firewall has the HIPS DSA (dynamic security agent) built in it is pretty strong against leak tests.
It is ranked "very good" against leak tests.
Only Jetico firewall v1 (now abandoned v2 is payware), Online Armor free (to be released soon) and of course Comodo firewall does better in leak tests.
It's unclear how long this free offer will last.
1. Threatfire - http://www.threatfire.com/
Complement to conventional antiviruses and antispyware. Tries to detect malware based on behavior rather than conventional av code signatures. Note: this was formerly known as cyberhawk.
Reviews + Technical tests.
http://www.av-comparatives.org...ebnisse/HIPS-BB-SB.pdf
http://www.techsupportalert.com/security_HIPS.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2084599,00.asp
http://membres.lycos.fr/nicmte...rs/unhooking_tests.htm
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2191333,00.asp
2. Online Armor free - http://dl1.online-armor.com/do...neArmor_Setup_Free.exe
Link goes to prerelease version. The final will be released in a few days.
HIPS + firewall package. Lightweight, easy to use, aimed at ordinary as opposed to techy users (the typical targets of HIPS like System Safety monitor and ProSecurity), lot of nice features to reduce popup fatiage including the inital post-installation step of scanning the start menus looking for programs to trust , which it compares against a centralised whitelist, and the rest unrecognised are displayed for you to decide.
Despite that it is still a very powerful package, does the basic anti-execution, anti-process modification, anti-process termination, auto-startup controls etc. All this coupled with the firewall means it is nearly perfect against leak tests , only Comodo is better because it misses one due to a bug. Reportedly, this is now fixed.
I personally prefer it to Comodo firewall v2 (which does not have a full blown HIPS yet, but v3 does), which is much heavier and a bit flaky at times when handling OLE automation.
Main disavantage is that the *free* version does not allow you to filter on ips, though you can control outbound,inbound and ports... Might be too limited for power users. The free version also lacks webshield etc that filters activex, tries to detect phishing via heuristics but that is rather minor. The anti-dns spoofing feature where it checks with an independent dns server is pretty cool though. The paid version also has stronger antikeylogger detection.
3. Webroot Desktop Firewall - http://www.webroot.com/consume...ducts/desktopfirewall/
Haven't tried this yet.
There are not many free vista ready personal firewalls I know of besides Zonealarm, Pctools firewall and Comodo v3 (beta). Webroot (makers of Spysweeper) now add a fourth with their webroot desktop.
I haven't tried it, but it seems to be a rebrand of Private firewall . Because private firewall has the HIPS DSA (dynamic security agent) built in it is pretty strong against leak tests.
It is ranked "very good" against leak tests.
Only Jetico firewall v1 (now abandoned v2 is payware), Online Armor free (to be released soon) and of course Comodo firewall does better in leak tests.
It's unclear how long this free offer will last.