cableNOOb
join:2001-04-19
Niceville, FL | Best free firewall?
I have ZoneAlarm and AVG AV, both are free. Which are the best firewalls and anti-viruses. I have an e-gold account and have heard of a lot of hackings into e-gold. Just want to be most secure as possible. Thanks guys! |
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okj
join:2001-09-02
USA # 1 | In my opinion, you already have the best free firewall in Zone Alarm. |
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zetan
Heart Of Steel
Premium
join:2003-11-22
Vallejo, CA
| said by okj  :In my opinion, you already have the best free firewall in Zone Alarm. I second that emotion.
If you need more, you have issues that we have no punishment for 
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No regrets.. ever. |
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cableNOOb
join:2001-04-19
Niceville, FL | reply to cableNOOb
could you possibly have 2 firewalls at once? |
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PrntRhd
join:2004-11-03
Fairfield, CA
 ·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..
1 edit | "could you possibly have 2 firewalls at once?"
You only want one software firewall running at any one time. You can (and I certainly recommend) run a hardware firewall in a router and run a software firewall at the same time.
And yes, I run Sygate or ZA free on my PCs. |
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tellus7x
| reply to cableNOOb
I once had two software firewalls (ZA free and Norton firewall) installed and it caused me all kinds of problems. I couldn't even get on the internet my computer was so screwed up. I deleted ZA free and I was then able to get back online again. I would not recommend installing two software firewalls ever! More is certainly not better in all cases, even if your girlfriend tells you that.  |
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HA Nut
Premium
join:2004-05-13
USA
| reply to cableNOOb
IMO, the best free firewall (and for that matter, free anti-malware of any kind) is the one that works for you on your PC. There are sooo many variables from user to user and PC to PC that if you find something that works well, it's a good idea to stay with it. I have tried lots of different things on my Win 98SE PC and always keep coming back to the stuff that worked early on.
You can always experiment and try other stuff but it's important to make sure you have clean uninstallations between products. Anything left over from the previous firewall, AV or whatever can cause lots of issues... |
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reelbigfish
join:2002-06-06
Boston, MA
·Comcast
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
| I used to use sygate, but now that support is stopping I am looking at alternatives. So far I have just been using the windows firewall and I am also behind a SPI firewall. So far things have been good. I use Trendmicro for AV on my desktop and AVG on my laptop. I also have spysweeper installed. So far things have been working well with no infection or problems. Some people just don't need a two way firewall. All I really use my machine for is typing papers and gaming. Firewalls also can raise your pings in games. |
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TheWiseGuy
Dog And Butterfly
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-04
Yonkers, NY
| reply to cableNOOb
The best firewall is the one that works on your computer, works correctly with the applications you use, you can configure correctly, and that you will continue to use.
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Warning, I have 2 posters on ignore, who are here solely to argue, and that always post misinformation in their posts. |
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Birds
join:2004-10-23
| reply to cableNOOb
Hardware firewalls...
A nice free one is SmoothWall Express.
It does require a spare PC with two network cards, but for a home setup a P100 with 64 MB of RAM will do.
It blocks all inbound traffic by default, and uses stateful packet inspection for outbound/inbound requests.
If you are willing to learn about firewall rules you can modify the outbound and inbound firewall rules to suite your needs.
It does NAT, so you don't need to purchase a "router" but can use a less expensive switch on the protected LAN side. Most folks never use the router functions of consumer routers. They mostly use them as NAT devices with basic firewalls and switches.
SmoothWall Express also has some nice add-ons which can do things such as automatically add any IP address which knocks at the door of the firewall to an "IP Block" list. Other add-ons can perform functions such as blocking web adds, filtering web content and web sites, etc. |
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claudeo
join:2000-02-23
Redmond, WA
| reply to cableNOOb
I use a hardware firewall running the open source m0n0wall, which is based on BSD while Smoothwall is based on Linux. Like Smoothwall, m0n0wall is not very hungry when it comes to hardwire. Mine runs on an antiquated box with 2 network cards and 128MB. No hard disk - it runs from a CD, with configuration on a floppy that is only accessed if configuration changes. It could also all run from a flash card, no moving parts at all. I went with m0n0wall in part because of this easier setup, in part because it includes some features that are not available on the free version of Smoothwall, like VPN support.
On the other hand, my Thinkpad laptop can't use this while I am on the road. I'm still experimenting. The IBM/Lenovo OEM XP extensions software documentation states that there is some firewall protection built into the connection manager, in addition to the XP firewall. But if I feel really paranoid about where I am connecting, like an Internet cafe or open hot spot, I connect only through a VPN port on my m0n0wall server which is at a fixed IP address on my DSL connection, and connect back out through that firewall. Seems to work, even from halfway around the world. |
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Birds
join:2004-10-23
1 edit | said by claudeo :I went with m0n0wall in part because of this easier setup, in part because it includes some features that are not available on the free version of Smoothwall, like VPN support. The free version of SmoothWall Express 2.0 supports VPN as part of the default installation. |
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tinyohio
join:2001-07-24
Columbus, OH
| reply to reelbigfish
 To put my 2 cents worth in, I have used SYGATE for about 3 Yrs. and NEVER HAVE HAD A PROBLEM. I'm running XP PRO and have put several versions of Sygate to the test(s) and as I said never failed any Firewall Test. We all know how it goes, you either FAVOR A FORD, CHEVY, FOREIGN Or whatever !!! I just hope now I haven't Jinxed myself !!! EVERYBODY HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR |
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claudeo
join:2000-02-23
Redmond, WA
| reply to Birds
said by Birds :said by claudeo :I went with m0n0wall in part because of this easier setup, in part because it includes some features that are not available on the free version of Smoothwall, like VPN support. The free version of SmoothWall Express 2.0 supports VPN as part of the default installation. I meant, VPN endpoint for Windows clients. This feature is listed on the SmoothWall web site as a difference between the free version and the pay version. |
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KyeU
join:2003-12-31
Canada | reply to cableNOOb
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 for me. |
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mkofron
join:2002-11-10
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to cableNOOb
Astaro Security Linux 6.102. You need a low end dedicated PC, but it's an Application Proxy firewall built on top of Linux. They have a free 10-user home license available.
Firewall information:
»www.astaro.com/firewall_network_···firewall
Free license:
»https://my.astaro.com/login.php |
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Bender_2k
join:2003-01-12
clubs:  | reply to cableNOOb
Using Kerio+Dlink DI-524 (modded to 624 :P). Was using Sygate for a long time but once support stopped I went in search of another firewall...tried Zone Alarm but it's a resource hog so went with Kerio. |
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