Best free firewall?

[Flashman]

But yeah (even at the risk of being called stupid by the geeks )
Comodo is pretty good and doesn't use up tons of memory.

 

[stowpirate]

But yeah (even at the risk of being called stupid by the geeks )
Comodo is pretty good and doesn't use up tons of memory.

Is it not more about a state of mind

I think MS took the stance that to protect against outbound traffic was like trying to close the gate after the horse had bolted? I sort of agree with this however MS is at odds with this policy as Vista built in firewall has the ability to control outbound traffic. However it is not simple and even I would struggle to set it up correctly - I would never even bother

I can see a strong case for a firewall that flags outbound traffic as you might never know you had a problem without one - but then AV software should also flag the problem

 

[Jonti]

I can see a strong case for only installing software which can be properly audited, and only installing from a few trusted sources.

That would be .... Ubuntu, of course.

 

[panpete]

Comodo if it hasnt already been mentioned. Easy and user friendly.

 

[gnoriac]

Sygate Personal, can control exactly what it clamps down on - ports, IP addresses, MAC addresses, whatever. Gives you good logs on exactly what's been going through. Only problem I've come across is you sometimes lose the toolbar icon under win2K.

 

[editor]

Here's an excellent comparison of firewalls: http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

Here's their top ten:

Outpost Firewall Pro 2009
Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131
Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.22.349 FREE
ProSecurity 1.43
Privatefirewall 6.0.19.29
Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131 Free
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Netchina S3 2008 3.5.5.1FREE
ZoneAlarm Pro 2009 8.0.020.000
PC Tools Firewall Plus 4.0.0.45 FREE

You can grab yourself a free copy of ZoneAlarm pro today (only) from here: http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/sum/index.html

I've been using ZA alarm for years but I think it's time to move to Comodo.