I'm looking around at different ones- tried Sygate, kept an installer since Norton dumped em, tried Kerio free, didn't offer outbound filtering so dumped it, am now uzing Zone Alarm free- happy with it.

What are the best free and paid for Firewalls? How good is Outpost and all the rest? Thanks.

Hi Deathoutdone

One firewall to pay for is OutPost. It works perfect and it's easy to handle. Configuration needs some skills with networking stuff (protocols, ports) but the delivered presettings are rather good for start up.

Free frewalls can offer a very reduced security only. During the passed days it was reported that ZoneAlarm free does "phone home" and can get shut down with rather easy methods. Have to check for this article again.

GReetz
B. Udo

Better is relative.

I totally agree with your statement..

and i do like the new forum you have started..


http://chiawaikian.proboards78.com/index.c...asereadtherules

But I have a problems with your post here...


http://gladiator-antivirus.com/forum/index...topic=26487&hl=

Since GSF staff has taken time to help you..but you just ignore the effort..



I don't mind your sig..but you above all people... owe this Board an explanation on why you seem to want to help the general public..yet you have exhibit a quality we all like the least in a board member.

http://chiawaikian.proboards78.com/index.c...read=1139310009

You see my friend..it leads me to believe you have just joined GSF so you can

http://chiawaikian.proboards78.com/index.c...read=1135657650



http://chiawaikian.proboards78.com/index.c...read=1138589400

Hi chiawaikian

If that's all you have to reply, please resist to give more of such " wise answers" and remove the hidden link to your own website as long as you haven't joind the ASAP community.

Regards
B. Udo

The HijackThis log was posted in May, where I didn't know anything, hasn't trained in analysing logs. I have even forgot about that until you dug it out now Hunter. Sorry, and that thread can be locked now.

My join date was in May. I started SMB in December. Did I join just to advertise? Think.

ASAP is only an alliance. Should we discourage people from visiting non-ASAP sites? I don't think SMB is promoting wrong ideas and giving wrong advice.

Should I remove my sig? I need a definite answer from GSF Administration.

You already got your answer from two admins and it has nothing to do with ASAP..it has to do with your just posting this one liner "Better is relative" and if that is all you can think of to post..then you should have not even posted. It is an indication of your intent..DeathOutdone asked two specific question..

What are the best free and paid for Firewalls? How good is Outpost and all the rest?


He did not ask anything about better. If he had posted those same two questions at your forum..and you answered his question in that manner as an admin..I would say you either lack the knowledge to answer..or you are just looking to troll his post. But here at GSF..you did not give him the wrong advice..you gave him NO advice.


As to your statement..



"The HijackThis log was posted in May, where I didn't know anything, hasn't trained in analysing logs. I have even forgot about that until you dug it out now Hunter. Sorry, and that thread can be locked now."

How can you forget about a hijackthis log you posted..when the response to it was given the same day..in fact less than one and a half hour after you posted it ?

Did you post it also at other sites and get help then from another site back in may ?

Thanks for giving us your permission to lock 'that' thread. I think you should stop posting now while you are ahead.

Have a nice day chiawaikian..and best of luck with your site.

Sorry if I gave no advice. But do you usually confront members who give no good (or bad) advice like this? One simply wonders.

Nothing to do with ASAP? Did I see TheSentinel's post wrongly? :boh:

Well, I am ranked Guru at Zone Labs forum, so I guess I have at least a certain level of knowledge in firewalls. And I can tell you I NEVER troll forums FYI.

I guessed I received help with my HJT log at another site. Honestly I don't remember now....

Have a nice day. :)

yes you did get help then Back in MAY as you posted" that" log on multiple site..and since you seem now to understand some of the process to help members with those logs..and just where most of thse people are trained..exercising them as a group on on multiple site at one time was the reason I posted to you in this thread..so it was not that you forgot to return to the help you were given..but rather you figured there was not even a need to acknowledge that response.

There is no need to 'wonder' why you and I are posting..it has taken you now 3 posts to find out what we think of your actions then and now in this thread..you are not here to help members of GSF..and you think it proper to post hijackthislogs in multiple forums...and dispite the guru thing at ZLF..all you desire to post here is one liners that belittle the orginal poster on a direct question about firewalls.

Hi



Hmm what would be your reaction when asking for help and you get a response like "Thats not your business"?
I dunno what you understand of being helpful, friendly and kind. My experiences with people living in Singapore, Malay taught me that they are very friendly, helpful and nice people. But you are right. There should be always space for making own personal improvements.



After checking your website I caught what Hunter was pointing at. Showing up at GSFs with HJT logs, waiting for help and support and after that using collected information for an own forum. This is why I pointed at ASAP cause all boards being organized in there is it allowed to share and use information of other ASAP boards.



Hmmm so if you claim to be a ZA guru, I'm interested how you will explain me this here:





To be honest... I believe your words. But how you'd responded with that "one-liner" wasn't fine, cause you should know how to treat people looking for help in a board. Some global board rules for your community might be a great help.



That's what hunter meant: you can't expect to get help with highest level priority at nearly all avaiable Security Boards at the web and leaving all HJT requests open. Its unfair to those HJT experts which are giving help but have to wait til people like you are willing to respond.
I think you'll make your own experiences with such "problems" in your forum too.

Have a great day
B. Udo

Hi DeathOutdone and welcome here.

I saw you wish to know what is the best in every field...

if you want to know who is the best admin here, you can:


... IT'S ME!!! :rabz:

May was the time when I did not even know how forums work, much less forum or HJT posting etiquette. Again, I apologize for that. I now fully understand the frustration involved.

Sorry if I created a problem, it was not my intention.

Oh yes by the way TheSentinel, you should just read Zone Labs' official reply to the "spying" issue.

Tough to call one product better than another. I think it depenfds on your needs. For a novice like me, Zone Alarm Free is perfect. For a seasoned vet, they might like Outpost Pro best. Or maybe you are on an old computer and need a firewall that uses minimal resources. Not sure which one meets that citeria.

I always liked Sygate myself.

Me too, but when Symantec bought it and discontinued updates I switched to Kerio, now bought by Sunbelt but still available and updated. I think It´s a good, solid, resourse friendly firewall, with it`s own bugs of course but a good choise if you want my opinion. BTW, It turns to free after a 30 day trial so you can keep using it like Zone Alarm

www.checkpoint.com The Number 1 The Best firewall also they cost £££££££££££

Check Point products are mostly geared to Enterprise/Corporate(?)...here we are focused mainly on individuals/home users.....

Comodo Firewall Pro - top rated - free

Sygate may be the most effective personal firewall. It lacks a major vulnerability found in most other firewalls. Personal firewalls start after the OS is running and are shutdown before the OS ceases to run. This allows two time windows during which traffic can completely bypass the firewall. I have asked many personal firewall vendors about protection in these windows. Only two that I have found, have claimed to protect the computer during these times. One was Sygate. Using Ethereal, I have verified that the only traffic that Sygate passes is the needed housekeeping traffic associated with obtaining connection to the local LAN. When I monitored the other firewall that made such a claim, I learned that bypassing a firewall is a real threat. It allowed ten seconds of traffic at DSL speeds to bypass the firewall.

At this point I can only speculate where that traffic was going. It appears to be from call-home programs that are loaded before the firewall. Whether these are from malware or a Microsoft OS "feature," I do not know. I do know that if it is malware, it is so sophisticated that multiple malware scanners cannot find it. With that in mind I present the following:

1) The Sygate firewall may still be the best personal firewall available.

2) Please let me know if there are any other personal firewalls that really do prevent this kind of firewall bypassing attack.

3) Please let me know of any vulnerabilities in the Sygate firewall, particularly ones that are more serious than the bypass attack described above.

Thank you.

P. S. Please excuse this double post. I wrote part of this as an answer another post, then realized that it may be more relevant here.

Certainly a debatable subject, I have not performed packet filtering tests on this firewall, so I cannot make comparrision.
When you make such a statement, what is this based on?

Quite a lot of firewalls now run as a service and are normally initiated early to block attempts for outbound during boot,.. such as Jetico2, outpost pro, online armor as examples.

Sygate does not intercept loopback, so for one, there is limitation on what AVs can be used, or should I say, the latest versions of the popular AV`s now use localhost proxy, these cannot be fully used with sygate (the proxy needs to be disabled), as bypass of sygate can take place through the localproxy. There is also possible problem of malware making internal connections through loopback to internet allowed applications, this again can cause bypass.

Regards,

Have to go with Cachazz on this one, Comodo is my personal choice (HIPS off, DefenceWall installed).

However, as a none techie, I have to point out that all firewalls require a degree of involvement and if you don't understand the question.......
So the best firewall for anyone is most likely the one they best understand!

Happy New Year All.

I choose Zone alarm Free Edition(Vista supported.)

Regards.

I have been using Online Armor for a couple months and it works pretty well. Maybe others who have used it longer can chime in.

The Best!

Scot Finnie the Editor in chief of Computerworld has voted Online Armor as the Best Firewall Software of 2008, through his personal blog site titles Scot's Newsletter Blog.
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rohn