Free Firewall

[johnson550]

Is there a good firewall to had for free, I have searched and seen some but I would just like to use one someone can recomend.

 

[Stu DemonD]

Zonealarm is free - although I don't use it.

 

[ChrisUK]

I take it you use a ADSL/Cable router? Whats wrong with the built in one? Probably a simple setting change and voila your covered. Although it can get a little tedious when your first allowing exceptions.

 

[johnson550]

Chris I wasnt aware there is a builtin firewall and I wouldnt know where to look to actuate it. I have a Netgear DG834G router if thats any help for anyone to give me a clue.

 

[Chas Uno]

Zonealarm is free - although I don't use it.

:yeahthat:

I had it on an old machine but found it hogs memory. Or at least it did on my ancient PC

Don't Win XP and and all subsequent OS's have built in firewalls? My XP Pro does and that's all I've used for over two years without any problems.

 

[ChrisUK]

Yes "Windows Firewall" was included with Windows XP SP2 and onwards.

By default your router will protect against all unrequested inbound traffic (except for Port forwarding rules you may have set up). Unless you have UPNP enabled I recommend disabling UPNP on your router. Basically what this does is allows your Windows PC to request certain ports be let open, this is all well an good unless you get a Trojan program on your computer which can then open all the ports it wants.

By default your router will also allow ALL outbound traffic. This is probably a good thing as if you disabled that you would have to manually Allow all other traffic you want to go out (HTTP, HTTPS, DNS,POP, IMAP etc). And any other traffic you haven't explicitly allowed will get blocked.

If your not really confident doing the above I'd just recommend disabling UPNP on your router and then using either Windows Firewall (check the settings), or ZoneAlarm etc. This should be perfectly adequate for an average home user.

 

[johnson550]

Yes "Windows Firewall" was included with Windows XP SP2 and onwards.

Forgot about that one Ive been using McAfee cause its free as Im on AOL but Im kicking them into touch sick of them.

 

[ChrisUK]

Yes McAfee is just about the most resource hungry security package you can get!. Don't forget to get an Antivirus package once you get rid such as AVG or Avast!.

 

[arc]

Yes McAfee is just about the most resource hungry security package you can get!.

don't forget Norton!

 

[ChrisUK]

don't forget Norton!

Yeah true although later ones aren't quite as bad as McAfee. Although not far off .

 

[johnson550]

Yes McAfee is just about the most resource hungry security package you can get!. Don't forget to get an Antivirus package once you get rid such as AVG or Avast!.

OK thanks for the info.