Recomend a Free Firewall for me.

[Googer]

I have been a big user/fan of Sygate Professional but since they were recently basterdized (aquired) by Symantec who has a big reputation for gutting and ruining great software, I am now in need of a new firewall.

Two things I am really looking for are:

[*]Low useage of system reasources. Sygate was awesome at using very little.
[*]It must be very effective at keeping away port scanners. I have been having problems with scanners from a small handfull of the same Chineese IP address.
[*]Must work with Windows 2000 Professional SP4
[*]Open Source is a bonus but not a must have or requirement.

Please make some recomendations for me. While I am at it, dont bother recomending Zone Alarm, I have been down that route and wont do it again.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Kerio

 

[Kaido]

Just curious, why not ZoneAlarm? In all my years of using it, I've only encountered one problem with it, an isolated incident where the customer installed it and his keyboard stopped working.

 

[Umberger]

Kerio.

 

[voodoochylde]

Agnitum Outpost.

 

[Mikey]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Just curious, why not ZoneAlarm? In all my years of using it, I've only encountered one problem with it, an isolated incident where the customer installed it and his keyboard stopped working.

ZA uses a lot of memory. i still like it and use it though.

 

[Lorthreth]

Sunbelt Kerio

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: Mikey

Originally posted by: Kaido
Just curious, why not ZoneAlarm? In all my years of using it, I've only encountered one problem with it, an isolated incident where the customer installed it and his keyboard stopped working.

ZA uses a lot of memory. i still like it and use it though.

Looking at my task manager, ZA's using 4.5MB of RAM, while FF's using 106MB. Am I missing something here?

 

[Sid59]

what's wrong with your version of sygate? i still use ver 5.5

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Lorthreth
Sunbelt Kerio

But Sunbelt Kerio is not free.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Sid59
what's wrong with your version of sygate? i still use ver 5.5

I lost my key for it, two the definitions have not been updated, and three some holes have been discovered in the software. Since Sygate Security Inc is no longer in buisness those flaws won't be getting patched up any time soon.

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: Mikey

Originally posted by: Kaido
Just curious, why not ZoneAlarm? In all my years of using it, I've only encountered one problem with it, an isolated incident where the customer installed it and his keyboard stopped working.

ZA uses a lot of memory. i still like it and use it though.

Looking at my task manager, ZA's using 4.5MB of RAM, while FF's using 106MB. Am I missing something here?

ditto. for me, i have the ZASS, it is using 7MB of RAM for Firewall, Anti-virus, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Spam. am i missing something here? but if you want something else, try Comodo it's free and easy to use or so i've read.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: Mikey

Originally posted by: Kaido
Just curious, why not ZoneAlarm? In all my years of using it, I've only encountered one problem with it, an isolated incident where the customer installed it and his keyboard stopped working.

ZA uses a lot of memory. i still like it and use it though.

Looking at my task manager, ZA's using 4.5MB of RAM, while FF's using 106MB. Am I missing something here?

ditto. for me, i have the ZASS, it is using 7MB of RAM for Firewall, Anti-virus, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Spam. am i missing something here? but if you want something else, try Comodo it's free and easy to use or so i've read.

Thanks for the recomendation but this posing at avast's forums says it uses 38MB of ram.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20208.30

 

[Sid59]

anyone know how to globally reset rules in comodo?

i was playing with it to test functions and i can't connect to the internet on some programs.

 

[ForumMaster]

o well. never tried comodo but read good things about it. though just one question, why must you have a program that uses as little ram as possible? how much RAM do you have?

 

[Iron Woode]

if you have an old pc kicking around and some nics, you could make your own router/firewall using Freesco like I did.

takes only 10 mins to setup on the hdd.

 

[Sid59]

i ditched comodo cause it was annoying me, mainly because i wanted to mess with settings and had no way to revert back, and it noticably slowed down surfing habits. Might have been a coincidence with a slow server at the time. i'll never know for sure, so that the last comment with a grain of salt.

i just went with Jetico Firewall. An amazing firewall @ less than 12 MBS in memory usage. I mainly switched from Sygate 5.6 because it failed horribly on a certain 'leak' test that allowed a txt file to be written on my computer. Specifically, the test is http://www.firewallleaktester.com/leaktest19.htm . I tried the other tests on that site and it stood up and antivir even marked some of the files as virii, i'm pretty sure false positives but assuring since the tests are meant to be malicious.

 

[her209]

IPSec filtering...

 

[Cloud Strife]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
if you have an old pc kicking around and some nics, you could make your own router/firewall using Freesco like I did.

takes only 10 mins to setup on the hdd.

That doesn't give the OP the ability to see every outbound connection on his computer.

OP, I believe Windows Defender will work.

 

[pontifex]

why are some posts immediately bashed by people for posting in the wrong forum and then others get like 50 replies with no problem?

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Lorthreth
Sunbelt Kerio

But Sunbelt Kerio is not free.

$9.95

If you can't afford that, a firewall is the least of your problems.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
if you have an old pc kicking around and some nics, you could make your own router/firewall using Freesco like I did.

takes only 10 mins to setup on the hdd.

How does that work? Dont I need two NICs in the spare pc? Do I connect my primary PC to the server via NULL/Crossover cable?

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Lorthreth
Sunbelt Kerio

But Sunbelt Kerio is not free.

$9.95

If you can't afford that, a firewall is the least of your problems.

On Sunbelt Software's website, it has a list price of $29, I can afford it but I am a cheapskate and love free software.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Lorthreth
Sunbelt Kerio

But Sunbelt Kerio is not free.

$9.95

If you can't afford that, a firewall is the least of your problems.

On Sunbelt Software's website, it has a list price of $29, I can afford it but I am a cheapskate and love free software.

I think I found what I am looking for-

http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests.php

Kaspersky beat the snot out of Kerio Firewall and on the free side I am going to use Jetico Personal Firewall for Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP v.1 freeware

Thanks for all the help and I hope you all find my link helpful.

EDIT: Gamers should give ghostwall a stong look, it is tough on security and low on system resources!

 

[udonoogen]

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/alex/keriopf215.zip

i use the old version of kerio... recommended by this thread in the software forum:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=33&threadid=1658987&enterthread=y