Someone help me find a free software firewall

[jazzboy]

I'm trying to find a (at least not too bad) free firewall that supports internet connection sharing. I'm doing internet sharing via the standard windows way.

I've tried using comodo and I followed the instructions but still couldn't get internet sharing to work unless I turned off network rules, which doesn't sound good.

Have tried the last version of sygate and that worked until it kept stopping downloads half way through on client machines :roll:

Other firewalls, I've just found too complex to use - like for one of them, how am I supposed to know if some server on the internet is supposed to be able to contact my machine?

Can anyone help me here?

I was also thinking about perhaps using an older version of zonealarm which does support ICS but would that not be a good idea, like in terms of security?

Sorry if I come across as a bit daft.

 

[nova2]

perhaps instead of ICS you should try nat32e. The evaluation version runs for 2 hours then exits, every time you run it.

Sygate personal firewall pro + nat32e works for me.

 

[John]

Why would you even consider ICS when a cable/dsl router is under $20? The time that you're going to save in frustration with ICS alone is worth that much.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: John
Why would you even consider ICS when a cable/dsl router is under $20? The time that you're going to save in frustration with ICS alone is worth that much.

QFT. And if you're behind a router doing NAT for you, then you really don't need to bother with firewall software at all - nothing outside talks to your machines unless you explicitly forward the ports across in the router. The true tinfoil-hat types may want a firewall to monitor outgoing connections as well, but for most people that's overkill. It's just so much easier not to use ICS.

 

[Medea]

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