Windows XP w/SP2: Firewall any good?

[Ultralight]

I am sick of ZoneAlarmPro's perpetual propensity to interfer with internet surfing and downloading (often will freeze sites from loading, signing on, or downloading patches, etc.), gaming (I have to shut it down to get any decent framerates), and even Microsoft Office work.

So, is the XP firewall any good? I don't want to go freeware; I prefer software. And if you can also suggest a good anti-virus I certainly could use a suggestion their too. Thanks!

 

[xtknight]

NAT firewall (in router), a secure browser (FF or Opera), common sense, and for a virus scanner, NOD32. 🙂

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Ultralight
I am sick of ZoneAlarmPro's perpetual propensity to interfer with internet surfing and downloading (often will freeze sites from loading, signing on, or downloading patches, etc.), gaming (I have to shut it down to get any decent framerates), and even Microsoft Office work.

So, is the XP firewall any good? I don't want to go freeware; I prefer software. And if you can also suggest a good anti-virus I certainly could use a suggestion their too. Thanks!

The built-in firewall is fine, but there are, of course, better options. As for anti-virus, use AVG from grisoft. Use the free version as it works great.

 

[Ultralight]

minendo, does grisoft upate regularly? I never heard of it but I am certainly willing to look into it.

 

[BW86]

Router + Kerio 215 + AntiVir/AVG (NOD32 if you want to pay)

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Ultralight
minendo, does grisoft upate regularly? I never heard of it but I am certainly willing to look into it.

Sure does. Use it on all of my machines.

 

[Ultralight]

Originally posted by: BW86
Router + Kerio 215 + AntiVir/AVG (NOD32 if you want to pay)

What is Kerio 215?

 

[Evander]

kerio firewall version 2.15, said to be the best of lean firewalls, so i use it on my 800mhz/128MB laptop

 

[necro007]

Guys how good is that "kerio" firewall? Cause right now I'm using "ZoneAlarm(the free one)" so if that "kerio" is good i might switch.

So how good is it?

 

[Ultralight]

Originally posted by: Evander
kerio firewall version 2.15, said to be the best of lean firewalls, so i use it on my 800mhz/128MB laptop

"Lean" I take it as in free, and lean in what it does and what it offers?

 

[sindows]

Its been in my experience that most all firewalls are a pain to use so I use the one Windows provides. Minimal memory usage and I've not gotten a virus(yes I visit shady websites and no I don't use a limited account)...all I use is Adaware, Spybot and a crapload of online virus scanners 😀

I did use a freeware firewall that was pretty good but the name escapes me. I've never seen anyone mention it but it does a fairly good job, perhaps a bit too good. It would alert me of every little thing and I just got annoyed by it and uninstalled it...

The thing about AV and Firewalls are that they take up a fairly large amount of memory and if you only have 512Mb like me, there really isn't enough let over to comfortably play games on Windows. I normally use about 170Mb on the desktop without any Firewalls/AV but that number climbs to over 250 when I do have them installed.

 

[Evander]

Lean as in low usage of system resources (and it's free). How good is it? I'm no expert but Kerio has been around a long time, they have updated to newer versions but this version is always the recommended one due to low resource usage. See the consolidated security thread for more info.

It is a pain to use at first b/c it catches EVERYTHING inbound and outbound, and you have manually set the rules for each process such as "always allow this program" so the message won't appear again.

It's good for my aging laptop with Win2K (which doesn't have Windows Firewall), but on my more modern XP box I'm perfectly happy with the Windows Firewall, which is easy to maintain.