Choosing a firewall

incognitu · Feb 20, 2004

Hi,

Can you help me?

I've been using Tiny Personal Firewall (back from the days it was free) and if I remember, it was one of the best (according to grc.com).

Now I feel that it is a bit out of date, and want to upgrade. I've checked the new Tiny Personal Firewall (altough it's no longer freeware, the version I use is very good, and so, I'm willing to pay for it, if this new version is as good as the old).

Other firewall i've been looking into, is Kerio Persoanl Firewall (that it's free for personal use by removing some features, which I don't really care about).

Can you tell me if these are good firewalls? What other (good) offers do you recommend?

Thank You!

banzibaby · Feb 20, 2004

Hi

Tiny version 5 is kinda bloated & slow, i have heard others say the gui is frankly hideous & when i tried it it took ages to refresh a section wondow, also it not a firewall for fokk that dont much about them, Kerio 4.0.11 seems good, some of the earlier 4x versions were bugged to hell, it seems more stable & still light on resources i did use Outpost 2 pro & have just moved up to version 2.1, works for me

BaNzI

catachresis · Feb 20, 2004

I'm coming to the end of a 30 day evaluation version of Visnetic. It seems a little difficult to set-up new configurations that are in addition to the applications detected by the wizard. Moreover, it uses "stateful" detection, doesn't pinpoint individual new application requests, and does not conceal all aspects of web browser and OS from detection.

But it is very fast -- faster than Outpost or Sygate. I use dialup, and I appreciate something that shaves a second or three off a web-page load. Moreover, I found that Outpose seemed to be overy protective of updated dlls for monitored applications, and there were occasional hangs as Outpost choked on some new bit of code. Visnetic seems a trifle expensive ($59, I think), but it feels very light. I'm tempted.

I also tried Look'n'stop's evaluation, and had miserable problems with its application monitoring and wiggy uninstall procedure. It looks the bomb, it's so small, but I'm staying clear.

VIPER_1069 · Feb 20, 2004

@BANZI and anyone else who cares to know re KERIO

posted this elsewhere but ...

i just had a mess about with WINDOWS WATCHER that shows hidden windows or background processes that is avail from karens power tools page plus many other great free little tools ......and it shows ....

a hidden box running called TINY personal fire wall engine as running yet its listed as part of KERIO PF4

are they one and the same with different GUI'S !? who makes TINY PFW anyhow !?

HMMMMM THE PLOT thickens !?

answers please in the box below lol .......

catachresis · Feb 20, 2004

Karen's Window Watcher is a nice app. Thanks Viper.

Bytheway, I believe that at one time, the new commercial incarnation of freeware Tiny PFW became named Kerio Firewall. I think this is so.

incognitu · Feb 20, 2004

Yes, it is true.

Some time ago, Tiny Personal Firewall (the free edition) became Kerio Personal Firewall. That's why I think Kerio is a good firewall (it is based on the old Tiny, which was very good)

VIPER_1069 · Feb 20, 2004

thanks for that catachresis and incognitu

lol they could of changed ALL the branding though lol

@catachresis try the directory lister thats what got me to karens power tools site in the 1st place

all VERY GOOD freeware too

catachresis · Feb 20, 2004

Good stuff, Viper. Thanks.

Lynxcds · Feb 20, 2004

Zone Alarm is a very good fire wall also

nosher · Feb 20, 2004

using sygate 5.5 its superb. not had any probs yet

aybesea · Feb 20, 2004

I finally stopped using NIS and took the time to convert things to Zone Alarm Pro... I've been very happy thus far.

scarecrow · Feb 20, 2004

Picking up a good firewall is surely enough an arduous task.
For Win 9X/ME, the choice is pretty obvious: the old Kerio 2.1.5, plus a good sandbox (which this Kerio version lacks). Fortunately enough, System Safety Monitor (freeware, like Kerio 2.1.5) works like a charm.
For 2000/XP things are more complex.
Simplest solution is using (for XP) the embedded firewall (works just fine for filtering inbound traffic) and System Safety Monitor as a sandbox.
Another one is using a hardware firewall/router, no soft firewall, and SSM as sandbox.
The best overall software firewall must be Tiny Personal Firewall, but it is extremely fuussy to set up properly, and its GUI is at best stupidly designed. Personally,I cannot stand it.
The three best players are supposed to be Outpost, Sygate and Zonelabs. However, the last versions of their firewalls issued are pure rubbish- all three of them. Cuurrently, all three are pretty BAD.
A great firewall, with tiny footprint is Look'N'Stop- but it has LOADS of hardware issues- just try it and if it works, then it's fine... if not, forget it.
And there is also Kerio 4.0.11- greatly improved over previous versions, but on my system it STILL fails pretty trivial tests like GRC's "shields up"- I have to use it together with XP's firewall for decent results.

big_gie · Feb 21, 2004

I onced use Zone Alarm, then Zone Alarm Pro, and I liked them: they are REALLY simple if you don't know a thing about firewalls! Thats why I installed it on my grandma's computer (and on my girlfriend's... heeh

)

But for you folks how look foward a more complete firewall, I must suggest Outpost. The gui is really nice and simple, but yet really powerfull. I remmenber it was the firewall that had the highest score on a firewall ranking page, with Look'N'Stop. I tryed the later but it never worked... as scarecrow said, if it doesn't work on your computer, just flush it.

Outpost can check the dlls programs are using, but its really a pain to always identfy them... After some month I just disabled this feature as it was only slowing things down... Maybe System Safety Monitor could be usefull, but it never ran on my computer, it always crashed... Maybe in a near format will I retry it...

Please don't count on XP's built in firewall... Since when have we given windows the responsability for computer security??? Never, and never will!
Be sure to use 3th party software.

I may suggest also a hardware firewall - router. It filters just the most you don't want so your software firewall don't go crazy! Takes the ressources down...

Good luck!!!

banzibaby · Feb 21, 2004

Hmmm, i thought U were a fan of outpost scarecrow?

2.1 working fine for me, apart from i hafd to reenable logging as i had lost the attack detection popups

Question for scarecrow, last night i was lookin the lan settings in outpost, along with my network addy (with netbios off) there was another listed that began 192??, with netbios on, just to be on safe side , i removed it & unchecked auto detect new network

BaNzI

zver · Feb 21, 2004

SYGATE rules the WORLD..Kerio2 too

Denexo · Feb 21, 2004

scarecrow
I have to use it together with XP's firewall for decent results.

XP´s Firewall should not be active, because it communicates with Microsoft

big_gie
Thats why I installed it on my grandma's computer (and on my girlfriend's... heeh )

At my girlfriend’s pc ill never install a firewall but a Trojan so I can spy and have the control over it.

<o

></o

>

serjer · Feb 21, 2004

lol
i still prefer 2 use my outpost 2 instead of kerio coz i got 2 many complications with the betas & rc in which i ended having to make a clean installation of my os at the end of the day...

scarecrow · Feb 21, 2004

I also liked Outpost (although not really mad about the way it sets rules...), but still version 2.1 fails leak tests other firewalls never miss. The reason is rather obscure (I guess the unorthodox way it handles loopback traffic...), but it seems it is a program bug- just watch many related threads @ the Outpost unofficial forum.
And yes, I'm dead serious that the XP firewall plus SSM is a WORKING and THOROUGH solution. SSM is a terrific sandboxer, and completely free. It's memory footprint is not something to worry you.
For non-XP users, I guess Kerio 2.1.5 (now not present at Kerio site) and SSM should be just great.

dx · Feb 22, 2004

scarecrow said:
... I'm dead serious that the XP firewall plus SSM is a WORKING and THOROUGH solution. SSM is a terrific sandboxer, and completely free. It's memory footprint is not something to worry you.

I've been using SSM for about 48 hours now and must say it's excellent. I have a rather robust hardware Firewall and was using Kerio v2.15. But it was getting old and caused me problems when trying to go into system standby. I was mainly using as a sandbox anyway.

Now I have SSM thanks to you and couldn't be happier. It's a great sandbox! Thanks for the tip scarecrow.

BTW, every link I have tried to get SSM is slow as molasses. It's only 535kb, but even the best site was 25 minutes. I have always believed that we (as a Forum) should give credit where credit is due, so I will give the link here (warning slow). But since the download is so very slow I will attach it here until I know there is a faster mirror.

VIPER_1069 · Feb 22, 2004

thanks for that dx I will test this later this week @ the moment im using kerio 4.10

but its startin to be a pain in the butt complaining about everything

Choosing a firewall

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