Just wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a firewall, ive looked at a few(Privatefirewall, Online Armor, Comodo, and few others). Ive used comodos before with there cis but it seems to use a lot of memory to me, and im currently trying private fire wall, so far theres nothing i dont like about it.
There is nothing wrong with Windows Firewall. The problem with most good 3rd party firewall is that they contain a HIPS product which will interfere with Avast’s own behavior shield. Windows Firewall has come a long way since XP. Also if your behind a router your even more protected. Comodo,Online Armor,PC Tools and Outpost are all very good 3rd party firewalls. But keep in mind that each one will give you tons of pop ups. If you want to spend your days clicking “Allow” or “Block” try anyone of them. Its your call but there are better ways to make your pc safer other then adding a 3rd party firewall and packing on more processes which consume your ram.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?s=0809e15cc8eb4b51c410adf076c6f027&t=239750
well i am behind a firewall on my router, that was another question i had since my friend also said that the default windows firewall should be fine if your behind a router.
I recommend ZoneAlarm Free. http://www.filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/
Or
Windows 7 Firewall Control Free. http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html
There are versions for XP, Vista & Windows 7 32bit and Vista & Windows 7 64bit.
The built in Windows fw and router fw’s don’t have outbound protection.
Windows 7 Firewall Control Free adds outbound protection to the Windows fw and/or router fw. 
ZA Free is a joke. Ii is no better then Windows XP firewall and worse then Windows Vista/7 firewall. With Windows 7 Firewall set to Advanced I can score a 230/340 on the Comodo CLT test. But with ZA Free I get a 150/340. Also ZA is right down on the bottom of Matousec testing. ZA Pro is good but the free version is horrible. Windows Firewall Control is good but extremely chatty. Out bound protection is over rated and YES Windows Vista/7 Firewall does have outbound protect when properly configured. Even without using a guide to configure it you still get outbound control.
Matousec tests HIPS, not firewalls.
Just because a fw doesn’t have HIPS dosen’t make it bad. The avast! fw in AIS doesn’t have HIPS.
ZA Free is the best free fw.
Matousec does not test just HIPS. Its a firewall testing company but in today’s age most firewalls have HIPS. Download the Comodo CLT test and give me your test score in a screen shot. I bet its not more then 200. ZA Free was good about 8 years ago.
That is a very poor example, as much as I’m no fan of ZA it has to be better than the XP firewall as that has zero outbound protection.
When you use daft statements/examples like this it depreciates the rest of your comments, but then you compound it by saying outbound protection is over rated.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same (we see plenty of cases like this in the viruses and worms forum), pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
Connections made from your system, if not challenged by the outbound protection of your firewall are allowed back in unchecked by your firewall.
We see lots of cases of the network shield blocking outbound connections to known malicious sites, so if is wasn’t taking up the slack (or that site wasn’t currently on the malicious sites list), if you didn’t have a firewall with outbound protection security is breached.
Kind of blows a hole in the outbound protection being overrated, tell that to those experiencing this in the viruses and worms forum and see if they agree.
The one thing I do agree with is that ZA free is most certainly not the best free firewall.
The Vista and Win 7 fw’s don’t really have any worthwhile outbound protection.
When the are properly configured they do have outbound, but you aren’t notified, so its worthless, IMO.
Not true at all with a little add on. Also what do you need to be notified of? Thats why there are logs. Any good advanced computer uses should have full knowledge of every process and service on his pc.
If something wants out which should be allowed out its already too late. ZA Free CANNOT protect you any better then Windows Visat/7 Firewall. Thats a fact.
When making a fw recommendation one must consider a person’s skill, knowledge and understanding of fw’s.
ZA’s user friendlyness is a safe recommedation.
I gave up on ZA free years ago. it turned into bloated up junk. It was a pain to network and constantly had to be tweaked for the network to work. I use Comodo free with no problems.
Joe
When a member asks a question we should provide them with the best answer possible. Recommending an inadequate firewall is NOT a good way to treat our members.
Thats like telling somebody to use ClamWin for a good free av.
Agree. ZA is user friendly.
I just think there are better ones.
In my personal opinion:
Comodo (Defense+ is HIPS and you should configure it to a comfortable level for you).
Online Armour
OutPost Free Security Suite
ZA Free CANNOT protect you any better then Windows Visat/7 Firewall. Thats a fact.
One of my nephews was sent a malicious file with yahoo im that infected his laptop. He was using the Win7 fw.
I was finally able to get him to install ZA Free. On next day he was sent another file, but ZA popped up asking if he wanted to allow it, he quickly clicked NO.
ZA Free saved the day. 
I still can’t keep him away from Yahoo im. 
But it is much more easy to configurate and use.
Also allows outbound protection with easy.
If ZA Free was is so great then download this test and show me your score. I can score higher with Windows 7 Firewall then with ZA Free installed. Keep it simple. Windows Vista/7 Firewall w/Advanced Security and a router w/NAT is all you need. Why does everyone want to pack on so much extra processes and ram usage to there pc. :
http://www.testmypcsecurity.com/securitytests/firewall_test_suite.html
And what exactly was the malicious file sent through Yahoo Messenger? Why didn’t your real time av stop it? How do you know it was malicious? I would tend to look at what kind of friends you nephews is chatting to that are sending him malicious files.
i recommend comodo firewall rather than zone alarm 
but its your personal choice…