My client new laptop has W8 64bit and he wanted to used Windows Firewall along with Avast Free, and I’m asking only to those W8 firewall user only and I’m not interesting a 3rd party software firewall.
Could you please recommend me a good Windows firewall control for both inbound & outbound traffic for W8 firewall for those who have used it as user friendly, and could you please share me with you’re views and why do you think this windows firewall control is better keep in mind I’m still learning about the new W8 firewall see link below or if you know another windows firewall control software please share with details.
Bob does not use a Windows Firewall alert program. He just uses Windows Firewall. Keep in mind that these 3rd party Windows Firewall alert programs are extremely chatty and most need to be paid for to get the full settings.
Regardless of OS…Not much difference between 7 and 8 except for the live tiles. Best place for help like this is Wilders Security. But I tried them all myself and TinyWall was the best but still extremely chatty.
Personally i really like TinyWall. And NO it’s not chatty at all since it works differently to other firewalls and does not display any popups. For sure i would be using it if i didn’t already have a security suite with in-built fw. The other 2 options you mentioned are very good aswell, only thing i don’t like is the price of the SphinxSoftware product compared to the other 2. I suggest you try them all out and pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
Most firewalls are based on the same interaction principles. Basically, whenever an application is trying to access the internet, display a popup asking the user what to do. This is not only annoying for the user, but also less than secure. On an average computer, a lot of applications are trying to access the internet but not all of them actually require a network connection. Displaying a popup for each app makes it very probable that unneeded applications will gain access to the network, as it increases the likelyhood of the user granting unnecessary rights to some applications. Also, depending on how a particular firewall works, the user can be asked multiple times for even the same program, which will also lead to the user becoming less and less aware of what he actually allows.
The solution
TinyWall takes a different approach. It does not display popups that “urge users to allow”. In fact, it will not notify you of any blocked action. Instead of showing popups, TinyWall makes it easy to whitelist or unblock applications by different means. For example, you can just initiate whitelisting by a hotkey, then click on a window that you want to allow. Or, you can select an application from the list of running processes. (Of course, the traditional way of selecting an executable also works.) This approach avoids popups but still keeps the firewall very easy to use. It will also limit the list of unblocked programs to those that the user really needs, which is optimal from a security standpoint.
Another one that would deserve an honorable mention is Windows Firewall Notifier but that does not play ball with Windows 8, yet. http://wokhan.online.fr/progs.php?sec=WFN