I tried some free Firewalls like Comodo,Pc Tools,Zone Alarm and some are heavy on resources some are slowing my internet surfing and playing online games like CounterStrike. So I know that Outpost Firewall free is not slowing anything of that and it’s low on resources but I’m not sure will it conflict with Avast, because Outpost has HOST Protection and I think that is monitoring files behaviour and Avast has Behavior shield. So any tip would be great Please Help. Thank you
There shouldn’t be any conflict, I certainly haven’t seen any and I have been using Outpost and avast for over seven years.
There should be no need to disable the avast behaviour shield, I have had that on since it was introduced and no conflict with Outpost’s Host protection.
Aside from this isn’t the latest Outpost firewall, 7.x is, but in the free version it is now a suite, but it recognises avast is installed during installation. It asks you to confirm you have avast installed, answer yes and it doesn’t install the AV, web control or anti-spyware modules to retain compatibility.
Whilst Outpost would have you exclude its folder from avast scans, I don’t feel that is required, if outpost is running in its compatibility mode with no anti-spyware and no web control modules running.
Personally other than a single file exclusion I don’t believe you need exclude the Outpost folder, I haven’t in all of the time that I have been using avast and outpost together and that is many years.
This is the file and path that I have in the File System Shield, Expert Settings, Exclusions section, C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall Pro\wl_hook.dll (easiest it to copy and paste this full path). This file is as its name implies a hooking tool that outpost uses to monitor activity also and is the only file where I ever had any issue with avast.
I’ve tried as many decent Free Firewalls including all four you have and a few more back when I was still on XP 32 SP2/3 and I had no conflicts with older versions of Avast up to 5. My experience was similar to yours with them either being heavy on resources or slowing things down, not to mention that some were pop full of ads which kind of defeated the purpose. My choice at the time was Outpost, followed by Online Armour then Comodo.
Outpost was good for me until I upgraded to W7 so I had to switch at the time to the best compatible at the time for Free which was Online Armour, which I’m still using, although I think it causes SAS to BSOD if I scan with it. Comodo isn’t a bad option either out of the rest, but I have to say its AV makes both XP & W7 lag terribly. You can opt out of having the Comodo AV when you install the FW which I think you would have to if you are using Avast as your AV since they conflict AFAIK.
With Windows 7 you no longer need a 3rd party firewall. ;D
I tried OA 5.0 but running 5 processes and asking me every question in the world except what color underwear I have on was just too much. For those who like Comodo…DO NOT DOWNLOAD CIS.
You need to read up on the advancements in Windows 7 firewall then. There are tons of articles. Just head on over to Wilders security and they will tell you. As long as your behind a router w/NAT all you need is Windows 7 firewall and Avast. Add system hardening tools for even more protection.
Windows 7 Firewall w/Advanced Security configured has inbound and outbound protection. But your inbound traffic should be controlled by your hardware firewall.
