I have personally used the following
ZoneAlarm - http://www.zonealarm.com
Sygate - http://smb.sygate.com/prod
Tiny Personal Firewall - http://www.tinysoftware.co
Norton Personal Firewall - http://www.symantec.com/sa
I have used both Norton Personal Firewall 2005 and Norton Internet Security 2004 Professional. I found both to be buggy, unstable, slow, and difficult to uninstall. If you try this one, be sure to do a full system backup first.
The first Appliation Firewall I ever used was Tiny Personal Firewall. It used to be a small, fast and stable application that has grown less stable, much larger and a little bit slower. Documentation is pretty spartan and the interface is not as intuitive as it could be. I really loved the early versions of this program, but lately it has not impressed me. I would not recommend the current version.
I tried ZoneAlarm, and it worked fine. Easy to use interface, stable and free! I can't recall having any issues with this program.
I moved on to Sygate after a co-worker recommended it and found it to be very stable and easy to use. I used the free one and ended up purchasing the Pro version. I was very happy with this application.
Building the rules, as with all application firewalls was a pain, but once set I pretty much forgot about it.
I now use WIn XP SP2 behind a firewall. For the most part I just like the pop-up-blocker features in the SP2 firewall. But, I have found after seveal years of using an application firewall that my computing habbits do not open me to much risk. I am behind a firewall, and I periodically scan with Adware detection software, and I almost never install non-commercial software, so I havn't had any problems. So now I don't use any application firewall at all; it's just one less application to maintain on my system.
Visit http://www.download.com and do a search for firewalls. Some will have user reviews describing what they liked or didn't like about the application. after you narrow your list down try at least 2 or 3 to see which one you like. Technically, either the free Zone Alarm or free version of Sygate will meet your needs. Both are easy to use, and stable, but try them out for yourself.
Good luck!
ZoneAlarm - http://www.zonealarm.com
Sygate - http://smb.sygate.com/prod
Tiny Personal Firewall - http://www.tinysoftware.co
Norton Personal Firewall - http://www.symantec.com/sa
I have used both Norton Personal Firewall 2005 and Norton Internet Security 2004 Professional. I found both to be buggy, unstable, slow, and difficult to uninstall. If you try this one, be sure to do a full system backup first.
The first Appliation Firewall I ever used was Tiny Personal Firewall. It used to be a small, fast and stable application that has grown less stable, much larger and a little bit slower. Documentation is pretty spartan and the interface is not as intuitive as it could be. I really loved the early versions of this program, but lately it has not impressed me. I would not recommend the current version.
I tried ZoneAlarm, and it worked fine. Easy to use interface, stable and free! I can't recall having any issues with this program.
I moved on to Sygate after a co-worker recommended it and found it to be very stable and easy to use. I used the free one and ended up purchasing the Pro version. I was very happy with this application.
Building the rules, as with all application firewalls was a pain, but once set I pretty much forgot about it.
I now use WIn XP SP2 behind a firewall. For the most part I just like the pop-up-blocker features in the SP2 firewall. But, I have found after seveal years of using an application firewall that my computing habbits do not open me to much risk. I am behind a firewall, and I periodically scan with Adware detection software, and I almost never install non-commercial software, so I havn't had any problems. So now I don't use any application firewall at all; it's just one less application to maintain on my system.
Visit http://www.download.com and do a search for firewalls. Some will have user reviews describing what they liked or didn't like about the application. after you narrow your list down try at least 2 or 3 to see which one you like. Technically, either the free Zone Alarm or free version of Sygate will meet your needs. Both are easy to use, and stable, but try them out for yourself.
Good luck!
