[Looking for a free firewall]

Where can I find a free firewall installation? I have been told that zonelab has a free one but when checking I could find nothing free.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

http://soho.sygate.com/products/shield_ov.htm

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/profree.html

http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html

All are free, but I'd recommend the last on the list as the best.

 

firewalls

Thanks for all the suggestions---I'll check'em all out---

 

Arie said, "Yep, my vote is for Kerio too.... Definitely NOT ZoneAlarm! "...

perhaps you have written extensively on this topic, and i have missed it, but would you mind elaborating on your strong anti-zonealarm stance?

i look forward to your response. thank you



mark

 

Have a gander at this thread.

 

hi brett

thank you for directing me to that thread. i read every post.

i like what you said about gibson being a good guy. i would disagree with you that his promotion of zaf/zap is excessive. here's why... being that he is, as you say, just one man, and being that he is, shall we say, intimately involved with pc security issues, why then are his recommendations viewed as promotion rather than as personal endorsements?

point being, if he is emphatic about a product's reliability and thoroughness, why should he temper than enthisiasm just because many people read his opinions?

why should gibson tone down any opinion of his if he feels he is steering folks in the right direction?

and lastly, brett, after reading through every post on the thread, what do i find but this, from you....

"In my opinion, both TPF and Outpost (linked to above) are better options for the average user than either ZAF or ZAP. I would explain the reasons for my making this assertion, but time presses! "

maybe you'd go into just a few for us?

interestingly, i've read opinions that say zaf/zap are better for the average user due to their comparative ease of configuration, whereas kerio or sygate or some of the others tend towards greater complexity.

prior to getting behind a linky BEFSR41, i was at one time running bid, npf and zaf simultaneously. i gravitated away from bid, then when i hooked up the router, i noticed that npf was dramatically slowing my upload speed on cox cable modem, so i shut it down.

today i run zaf and the linky and feel pretty good. but i am always on the look out for a better software firewall, if zaf is shown to be less than top drawer.

thank you for your input.



mark

 

You're welcome

I simply find it a little suspicious that SG so fervently endorses a product (in which he states that he has no financial interest whatsoever) when that product is actually no better than many of the other products which are currently available. Similarly, I find it a tad suspicious that as soon as ZL joined forces with Linksys and TrendMicro to offer an all-in-one security package, SG became equally enthusiastic about those other products too. To quote SG:

Personal endorsement? Or marketing?

I did so in the thread to which I linked:

In relation to Outpost, it offers the same level of security as either ZAF and ZAP and the free version of Outpost packs more-or-less an identical set of features to ZAP and many more featues that ZAF. In the interests of fairness, I should maybe point out that I am not without a degree of bias in relation to Outpost as I was involved with the project from its very early beta days.

I think that Scott (Hulka) summed things up fairly well by saying:

Seems like a pretty fair assessment!

There's nothing whatsoever wrong with either ZAF or the Linky. As I said in the other thread:

HTH.

 

brett

i feel like i'm on the cusp of switching software firewalls, which explains my curiosity. the zaf issues you noted are all quite valid, particularly the uninstall glitches.

i haven't personally experienced probs with v3.0 because i read of the difficulties others were having with the new release and elected to stay with v2.6.357. it suits me well on my win2000pro and win98se machine. but my winxp machine shows some slight zaf weirdness from time to time in the form of server rights alerts that do not properly identify the application that is doing the asking. i believe that a reinstall might correct the prob, but i've had no real motivation to do it.

let me say that i do understand your SG suspicions. one can read him either way (enthusiast or promoter?) and back their opinion with facts. <g>

i think i'll look into outpost a little more. your recommendation for same is a good one.

thanks again, it does help



mark

 

any thoughts on Outpost's ability to protect one's pc from start up?

for instance, i notice that zaf seems to take quite awhile to load when i boot the machine. i've often wondered about those moments of vulnerability.

upon perusing the Kerio site ( http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_features.html ), i see in their feature overview that...

"KPF can be run as a service to ensure the computer is protected from startup. "

also, for anyone interested in a rather remarkable firewall feature comparison chart, here is one assembled by Outpost....

http://www.agnitum.com/php_scripts/compare.php



mark

 

Hmmm. There is a slight issue with Outpost which shall be rectified in version 2 (soon to be released as a public beta).

The "Outpost Firewall Service" launches early during boot with the GUI being launched somewhat later during the process. A machine is, therefore, protected in advance of the loading of the GUI. This is standard behaviour in most (if not all) firewalls. However, the glitch which is currently present in Outpost results in User Rules loading with the GUI rather than the OFS (which is what one would expect (and hope!) to happen) so leaving the OFS running in "Allow Most Mode" up until the GUI is loaded.

IMO this is a relatively minor flaw (affecting only users with permanent connections) as it could only be exploited by malware that had been installed (without detection) during a previous Windows session and which was configured to run (and act) during the earliest stages of boot. It is, however, one of the reasons why I currently recommend Kerio as being a better choice than Outpost.

 

piggy-backing on comments regarding moments of vulnerability during startup, when some firewalls have not yet loaded, i think that this little freeware utility (below) fits in very nicely.

i have been using it for quite a long time now and i love to see the **** it catches! and of course, i get to decide if i want it to execute or not! very cool, imo.

"StartupMonitor

StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents those utterly useless tray applications from registering themselves behind your back, and it acts as a security tool against trojans like BackOrifice or Netbus.

StartupMonitor does not require Startup Control Panel, but it complements it nicely. When you choose not to allow a program to register itself, the program's entry becomes disabled in Startup Control Panel, so you can go back and enable it later if necessary. StartupMonitor watches the Start Menu's Startup folders and the Run entries in the registry.

StartupMonitor has been tested on Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP; unfortunately, it does not function correctly under Windows 95 because of some unimplemented routines in the operating system. "

more...

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml




mark

 

Indeed it does Here's another tiny, free and zero-resource using utility which you might appreciate.

 

hey brett

srcip trap looks like an excellent program. you didn't mention if you have been using it or not, or if it was something you just came across?

little programs like startup monitor and scrip trap sure can pull their weight. i look forward to installing it, if i hear a personal endorsement from you on its daily performance....



mark

 

Yup, I use it and it works flawlessly.

 

i just downloaded and installed scrip trap. sure looks like a neat program. simple yet still quite configurable. my pc just got a little bit safer, thank you.

do you have scrip trap set to just block scripts located in temp folders, or do you have it block all?



mark

 

All. Scripts which you regularly use can always be added to the "Exclude" list.

 

mr.mark, yes I agree I do use Start Up Monitor and would not want to be without it. It is unbelievable how many times I have had to refuse some programs from setting them self up in the task bar. Well worth having and it combines very niceley with
Start Up Cop as well.
hawk22

 

hawk22....

yep, i use startup cop alongside startup monitor. exceptional little programs, imo.

brett...

i wonder if scrip trap has the capability to recognize that a file has changed after it has been added to the exclude list? i'm thinking here how zonealarm will prompt with an alert saying that a previously allowed program has changed since last having been granted access. this is a highly desireable feature, imo.

i would be reluctant to exclude a file if scrip trap is unable to detect a change.

does this sound feasible to you?



mark

 

It does not.

For me, it wouldn't be a useful feature. I "exclude" only locally stored scripts and I know of no malware which the the ability to re-write a script and cause it to act in a harmful manner.

Robin Keir (the author) is often to be found in grc.security.software - so if you have NNTP access you could raise the issue with him there (and no doubt you'd receive some feedback from the other members of the group too).