Every computer needs a good firewall. A few years ago, there used to be a few really good performance firewalls that were free. They seem harder to come by.
I used to use ZoneAlarm (and one computer still has it). The program worked so well for a few years, then they were bought out by a big software group in Israel. ZoneAlarm went through some changes, and I found that the performance went downhill. My computers crashed constantly, and frequently the firewall wouldn’t even start up, and I had to reboot. It was more trouble than it was worth. So I started shopping around.
I went to Sunbelt Kerio next. This firewall was OK. It worked for me for a while, but then suddenly got sluggish and kept crashing on the computers where I had it installed. Maybe an updat problem? Well, after countless hours tinkering and never able to solve the problem, I moved on to another firewall. [If you download Kerio, they give you the "pro" paid version for the first 30 days, then the program reverts to a basic free version. Firewall protection for both pro and free are the same.]
I am presently using Comodo on two computers. It seems to be working OK. It also does not hog my systems’ resources, which is a real plus for me. I’d hesitated using it, because I’d heard that it was very difficult to install and use. I haven’t found it any harder than the others (Kerio was the easiest, I thought), although there is a “learning curve” as there is with any big program. At any rate, I am satisfied with Comodo so far, although I have been keeping a list of second choices in case this one fails. So far, so good.
Outpost Agnitum is another free firewall that I have heard good reviews from. I’ve looked into Jetico because I heard good things about that, too, but have not tried it.
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#1 by Mabelle on December 3, 2007 - 7:27 pm
i’m using zonealarm. and yep my computer will just shut down for now reason. but i just dono if it’s bcoz of zone alarm or my cpu needs change. but if it’s because of zone alarm, i may need to find another good firewall
.
thanks for this entry of yours. i will try to observe more on the performance of my computer.
#2 by Mrs Mecomber on December 5, 2007 - 11:45 pm
Computer shutdowns can be for a variety of reasons. Do you get any error messages, or does the computer just go *poof* and it’s gone?
Sometimes it can be overheating, not enough RAM when you’re running big programs, or a virus. Does the computer reboot after it shuts off?
We’ve had problems with ZoneAlarm. I still have it on one computer. It is the best firewall for newbies and for people who don’t want to bother much with firewalls.
#3 by hh on December 21, 2007 - 12:46 am
here is an interesting article about a few firewalls that have backdoor access, ZA being one of them
http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/nsa_gets_realtime_access_to_your_email.htm
#4 by Mrs Mecomber on December 21, 2007 - 3:36 am
That is a verrrry interesting article, hh. Thanks for that. I’d sensed something was fishy with ZA years ago, and had switched to Kerio until I had problems with that. I am very pleased with Comodo.