Firewall software (free downloads?)

[EGKK931]

My standard McAfee firewall that as been active since bought PC has just expired and costs me £60+ to continue using.

Is there a free firewall that I can download to protect computer? I have got AVG free edition for anti virus so is there a firewall version or equivilant?

Cheers

[bjkeates]

ZoneAlarm is popular, free and, according to my friends you use it, is very effective.

[Fujiflyer]

Sygate Personal Firewall seems to be the prefered one here - I've been using it for about 18months on our home PC's.

I used zone alarm a few years ago and found a few compatibility problems at that time.

Fuji :ok:

[asuweb]

Important Notice: Effective November 30th, 2005 all Sygate personal firewall products will be discontinued. This does not affect Sygate's Enterprise firewall and endpoint compliance products, which will still be updated and supported.Apparently Sygate no longer offer their free firewall.

I've used ZoneAlarm for a few years with no problems.

[EGKK931]

Is zonealarm free?
If so can you give me the link?

Cheers

[Mac the Knife]

Yeah, Sygate have bailed....

Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall is excellent and less intrusive than ZoneAlarm

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/kerio.cfm

Full function for 30 days, then reverts to basic (still very effective) functions. Only $19 to keep it full and cheap at the price, I say.

If you have any old 386 or better class machine hanging around then give some consideration to using it as a dedicated firewall using the single-purpose FREESCO micro-Linux-on-a-floppy. No impact on your main machine and MUCH more secure. Runs off a floppy (though you can install it to one of those tiny old hard drives from the spares box if you want).

http://www.freesco.org/

Some technical info:(on FREESCO)

* Minimum install requires a 386sx 16 with 8mb of ram. 16+mb of ram is recommended for enabling servers
* Modes of operation. ethernet, dialup, leased, bridge, RAS, Printer server. Some of these modes can run at the same time as well as switching between dialup and ethernt modes
* 2.0.39 Linux kernel
* Support for up to ten networks cards
* Support for up to five printers
* Support for up to ten modems, although only four regular modems. Support includes Unix 4 or 8 port modems
* FREESCO v.0.3.x can run entirely from ram. This requires at least 20+MB
* FREESCO v0.3.x can run up to 16MB of packages with ramdisks enabled on a floppy install
* Ident, DHCP, DNS, Print, SSH, FTP, HTTP servers
* RAS (Remote Access Server) for dialin and nullmodem connections
* PPPoE, and PPtP clients
* Dynamic DNS, Zonedit and DHS support
* Limited support for SCSI hard drives
* FREESCO v0.3.x can be installed on any FAT 16/32 IDE drive on the primary or secondary controller and the primary or secondary drive
* FREESCO can also be installed on an EXT2 partition with the addon ext2 package availible from FREESCOsoft
* The specially modified 2.0.39 Linux kernel has an increased masq table and the icmp leak patch for security as well as many other patches to enhance it's abilities.
* ISA PnP so network cards and PnP modems can be configured.


Ludicrously easy to set up. Extremely capable and versatile.
I used it for a long time until I needed wireless and got a Netgear router/firewall.

Mac :ok:

[frostbite]

Yes.

http://www.zonelabs.com

in answer to question before Mac posted!

[Fujiflyer]

My understanding is that one can still get Sygate PF from the mirror sites such as Tucows. I got my latest installation from there in late Feb of this year.

I'm curious as to the licensing situation in this case. From my limited experience the software license normally allows unadulterated free distribution (ie one can share the software but mustn't charge a fee or modify it). I could not find the licence agreement for Sygate to check the situation here, but maybe copies of the firewall before Sygate was bought out could still legally be distributed??? Its not as if firewall software needs anywhere near the level of ongoing support as say a anti virus package.

[DBTL]

Check out this firewall-antivir combo for 30 days. I'm not paying anything for it, but many do. At least you'll have one worry less. The software essentially self-configures.
www.f-secure.com (http://www.f-secure.com)

[Paris Dakar]

Sygate have been taken over by Symantec - hence the reluctance of mighty 'Norton' to have a freebie sibling.

I have used Sygate for 2 years now after my Norton Professional (2003) decided to chuck a wobbly that resulted in me having to do a full formatting exercise.

[Feline]

The author of the Tweaking Guide (see sticky at top of Forum) thinks that the Firewall that comes with XP is good enough - but mentions Zone Alarm if you really want something different (page 50).

Haven't read the whole Tweaking Guide - but what I have read makes a lot of sense to me

FWIW