Looking for Free firewall thats VERY easy to use :D

[Cozak]

Im useless with computers and getting a new one on christmas day and dont want it to be full of viruses etc straight away so first thing im going to download is a firewall Just need a free one thats very simple please if anyone can advise any

 

[frogster]

Zonealarm.

 

[Sycho]

Zonealarm definetly.

 

[Neffneff]

Gah zonealarm..gah.

my dislikes of zonealarm aside..just make sure you enable the wondows firewall built into XP...works fine.

MAKE sure you do firewall though..else you will be infested on first connection to the web.

 

[Takhasis]

Tiny Personal Firewall

v6 is the latest but u must buy it and its pretty complex.

Keep an eye out for v2 of it - free and easy to use

 

[[GOA]Erivoss]

eurgh zonealarm...

you can try Sygate Personal Firewall at: http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm it's pretty good, free and very easy to use.

 

[Neffneff]

eurgh zonealarm...

you can try Sygate Personal Firewall at: http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm it's pretty good, free and very easy to use.

That was the one i was trying to remember...used that a while back..works very well..dead easy to use..and free is a complete bonus too.

 

[Nichii]

sigh -.-

get Ad-Aware, delete's all file's that can open "gate's" for hacker's, that's free...

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

and this is a free virus program, work's better than norton antivirus tho

gl

 

[Neffneff]

Ad-Aware is not a substitute for an anti-virus..it gets rid of adware..which tecnically isnt a virus..so anti-viruses dont...

you need both an anti-virus AND sometihng like ad-aware..AND then something to use as a firewall to keep yer system clean..like i said before XP firewall does a fairly fine job as long as you aint a moron opening thing up for people.

 

[Cozak]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated, first think il do when i plug in my comp on christmas day is get one of the above firewalls then download Ad-Aware and AVG Anti-Virus then install MSN, DAoC etc Thanks again for the help

 

[Joor]

I use Sygate firewall, and Symantic antivirus. Why? becourse I have done that for years and no problems so far...

Other programs which are handy ;
1. hijackthis
HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items.

2. Adaware
Advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers..etc..etc

3. SpywareBlaster 3.2
SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure, without interfering with the "good side" of the web.

And unlike other programs, SpywareBlaster does not have to remain running in the background.

 

[Boomeruk]

Sygate personal firewall - free and rox
Norton AV 2k5
Firefox - (IE removed on first boot from format :X)

 

[Fana]

Spybot is also nice for removing shitty spyware/trojans etc.

About firewalls, the best way is to get a router with built in firewall - thats the most security you can get really afaik. It can get a bit annoying at times though since you must forward ports etc manually most of the time, and some routers get overloaded easily etc (like my netgear one =.= ). But it is very safe since noone can even see there is a comp on the other side of the router, unless the router is set to respond to pings, and even then it wont let anything through (except a very determined attack, which you wont be the victim of anyway as a private low profile person).

 

[Cozak]

Spybot is also nice for removing shitty spyware/trojans etc.

About firewalls, the best way is to get a router with built in firewall - thats the most security you can get really afaik. It can get a bit annoying at times though since you must forward ports etc manually most of the time, and some routers get overloaded easily etc (like my netgear one =.= ). But it is very safe since noone can even see there is a comp on the other side of the router, unless the router is set to respond to pings, and even then it wont let anything through (except a very determined attack, which you wont be the victim of anyway as a private low profile person).

You lost me after afaik Not sure what forward ports and things are, getting a box thingy with 2 wires that plugs into both computers and hopefully will gives my new computer internet from the old one, but im not sure if it has a build in firewall thingy.


EDIT: Whats up with IE to make everyone use firefox?

 

[Darzil]

At the risk of hijacking the thread, any recommended Broadband Routers out there ?

I have a Belkin one, but the packet loss when I plugged it into the network made Camelot unplayable.

Darzil

 

[Hawkwind]

At the risk of hijacking the thread, any recommended Broadband Routers out there ?

I have a Belkin one, but the packet loss when I plugged it into the network made Camelot unplayable.

Darzil

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/review/i-router.asp

http://networking.ittoolbox.com/lp/lp.asp?i=135

Some good reviews and links to other reviews. I use a Linksys, can't remember model and I am at work. It seems to work fine.

Does no one else use Agnitum firewall? It's great. I used to use Zonealarm but it would occasionally decide my other networked PC's were a menace and block them. After the third or fouth time it happened I chose a different product. Agnitum was free for 30 days. I did the trial and like it so paid the $28 and kept it.

Merry Christmas

 

[Fana]

You lost me after afaik Not sure what forward ports and things are, getting a box thingy with 2 wires that plugs into both computers and hopefully will gives my new computer internet from the old one, but im not sure if it has a build in firewall thingy.


EDIT: Whats up with IE to make everyone use firefox?

That "box thingy" is most likely a router If it is it should have a built in hardware firewall, most modern ones do i think. It could also be a Hub, in which case it wont have a firewall and you will need a software one anyway.

Port forwarding is what firewalls do to get you access to anything. As default it will block anything that requires a port to be open (i.e. anything using the net). Ports are artifical holes in your comps system that lets through trafic to and from the comp, they range from 1 to 65000 or some such (could be wrong there). When you use a software firewall it usually recognizes what ports a porgram uses and will just ask you if you trust the program, if you say yes it will open those ports.
If you use a hardware firewall however you must know what ports a program uses (can usually be found by a simple search with google etc or in your program documentation) and then open them in the routers web interface (which you access by typing the routers ip adress in a web reader, usually 192.168.0.1).

 

[Samaroon EatsCheese]

get Ad-Aware, delete's all file's that can open "gate's" for hacker's, that's free...

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

and this is a free virus program, work's better than norton antivirus tho

gl

Zonealarm imo

get ad-aware aswell tho and run it every now and again

 

[ElemenT]

Kerio Personal Firewall aint bad either.

 

[Lakih]

EDIT: Whats up with IE to make everyone use firefox?

Nothing at all really. The thing is, all browsers contains security holes. IE is the most used web browser among "normal" people, therefor scums with malicius intent targets the most used web brower to get his/hers evil scheme to affect as many people as posible.

I myself use Norton Antivirus 2005, Windows SP2 firewall and Adaware.
One of the most important things is to keep your windows up to date with the latest patches from windows update.

http://www.symantec.com
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.lavasoft.de

 

[Urme the Legend]

Kerio Personal Firewall aint bad either.

I tried that one last night and liked it alot.

 

[Daedalus]

I'm using Outpost firewall.. seems to be pretty good, better than ZoneAlarm as it's less of a system hog. Not sure if its' free though.

 

[sibanac]

Nothing at all really. The thing is, all browsers contains security holes. IE is the most used web browser among "normal" people, therefor scums with malicius intent targets the most used web brower to get his/hers evil scheme to affect as many people as posible.

That asumption is flawed, there are much more Apache servers out there then IIS yet, apache has sufferd almost no worms while IIS has had alot of verry aggresive worms.

IE is fundamentaly flawed by activeX and its deep integration into the OS, that and the fact that firefox is patched verry fast if there is an security flaw while IE has been know to have holes with more then a month between becoming public and a patch beeing available

 

[Daedalus]

That asumption is flawed, there are much more Apache servers out there then IIS yet, apache has sufferd almost no worms while IIS has had alot of verry aggresive worms.

IE is fundamentaly flawed by activeX and its deep integration into the OS, that and the fact that firefox is patched verry fast if there is an security flaw while IE has been know to have holes with more then a month between becoming public and a patch beeing available

Or even worse, people would rely on Windows Update where patches only appear until they've been verified. I forgot what Worm it was, but, the patch for it had been long available for it, just not on Windows Update.