What FireWall does Avast people Recommend?

[dld]

I consider WinXP SP2 firewall adequate for my purposes.  True, this firewall only monitors what attempts to come in. If you get a virus or spyware and it's in your system and attempts to access the internet, the windows firewall does not monitor this.  However if you run AVAST!, Spybot, Ad-Aware and others, there shouldn't be a problem.

[PigDog]

I'm still using Sygate (free version) with avast! WebShield switched off.

PigDog

[neiby]

As you can see in my signature I'm using Outpost Pro. For me the best Desktop firewall. No problems with Avast!

Me too... Unfortunatelly, the freeware version is too far from the Pro... The user really almost can't use the free 

That's what I found. I've tried to use the free version of Outpost a couple of different times and had nothing but problems. I now use the free version of Kerio and I'm quite happy with it.

[julian_ha_peck]

I use Zone Alarm Free and Sygate both at the same time and have no problems at all.

If I had to have one, I'd use Zone Alarm.

[DavidR]

I consider WinXP SP2 firewall adequate for my purposes. True, this firewall only monitors what attempts to come in. If you get a virus or spyware and it's in your system and attempts to access the internet, the windows firewall does not monitor this. However if you run AVAST!, Spybot, Ad-Aware and others, there shouldn't be a problem.

You are leaving yourself vulnerable - if you are happy to let an unrecognised worm/trojan/spyware phone home with your usernames/passwords account details and any other info that it can get hold of (key logger looking for credit card details, etc.) then you won't be in the 'Pink' (or black) you will be in the Red

[sded]

I have used Zonealarm (Free and SS), KPF 4.1, and Sygate 5.6 all successfully with avast!  Finally settled on Sygate.  I find the lgging and troubleshooting tools more usable than the others.  Also the advanced rules are easy to set up and monitor.   And I don't miss all the privacy crap that is redundant and conflicting with modern browsers.  But all worked well with avast!

[dld]

You are leaving yourself vulnerable - if you are happy to let an unrecognised worm/trojan/spyware phone home with your usernames/passwords account details and any other info that it can get hold of (key logger looking for credit card details, etc.) then you won't be in the 'Pink' (or black) you will be in the Red

After having read your message, and browsed various other forums, I have reconsidered my decision and gone with Kerio Personal Firewall.  Thanks

[Lisandro]

I have reconsidered my decision and gone with Kerio Personal Firewall.  Thanks

My mother always says: "Listen to David" 

[dld]

My OS is WinXP HE, SP2 on both a desktop and a laptop. For the past year I had been unsuccessful in setting up a network using these two computers. Using the following tutorial however
http://www.careyholzman.com/net1.htm
I was finally able to set up my network.
Following this tutorial to the letter, I can share files between the two computer, share a printer between the two computers, and both computers can access the Internet. In other words, everything is running as I want it to run. In his tutorial, Carey has you initially turn off all firewalls. Later in the tutorial
http://www.careyholzman.com/xp/home/xphome-8.htm
he has you turn on Windows Firewall. There are no options for setting up another firewall.
http://www.careyholzman.com/xp/home/xphome-9.htm

Browsing various forums, I get the message that the Windows Firewall is not a recommended firewall. So I turned off Windows Firewall and downloaded Kerio Personal Firewall. This is where my problems started. I can no longer share files (I didn't check to see if I could share the printer). I did try Control Panel\Network Setup, but that didn't help anything. So I uninstall KPF and run through the tutorial again, and have everything working as it should again. Is it worth my while to try setting up my network to share files and printer using KPF as firewall?

[gate1975mlm]

Is Kerio Personal Firewall better then Sygate?

[Culpeper]

Sygate
Outpost
ZoneAlarm

All have free versions. 

[sded]

If you look at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11970244~viewpoll=1
for instance, about twice as many people use Sygate as Kerio.  They are both good firewalls.  I use Sygate because I try lots of stuff and find that the logs and alarms are more useful for figuring out what happened than Kerio.  ZoneAlarm worked fine, but I could never figure out what it had done if there was an issue.

[Culpeper]

I like a firewall that works in the background and doesn't give me a lot of flack or interaction.  In fact, the firewall that comes with WinXP is as good as a basic router firewall.  Both of which work in the background and you never know its there and both pass typical firewall test sites.

[FreewheelinFrank]

dld

See the link below:

Everything you need to know about selecting and installing a firewall for your PC or network.

-Working With Windows Networks

http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,112920,00.asp

(instructions for setting up four free firewalls- Kerio, ZA, Outpost and Sygate).

Quote:

"Kerio: By default, this firewall disables Windows networking because enabling it would allow other PCs on the local Windows network to access your shared folders and printers only after you entered their IP addresses. To allow access to a particular PC, right-click Kerio's system-tray icon and...."

[kenwong]

If you use WebShield from avast, you must configure Sygate very very well, otherwise, outbound connections won't be alerted to you (will be bypassed by the WebShield proxy). It's not an avast problem, but Sygate, if you use an annonimizer program (proxy) you'll be the same trouble.
Now, I turn back to ZoneAlarm (free).

Technical,

Could you please tell me what do you mean by "configure Sygate very very well"?  Coz I am now using Sygate 5.6 built 2808 and avast 4.6.623 with WebShield functioning on my Win 98 machine.  I noticed from another thread there is a loopback problem in Sygate.  Please tell me in detail how I should configure the two applications.  I have set my Firefox to use 127.0.0.1 port 12080.  Is this good enough?  But Sygate does not ask me for permission for outgoing (except one instance in which it asks me whether to allow it go out to secure-sg.imrworldwide.com - strange???).  Also in a radio website I tried, when the realplayer was launched, Sygate did not ask me for permission.