Best Firewall (from all Angles?) with Avast AV Free...

[DavidR]

Well seeing as in the last 12 years, nothing has gotten past my defenses, I'm content with what I have. If it does, full recovery is only a few hours away, so big deal.

Lucky you, and it is the same for me, but I wouldn't give that as a recommendation on what I'm doing would work for everyone. Nor everyone has a robust backup and recovery strategy and it is they that are the ones I'm concerned about when I give advise.

I could well get away without a lot of the security I have on my system, based on my recovery strategy, but that isn't something I would do or recommend.

[rdmaloyjr]

I wasn't happy with FortKnox, so I dumped it and returned to ZoneAlarm.

No matter what fw I try I always return to ZA.   There's no substitute for ZA.

[SpeedyPC]

I wasn't happy with FortKnox, so I dumped it and returned to ZoneAlarm.

No matter what fw I try I always return to ZA.   There's no substitute for ZA.

Rdmaloyjr which means you'll never quit doing the chicken indian rain dancing don't you ever try Outpost, Private Firewall and Comodo FW for a change, cause you're having a major problem standing up while you're trying to swat down sticking you're tail out half way from the ground

[bob3160]

We are now on page 5 and 3/4 of all the posts are made up by saying ZA is the best
and the comeback that it's not.....

The best firewall is the one that works for you and is keeping your system secure.
Regardless of the brand.  

[eta carinae]

We are now on page 5 and 3/4 of all the posts are made up by saying ZA is the best
and the comeback that it's not.....

The best firewall is the one that works for you and is keeping your system secure.
Regardless of the brand.  

yep...I agree with this philosophy completely. Had Microsoft security essentials for a couple of years and was satisfied unto their data base went bad. downloaded and tried 5 other free anti virus software and liked Avast the best and was so impressed with it bought the Avast internet paid version this doesn't mean its the best out there but it is the right choice for me.Some people in here seem too have a hard time accepting a particular firewall or antivirus software is best for the needs of the people who are using them.Everybody is different whats right and good for me not necessarily be right for you.

[HyperGeek]

In my personal opinion:

Comodo
Online Armour
OutPost Free Security Suite

Personal Firewall Tests & Results. Firewall rating:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php
About the leak tests limitations: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=29259.msg247460#msg247460

Does Comodo have Anti-phishing and Anti-key logger protection?

[Dch48]

I just installed Online Armor Free to test it out again. It works fine but tremendously slows down boot time unless you completely disable it and then go into services and disable the Online Armor helper service. Then turn OA back on or better yet, reboot. With that disabled, bootup returns to normal and the program still functions perfectly. Slow bootup is a known problem in all versions of Online Armor, especially on XP. I found the workaround in their forums and it was posted about two years ago. For some reason, they have never fixed the problem.

It also seems to be a problem if you have the Chrome browser installed.

[Para-Noid]

I just installed Online Armor Free to test it out again. It works fine but tremendously slows down boot time unless you completely disable it and then go into services and disable the Online Armor helper service. Then turn OA back on or better yet, reboot. With that disabled, bootup returns to normal and the program still functions perfectly. Slow bootup is a known problem in all versions of Online Armor, especially on XP. I found the workaround in their forums and it was posted about two years ago. For some reason, they have never fixed the problem.

It also seems to be a problem if you have the Chrome browser installed.

I use OA Free and I don't have any of those problems. As far as browsers go IE,FF or Chrome makes no difference. I also noticed you refered to XP, I have a Win7 64 bit. I have absolutely no slow down at all. At least it's not Zone Alarm which "will" create issues. 

[Dch48]

I just installed Online Armor Free to test it out again. It works fine but tremendously slows down boot time unless you completely disable it and then go into services and disable the Online Armor helper service. Then turn OA back on or better yet, reboot. With that disabled, bootup returns to normal and the program still functions perfectly. Slow bootup is a known problem in all versions of Online Armor, especially on XP. I found the workaround in their forums and it was posted about two years ago. For some reason, they have never fixed the problem.

It also seems to be a problem if you have the Chrome browser installed.

I use OA Free and I don't have any of those problems. As far as browsers go IE,FF or Chrome makes no difference. I also noticed you refered to XP, I have a Win7 64 bit. I have absolutely no slow down at all. At least it's not Zone Alarm which "will" create issues.  

If you search their forums , you will see it is definitely an issue on XP , especially when Chrome is installed and the workaround of disabling the helper service is the only thing that fixes it. The computer boots noticeably slower to your desktop picture and then it takes about another two minutes for the taskbar to show up and the icons take about another minute.

I have also discovered two other issues. If the Firewall component is enabled, it causes unacceptable stuttering in World of Warcraft. If you disable the Firewall, the game runs smoothly. The second issue is that if you completely shut down OA from the system tray icon by choosing "Close and shutdown", you can not restart the program. Only a reboot starts it back up again. This may be a result of disabling the helper service however.

I had none of these issues with the Comodo Firewall but it isn't as user friendly in it's setup or use.

[gdiloren]

I had Comodo suite, even the AV, but had to uninstall it becaused it impeeded this July 4-5 critical Windows Update to succeed. I tried disabling the AV and D+ but nothing to do. After uninstalling it, Windows Updated like a charm. So thumbs down for Comodo. I think it is too invasive. Online Armor is no better than Comodo... I tried Zone Alarm Free but Private Firewall is better rated at Matousec and I did not like its checkpoint toolbars Adware. Private Firewall is there for the moment being and runs fine, but I'm behind a router so I don't even need one. Back to Avast Free and thumbs up, the Web & Network filters are no longer slowing my web speed as 6-7 months ago. I salute this great improvement;also I like the WebRep add-on feature idea.

[rdmaloyjr]

<snip> At least it's not Zone Alarm which "will" create issues. 

A troll is trying to bait me.  I'm going to ignore him.

[Dch48]

It was confirmed by a moderator on the forums for Online Armor that slow bootup is a known problem when Chrome is set as the default browser. It doesn't happen if IE or FF are the defaults. OA also causes a noticeable slowdown in browsing speed in Chrome, but not In IE. They don't show any concern about fixing the problem which has existed for over two years. I have uninstalled OA and gone back to just the XP firewall. Everything is snappier now again. I have heard that the latest version of the PCTools Firewall is greatly improved so I may try that out again.

http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/5050-observed-issues/

[rdmaloyjr]

I had Comodo suite, even the AV, but had to uninstall it becaused it impeeded this July 4-5 critical Windows Update to succeed. I tried disabling the AV and D+ but nothing to do. After uninstalling it, Windows Updated like a charm. So thumbs down for Comodo. I think it is too invasive. Online Armor is no better than Comodo... I tried Zone Alarm Free but Private Firewall is better rated at Matousec and I did not like its checkpoint toolbars Adware. Private Firewall is there for the moment being and runs fine, but I'm behind a router so I don't even need one. Back to Avast Free and thumbs up, the Web & Network filters are no longer slowing my web speed as 6-7 months ago. I salute this great improvement;also I like the WebRep add-on feature idea.

gdiloren,

You don't have to take the ZA toolbar, just do a custom install.

BTW, ZA's toolbar does the same as avast!'s WebRep, so it's not needed with avast!.

The only advantage of ZA's toolbar with avast! is online back up.

[rdmaloyjr]

It was confirmed by a moderator on the forums for Online Armor that slow bootup is a known problem when Chrome is set as the default browser. It doesn't happen if IE or FF are the defaults. OA also causes a noticeable slowdown in browsing speed in Chrome, but not In IE. They don't show any concern about fixing the problem which has existed for over two years. I have uninstalled OA and gone back to just the XP firewall. Everything is snappier now again. I have heard that the latest version of the PCTools Firewall is greatly improved so I may try that out again.

http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/5050-observed-issues/

And some say OA doesn't have any bugs.

I've tried OA a few times and the bugs I experienced were known issues.

I even had a one year subscription, it went to waste.

There were less problems with OA Free.

Only PCTools Firewall Plus is more buggy than OA.

BTW, I liked OA, they had a lot of good ideas.

Too bad they couldn't get them working right.

[Dch48]

All I would like to have is a basic 2 way firewall with none of the added stuff like HIPS, Web Shields, etc. It also has to be user friendly. I know you can set Comodo up that way but even if you choose to only use the Firewall, all of the other components are installed on your system, including the AV database. The addon to the Windows Firewalls looks like the most complicated thing I have ever seen so that's out too. I tried ZA but it really slowed my system down a lot.