[willmiller]

I have the firewall that came with my windows xp. I want a better one. What is a VERY good firewall i can download and use for free that dosen't slow down my computer? :(

[mdevour]

Greetings Will,

Pretty much the standard for our windows boxes is Zone Alarm from Zone Labs, http://www.zonelabs.com ...

Nothing much else to say. Decently easy to set up, reliable, and only a little annoying sometimes when a pop-up window alerting you to firewall activity gets in the way of setting up a new online game for the kids. <grin> A few clicks to train the filters and the problem doesn't recur.

They sell all sorts of versions, but, if you look for it, you'll find the free version as well, which is all I've ever used.

Be well,

Mike D.

[SeattleOtaku]

They keep trying to make it hard to find on their site, of course, but here's the latest (as of this post) direct link to the free version's download:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/c ... wnload.jsp

It's the one I use as well.

[SeattleOtaku]

It's now "zonealarm.com" ("by Check Point") instead of "zonelabs.com", and the earlier link forwards.

But as a heads-up, they don't have a version out for Vista, which most new-computer purchases are going to be now. Latest details: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/vista.jsp

(Oh, and moved to the "Windows" forum out of the old spot under "Flames and Politics". )

[Nanook]

Just a note about ZoneAlarm, when I get calls from customers who say they can't send mail, they get connection refused from the SMTP server, nine times out of ten, they have ZoneAlarm installed and it's blocking the outbound connection.

Personally, I prefer firewalls be in an external box between the outside world and the machine(s) in question, else if your machine is compromised in spite of the firewall, the firewall most likely will be disabled as well, but with an external firewall, if a worm does find a way through at least the external firewall will still limit what ports it can open and listen to or connect outwards with. Beyond that, with Windows machine it prevents the possibility of weird software interactions that so often happen in Windows boxes.

[JSting]

If you have a router with a built-in firewall, I think that's already enoough.