[UnseenMenace]

If your looking for a free software firewall or alternative to to the restricted free version of Zone alarm , have a look at what comodo has to offer....

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Heres what pcmag had to say about it

If you give it a try - please post your thoughts for other forum members


They also have antivirus and backup solutions - all free

[AGampher]

Originally Posted by UnseenMenace

If your looking for a free software firewall or alternative to to the restricted free version of Zone alarm , have a look at what comodo has to offer....

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Heres what pcmag had to say about it

If you give it a try - please post your thoughts for other forum members


They also have antivirus and backup solutions - all free

I installed it this morning after having read about it in PC Mag. It seems to be fairly robust, for a free firewall. You can add rules for ip traffic, application traffic, and even "monitor" your components for unauthorized utilization. The pop-ups that are typical of firewalls are obviously present, and it does not include a "gaming" pop-up delay option, like the zone alarm paid options include (or at least I haven't found anything like it yet).

I have not tried the anti-virus or backup modules yet.

[TalRW]

downloading AV and backup now I'll post back later to report what I thought.

[FeuerFrei]

I'm actually using Filseclab, another very good FREE firewall

I'll give it a try, let's see!

[Richie P]

Be interested to see how this compares to a firewall such as Sygate. I'd use Sygate over anything else at the mo if i needed - i'm behind a router at the mo so i'm happy with that.

[AGampher]

After messing with it a bit more, I'm fairly convinced that it is worth at least a trial installation. Even if you stripped the application and component monitors away from it, the network monitor built in to it is worth the DL.

You can set pretty much any protocol (that an average/power internet user would use) rules you want. For example, if I wanted I could restrict incoming port traffic on port number 1234 to only answer requests incoming from IP 123.123.123.123... and I could restrict it further by saying that whatever I answer on port 1234 had to originate not only from the above IP, but the request also had to originate using port 5678.

Not too shabby for a free product.

[TalRW]

My first impressions of the virus scanner were pretty good. I switched from AVG and it's scan times for a full system scan are nothing terribly impressive but they are decent. The GUI is a step up from AVG for sure. The one issue I had with it is the launch pad. It sits in the system try but it's not the actual scanner. So if you turn off the launch pad the virus scanner starts but you have no virus scanner icon in the systray so if you turn on the launcher you can't turn it off. Just a minor quick but it's ok.

I did test the detection capabilities by following the instructions in this link.

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/w...ing-183733.php

and it did detect it properly

[FeuerFrei]

After a bit of testing / playing:

MUCH more effective than any free firewall I ever tested, and better overall protection than most of the commercial IS crap.

[Deanzo]

I e-mailed them about 64bit support as thats my main OS.

One of there technical support guys came back with this "We don't support XP 64Bit at the moment but we do have plans to support it."

The thing I like and why Im posting this.
Is they got back to me and when it comes to the amount of e-mails Ive sent about X64 support and got nothing back, its a good start.
And there reply was about 3hours after I sent it.

[stereo555]

Originally Posted by Deanzo

I e-mailed them about 64bit support as thats my main OS.

One of there technical support guys came back with this "We don't support XP 64Bit at the moment but we do have plans to support it."

The thing I like and why Im posting this.
Is they got back to me and when it comes to the amount of e-mails Ive sent about X64 support and got nothing back, its a good start.
And there reply was about 3hours after I sent it.

Good to know for us x64 users , and nice find UM .

[Tebore]

I tried their Antivirus it's terrible. When it worked it was ok, nothing special.

But it caused my computer to function like a Win98 machine with weird long pauses. I dug around online and noticed others with the same problem.

[gorilly]

i just tried their free back up solution, its fantastic!

i set a local folder to back up to an FTP site, it sends an email telling you the job is complete and everything. good stuff!

[klingens]

A backup program withut a verify option is no backup program but a useless toy.

A shame: the license allows to use it on company PCs.

[gorilly]

Originally Posted by klingens

A backup program withut a verify option is no backup program but a useless toy.

A shame: the license allows to use it on company PCs.

for home users its fine, much better than norton back up.

as for not having verify, so long as people test it from time to time its fine.


if you want a commercial style back up program you will have to pay for it, or use the one on windows xp pro (debatable). for home users this is pretty good, espch as its free!

remember there is no such thing as a free lunch...

only thing is from home users, if they know how to use it the best way for them to back up is external HD + MS synctoy

[klingens]

If I want a real commercial grade backup I use a Linux solution. Verify is not an extra or luxus, it's essential for backup. no way to test it without.

[TollhouseFrank]

downloading this firewall to test it out for myself. I usually am 100% opposed to software firewalls.... and even though i liked filseclab, i eventually got rid of it.

Maybe this one will help me change my mind?

[TollhouseFrank]

ok. Seems to be good so far. Asks 2-3 questions on each program, and then it never asks again (i set mine for 'custom' mode install and running).

So far, it is working pretty good. Where filseclab failed to convert me, this one might actually do so....

[TollhouseFrank]

am have 1 major problem, it won't let me access my home network, even after setting it up to allow me to do so.

*sigh*

and it was starting to look good, too.

Oh well. If i can't figure it out by monday evening (next evening i'll have a chance to work on this)... then this proggie is gone as well.

Always knew firewalls were just junk programs...

[Fr3@k3r]

well ill be reformatting monday, so ill give it a try.

[TollhouseFrank]

so far, aside from the fact it 100% blocks out your LAN access, it's a good firewall.

[orionlion82]

Sunbelt Kiero is just not the same as the couple-of-year-old version i had, but i lost it when my hard disk...uhh... took a bath...

yeah, the new kiero is AWFUL, and breaks half the content on the internet for me. cant wait to get rid of it.
its downloading as we speak, and ill edit this with my thoughts.

Verdict:
Its Good! AND very straightforward AND highly configureble AND easy to use.
Win.
thanks unseenmenace!

[klingens]

Do you mean kerio 2.1.5? http://www.321download.com/LastFreew...keriopf215.zip

[Antillian]

I was checking out their site and some information on their products. They look promising, I think I'll download some of their progs and give them a shot. Will post thoughts/findings later (in class atm).

[Adragontattoo]

I am using Comodo and have been for a few weeks, so far the biggest problem I have had is that I have had to reset it twice due to it blocking DHCP renewal, even went specifically set to allow all traffic inside the LAN.

Other then that, it works great and I like it much better then other Free firewalls I have tried.

[jajmon]

I've been using their firewall app for about 2 months on some virtual machines and another pc connected via DSL at work. Works fine. My gripe, having to reboot after it updates.

[Adragontattoo]

my gripe is it occasionally locks down my pc to the point where even with internal IP range rules in place I cant renew my IP.

[Antillian]

I installed it and used it for almost 2 weeks. At first I really liked it and really liked the overall control it gave me, not to mention the fact that it was free w/updates permanently. But it started to get on my nerves, it alerted me to every little thing and it seemed to be a lot of the same stuff over and over. Also some things popped up that seemed very inconsequential. Overall, it was a great free personal firewall, but it just got on my nerves lol.