Gizmo's Freeware Reviews: Best Free Firewall

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17 February 2012
by t i m

Firewalls help monitor your system's communication between your network and the Internet to help stop intrusions and attacks. They are particularly useful for controlling the activities of Internet facing applications.

No other freeware product has more of a reputation for causing user angst than a firewall. To find a suitable product may involve a process of trial and error. A firewall should protect while not being too intrusive or too complicated to handle. This article gives you a selection of the best free firewalls available.

Firewalls come in two flavours; software based and hardware based. To avoid potential conflicts only install one (third-party) software firewall. You can improve protection, however, by using a hardware "firewall" (such as a router) and a software firewall in conjunction. Modern routers usually have a built-in firewall; consult your router documentation for more details.

Basic firewall protection is critical for securing your PC. Simple firewalls (like the default Windows firewall) limit access to your system and personal information, and silently protect you from inbound threats. We review basic third-party firewalls that have marginally better security than the Windows firewall, such as simpler features for monitoring programs that request outgoing Internet connections (we call this "outbound protection"). The default Windows firewall has only limited outbound protection.

Proactive firewalls have the most extended protection, including HIPS or program monitoring (HIPS Explained), and watch for malicious behavior before malware gets a chance to take control of your PC or turn it into a botnet drone. They seek to achieve stronger "2-way" protection, preventing programs from broadcasting your personal information to the Internet.

Some kinds of malware are best detected by their behavior, so a proactive firewall (or firewall/HIPS combo) is a solid second layer of protection next to your antivirus program. It's an excellent option for high risk users (check out our Security Wizard to see if this includes you). However, it's plausible to argue that a good resident antivirus will stop some malicious threats before they get a chance to make it to the Internet anyway. Many of the top antivirus programs are starting to provide behavioral blocking and extended scanning of network activity.

It's important to use basic or proactive firewall protection, antivirus software for active protection, and safe practices from our "most important advice of all" (Security Wizard).

You can "upgrade" your security by reading the documentation and learning about proactive firewalls or HIPS programs, or using other protection like least-privileged user accounts or Sandboxie or GeSWall.

Additional Tips

Before installing new resident security products, including antivirus and firewall programs, you may want to make a full drive image. Windows Vista (Ultimate) and Windows 7 have a built in "Complete PC Backup and Restore" feature, or you can use a free drive imaging program. Everyone's system is unique and may have old, latent drivers that are incompatible with whatever you are installing. Not only does drive imaging allow you to recover from unintentional conflicts but also from severe malware infections.

To cleanly uninstall your (third-party) firewall before installing a new one, you can use ZSoft Uninstaller to analyze before and after the installation. If you haven't used it on your current firewall, try Revo Uninstaller (or other vendor or Windows uninstaller), check for leftover services and drivers with Autoruns, and restart your computer.

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