My quick views on a few free / cheap firewalls...

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Hi all,

Thought I would give my views on some firewalls I played with briefly, purely from a "how nice is the interface and how easy / annoying is it?" perspective:

TinyWall

Overall, this is brilliant if you want something small, but powerful. I'm going to use it on one of my rigs that is basically doing very little to lock it down to a few apps.

I don't plan on using it on my main machine because it's too annoying to add every exception I need.

If you hate popups and are happy to specify each exception you need, this is very good. I just wish it had a popup option! (Ironic because it's specifically designed not to have popups!)

EDIT - Argh! I cannot get VNC to work on my local network with TinyWall, so it's getting binned!
EDIT 2 - Argh! I cannot get VNC to work even after uninstalling it and reinstalling RealVNC and resetting my Windows Firewall to defaults! I can access another system using RealVNC, but not the one that had TinyWall on it!
EDIT 3 - OK, running TinyWall again with TeamViewer and it's OK with that.

Comodo

Eurgh. I found this very heavy-handed as it seemed to install tonnes of things like browsers and AV, which I didn't want. I also had a nightmare uninstalling it and it blocked / deleted some of my programs without asking.

ZoneAlarm

This was pretty good, but I didn't like the interface and also found it a little over the top for my needs.

Glasswire

This is by far my favourite, if you're willing to pay. The free version is very limited.

For the quality, ease of use and features, for £24 a year, I really like it.



Hope this helps others who want a step above Windows built-in firewall!

 

[Vince]

Good little write up on software based firewalls - I havent used any in years but interesting to read others thoughts none the less. Would be worth adding PFSense to the list as well as that's free and well regarded as well as scalable right up to the enterprise.

 

[Gray2233]

A lot of software firewalls are bundle deals now, you tend to get them with a lot of other stuff as described with Comodo.

For the average user I'm not convinced how much worth most have outside of the built in Windows 10 defences if I'm honest. If you really need a firewall I imagine you'd be running a hardware solution, but for those that want more peace of mind or don't have that option or know-how I can understand why they'd look at such things.

 

[Vince]

A lot of software firewalls are bundle deals now, you tend to get them with a lot of other stuff as described with Comodo.

For the average user I'm not convinced how much worth most have outside of the built in Windows 10 defences if I'm honest. If you really need a firewall I imagine you'd be running a hardware solution, but for those that want more peace of mind or don't have that option or know-how I can understand why they'd look such things.

I have a hardware solution because its got all the nice stuff plus unified threat management and other nice features but I guess some people prefer an interface other than what windows has to offer for locking down, protecting, or even just making a DMZ with a single endpoint.

 

[Gray2233]

I have a hardware solution because its got all the nice stuff plus unified threat management and other nice features but I guess some people prefer an interface other than what windows has to offer for locking down, protecting, or even just making a DMZ with a single endpoint.

Understandable.

There's a lot of people out there who simply don't have the know how for a hardware solution, but it is the best route to take if you're genuinely interested in defending yourself. That said, if a person upgrades to a router beyond what they're provided with (which lets face it... Virgin Suberhub?), a lot of things come as standard. It's just a case of user ignorance as mentioned.

 

[Vince]

Understandable.

There's a lot of people out there who simply don't have the know how for a hardware solution, but it is the best route to take if you're genuinely interested in defending yourself.

Got a little Fortigate 30e here at home so I use it for ipsec to my work which has a pair of xg-7100's running pfsense. I got the fortigate when I was running 200e's at the office so it has stayed.

 

[Gray2233]

Got a little Fortigate 30e here at home so I use it for ipsec to my work which has a pair of xg-7100's running pfsense. I got the fortigate when I was running 200e's at the office so it has stayed.

Very nice!

There were 'hardware' loaded NIC's a little while back, not sure what happened to them. I suppose security isn't a big consideration for the average user, which goes back to what I mentioned earlier.

I set up a 40F system a little while back for a friend and was impressed.

 

[Rainmaker]

for £24 a year, I really like it.

If you buy a Glasswire Basic licence from Steam, then use the key to activate the latest version direct from Glasswire, it'll pop up inviting you to upgrade to a lifetime Pro or Elite licence for cheap (a couple of years' fee at most). Worth considering if you really like it and want to keep it. Personally I found it gimmicky and lacking in advanced features, eg per-interface rules. I don't think there's a single decent software firewall for Windows, tbh. Using pf (OpenBSD, FreeBSD) or Shorewall (Linux) is in a different world for ease of use and power, and nothing on Windows comes close unfortunately.

I've pretty much tried them all over the years - TinyWall, WFC, Kaspersky, Eset, Comodo, Glasswire, AVS, Outpost, ZoneAlarm.. you name it. The big downfall for most, ime, is Windows' use of svchost.exe for networking. If you don't whitelist svchost you have basically crippled or no Internet access for most apps and Windows services. If you do whitelist it, basically any app going can piggyback it for net access unobstructed, no matter what other application firewall rules you have in place.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

If you buy a Glasswire Basic licence from Steam, then use the key to activate the latest version direct from Glasswire, it'll pop up inviting you to upgrade to a lifetime Pro or Elite licence for cheap (a couple of years' fee at most). Worth considering if you really like it and want to keep it. Personally I found it gimmicky and lacking in advanced features, eg per-interface rules. I don't think there's a single decent software firewall for Windows, tbh. Using pf (OpenBSD, FreeBSD) or Shorewall (Linux) is in a different world for ease of use and power, and nothing on Windows comes close unfortunately.

Thanks - I managed to find a 25% off code and I think I'm happy paying £24 a year. I know I could almost certainly find everything it offers in freeware, but for the simplicity and an attractive interface, I don't mind paying this. Agreed it's definitely not the most powerful. I was surprised how expensive the mainstream commercial products like Sophos etc. are! I guess some people are willing to pay £79 a year (I think this was typical) for their products!

Yeh, I figured this subforum was more into HW /Linux as I couldn't find many posts on SW solutions.

Maybe this thread would be better in the Windows forum?

Anyway, for me, something like TinyWall or Glasswire is great because I'm in-between a naive user and an expert user when it comes to things like Windows / Linux / security.

e.g. I have the following

Raspberry Pi running as a RAID5 NAS and CCTV system.
Virgin Hub (I know! Sorry!) as my router, but Wifi locked down to specific MAC addresses.
Mix of Gbit ethernet / Wifi / Powerline system to try and achieve a balance of performance and connectivity in various parts of the house.

Generally, I'm happy enough with Windows 10 built-in security, but wanted a bit more, but can't be bothered with a different router / Linux solution. (My knowledge of Linux isn't much more than ls, rm and sudo so I'm copying/pasting commands and I'm a bit stuck when things don't work).

 

[gpuerrilla]

Years ago when your dial-up modem was your gateway to the world, a software firewall was most home users line of defence. Windows did offer them (I think in XP first) but was regarded as pap.

ZoneAlarm was the popular one back then. Check them out.