hey there peeps, just after months of waiting, i just got broadband and wondered if anyone could reccomend a free firewall? thats downloadable, but its got to be gud!!

please help

cheers in advance,

adam

zonealarm!

See jacks post here

cheers fellers! up and running with Zonealarm

if you got broadband, dont forget to get anti-spyware like ad-aware or pestpatrol.

Tiny Personal Firewall is very good and has nothing to do with Tiny PC's (www.tinysoftware.com). The early versions are free but you'll have to search the shareware sites.

ZoneAlarm is pretty good. I did find that it is a fairly chunky program. It was certainly slowing down my old machine. I changed to Sygate Personal Firewall - free and very effective. Not so much of a problem now with a 2.4Ghz P4, but I have still stuck with Sygate as it was (is) very good. I now have the Pro version (cost about $40) which gives you an extra level of protection.

As mentioned before, get Spybot / Ad-aware / SpywareBlaster - all free and very good.

Chris

[Edited by Chris L - 7/31/2003 7:14:16 AM]

Also check out www.agnitum.com for Outpost Firewall

another outpost user here. rolls royce of software firewalls IMO. NAT router also helps :D I do so like the belt and braces approach when using broadband.

cheers

big sinky

Sygate is about the best out there I think.

Zonealarm has a lot of features and is good, but it doesn't half slow the computer down at times even with a fast one (especially with any sharing programs connecting as well).

ALSO VVV IMPORTANT

Get a good Antivirus package.
Symantec - Norton Antivirus is good. Automatically updates 24/7

I think the important thing here is that anything is better than nothing. User ignorance and complacent attitudes are always the biggest problems.

Chris
Edited for crap spelling :)

[Edited by Chris L - 7/31/2003 10:29:23 PM]

Another vote here for Sygate Personal Pro :)

I'm a recent user of Zonealarm and am well pleased with it - a real firewall as opposed to that XP nonsense.

Norton System works sorts out my Anti-Virus issues, which I am well pleased with.

how do you set up zonealarm if your using kazaa lite?

Easy - don't use KaZaA!!

Chris (not a fan of P2P programs)

However - if you do want to use it, then there should be an entry for the application in the rules base. You would have to allow traffic in and out on the specific TCP ports that KaZaA uses.