The best FREE firewall?

[David]

Yes, I've been using it for years, since Win98, through Win2000
and XP with all SP's. I'm using it now on XP Pro SP2.

Also, take note of Kerodo's comments as s/he may well be correct.

I tried Kerio on my Win98SE system. Getting it to work at all was a
nightmare. It fouled up all sorts of operations including Internet
Connection Sharing, games, any program that attempted to exec another
program, and stopped the machine from successfully shutting down and
rebooting. After some hours of tearing my hair out I threw it away.

 

[elaich]

I tried Kerio on my Win98SE system. Getting it to work at all was a
nightmare. It fouled up all sorts of operations including Internet
Connection Sharing, games, any program that attempted to exec another
program, and stopped the machine from successfully shutting down and
rebooting. After some hours of tearing my hair out I threw it away.

The horror stories with Kerio 4 far outweigh the success stories. Yet,
there will always be someone who pops up and says "it works for me" even
though they are outnumbered 10 - 1.

Back when I tried it (several months ago) the support forums were full of
posts from of people who couldn't get it to work, who had their machines
messed up by it, etc.

 

[Kerodo]

The horror stories with Kerio 4 far outweigh the success stories. Yet,
there will always be someone who pops up and says "it works for me" even
though they are outnumbered 10 - 1.

Back when I tried it (several months ago) the support forums were full of
posts from of people who couldn't get it to work, who had their machines
messed up by it, etc.

It has a history of bugs unlike any other. Best to avoid it...

 

[R. Amuzu]

Good luck!! Kerio 4 is a CPU hogging, bloated piece of crapware. I
wouldn't recommend that anybody install it. I tried it (1.2 GHz, 256M)
and it slowed my machine down to a crawl.

Google the groups to read the hundreds of horror stories about KPF
version 4.

Actually I swapped from Sygate to KPF4 and never liked KPF2.1.5 plus I
believe it has some small issues with SP2 as well as a security
vulnerability. Personally I would either use KPF4 as many of us are with
little or no problems or forget KPF completely and use one of the
others. Sygate is sound as long as you know about its local proxy issue,
ZA works but is a bit bloatware and can be a pain to completely remove.
Outpost gets good reviews. The choice is yours. One thing to remember is
that people never post when things are going great. Check any firewalls
forums and you will find lots of people with problems you just have to
take them in the correct perspective.



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[Aaron]

(1) It doesn't stop apps accessing the net -- it only blocks incoming
attacks. (2) It doesn't stop apps launching other apps in the
background.

Kerio does both. ZoneAlarm only does (1).

(2) isn't the job of a network firewall.

 

[Kerodo]

(2) isn't the job of a network firewall.

None of the crap they put in these products these days is the job of a
network firewall.... it's amazing.

 

[Krull]

(2) isn't the job of a network firewall.

And that's precisely why it makes it better than "just a firewall".

 

[JoeA]

Actually I swapped from Sygate

Why? Did you have a problem with Sygate? I am also interested in the
best free firewall and was thinking of switching to it.
I have Norton now, but when it expires will not renew it. ZoneAlarm has
burnt me in the past. Have never tried Kerio.

 

[Paul B.]

Why? Did you have a problem with Sygate? I am also
interested in the best free firewall and was thinking of
switching to it. I have Norton now, but when it expires will
not renew it. ZoneAlarm has burnt me in the past. Have never
tried Kerio.

No problems here with Kerio, since version 2.

p.

 

[David]

And that's precisely why it makes it better than "just a firewall".

That is precisely why I will not let Kerio anywhere near my computer.
It interferes with my ability to use my computer. It interferes with
other programs and the shutdown process. I can't even reboot without
pressing the reset switch.

 

[Aaron]

And that's precisely why it makes it better than "just a firewall".

Not for those of us, who just want a firewall!

Besides there are better apps that do job (2) much better than crappy Kerio
4.