Win7 64bit Firewall

Tony23 Cornerstone member 13 posts Posted: 01/11/2009 5:11 PM

Just changed to Win7 (64 bit) experiences so far: * seems stable * installed avast anti-virus no problems The only real problems I have seen so far is lack of firewall support. W7 has the inbuilt firewall, but to be honest i find the interface confusing. No doubt it's all good if you can bear with the deatail, but I can't so for me to use the product would mean that my computer is insecure. I used to use the free firewall from sunbelt personal firewall (SPF) (used to be Kerio), and that was good on vista, but alas, will not work on the 64bit version of W7 - no idea if it will work on the 32bit version of W7. There are few firewalls which are free and currently support Win7 64 bit. The two I have found are: Pc Tools: seemed to work OK, but it was slagged when I searched through google. I looked elsewhere. What I miss from SPF is the ability to stop applications from even starting, then they get approved to go in or out of the net. This was brilliant - if you are surfing the net and "keylogger.exe" sudenly requests to start working then it was easy to stop. I wouldn't even know about it with other products. So anyway, PC Tools won't do this for me. Commodo 64 bit: I've used this before and it gets good review consistently. This doesn't have the application start blocking either. It seems better than PC Tools, but seriously, it's difficult to know. This is what I am using now. Frankly, I will ditch commodo the moment SPF get their act together and produce a firewall that works on 64bit w7 and is free. i am not holding my breath and their forum reveals that there is a fear that Sunbelt's delay of Win7 will be as tardy as that of Vista. If anyone has come across a firewall that is decent and has granular application level control, where the user can stop an application from starting not just going through the net, please do let me know. Given the free alternative, paying $60 for a yearly subscription for a firewall seems silly, so please, I really am interested in the freebie versions - though others may well be interested in the paid up versions... BTW, I ran a spell check of this post through word, and having mucked about with some settings in Commodo, I got about 6 prompts before word would start (first time use). It seems you can make Commodo alert when a new app starts. This is really way better than I could get PC Tools to do, though fewer alerts would be nice. Still, it only happens the first time and then it doesn't bug you after that. I ran both of these tests through the shieldsup! test at Gibson (http://www.grc.com/intro.htm) and both were not completely stealthy. neither was the inbuilt windows firewall. Others on the net reckon this isn't a big deal.

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Halcon Live up the dream in IT Cornerstone member 63 posts Posted: 01/11/2009 9:11 PM

Hello: I have been using Windows 7 RC 64 bit, I wanted a firewall for this type of OS. Suddenly, I received an offer of the latest Zone Alarm Pro completely free of charge! this offer was for one day only. The program can run on Windows XP, Vista and 7 32 and 64 bit. I don't know the pricing of this full version, the only thing is that is valid until October 2010 with 3 licenses, this means to install the product up to 3 computers. I need to get used to this full version because I had installed the free version; to get the most out of it I run the uninstaller and got rid of the old and installed the new version 9.0. The boys of APC Mag lay dormant, they missed it, this should be hot news, where are them? Well, the program available on October 13 this year, so this became my lucky number, I would liked to celebrate my luck on the Black Cat Tavern, Meow! This program is really good, about the good and bad features? I leave that to the head honchos writers of APC to do that job, after all we need to read their opinions as well. Cheers!

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apt.pupil in the middle of a fanboi war Frequent poster 30 posts Posted: 02/11/2009 3:11 PM

if the windows 7 firewall is too confusing, perhaps you would be best investing in a paid antivirus that comes packaged with a firewall. i personally use Kaspersky, which automatically configures it's own firewall, has a far more advanced process monitor than what the UAC has, which also alerts you of incoming encrypted traffic, and alerts you if someone is trying to get onto your system. a single computer license is also fairly inexpensive, and even if it can not detect a confirmed malware, it will look at how it works, and determine if it is malicious. very good product, i recommend it to everyone

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Tony23 Cornerstone member 13 posts Posted: 03/11/2009 1:11 PM

Thanks apt.pupil. What I want is a capable (free) firewall that enables high granularity without a confusing interface. It is possible and Sunbelt Personal Firewall does it on Vista/XP. Alas, but not on vista yet. It's backward step for me to use a "install and forget" firewall because in a minority of cases they won't work the way I like. It's also a backward step to use something that is uber-configuarble and popup-happy. Such behaviour invites apathy and "stuff-t!" behaviour due to frustration...so it's a very fine line I require a firewall application to walk! Sounds like kaspersky is worth a look...if I have to open my wallet for a firewall (I am not there yet!!!)

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