Firewalls

     Firewalls are one of the most important pieces of software a person can have on their computer, but how many people actually know what a firewall is?  Do you know?  Well, to give the technical terms of what a firewall does would only turn off the less tech savvy people that would be reading this article.  In basic terms a firewall is like a home security system for your computer.  It alerts you when someone is trying to break into your computer and will stop them from gaining access.

     Whenever you connect to the internet your computer becomes vulnerable to all sorts of D.O.S. attacks (Denial of Service) or hackers snooping around on your hard drive.  If you want to stop these attempts from happening you have to have a firewall.  You ask yourself, is this going to cost me anything?  No it won't because there are many great free firewalls out there that's simple to install and simple to make your system secure.  Here is my reviews of the firewalls both pay and free.

Tiny Personal Firewall
Rating:
Cost: Free

Review:  Great things do come in small packages and Tiny Personal Firewall happens to be the best firewall around at the moment.  It is free first of all, how can you complain about that price, but its more then the fact its free, its a great program.  First off, lets talk about size, this firewall is only 1.35 mb of a download, yet it offers the most when it comes to performance.   The firewall is not a resource hog, it's easy to set up and learns by asking you what programs you want to have access to the internet.  Sure, that's great for the newbies that are using this program, but what about the advanced user?  Unlike some of the other firewalls I'll review, Tiny Personal Firewall allows you to write customizable rule sets for it...this gives the advanced user a lot more leeway then the other firewalls I'll be reviewing.  If you want to download a free copy of this firewall you can download it at Tinysoftware.com  Another thing, this program will run on even the slowest of computers...so if you're on a dinosaur comp at the moment, go with this firewall!

Sygate Personal Firewall
Rating:
Cost: Free

Review:  If I didn't like Tiny Personal Firewall so much this would be the second firewall that I would choose.  It basically functions exactly like Tiny, but a little slicker looking and a little bigger of a download .  It does allow for rulesets to be written, but not quite as customizable as Tiny Personal Firewall.  If you want a slicker looking firewall and you're a newer user then Sygate would be perfect for you.  If you want to download a free copy you can get it here Sygate Personal Firewall.

ZoneAlarm (Free version)
Rating:
Cost: Free

Review:  I believe the ZoneAlarm was the first free firewall offered on the net, which was great in the beginning, and its still a good firewall, but it isn't as good as the two I've listed above.  The good points about the firewall is that its easy to use and people seem to like the showy graphics of it, but if you have a slow machine it will cause your system to hang, I've seen enough complaints about uninstalling it, and some DSL users seem to have trouble with it.  All and all a good firewall for most people, but why not try the first two I've recommended before trying this slightly bloated version of a firewall.  If you want to download this product you can get it here Zonelabs. Before you go to this page, ZA offers a pay version and a free version of the program, if you want the free version scroll all the way to the bottom.  As for the pay version of this program, it costs $50, has a few more options then the free version, but basically not worth paying $50 for...use one of the free ones that I listed earlier.

Norton Personal Firewall
Rating:
Cost: $50

Review:  I happen to like this firewall, has a nice slick look to it, works great, and can be integrated with your other Norton software.  So why only 3 stars?  The cost basically, I can't really see paying $50 for a firewall.  It's not like it does a better job then Tiny or Sygate, it might have a nicer interface, but all and all, it works the same.  So why pay $50 when you can get a free firewall?  I've also had one trouble when I uninstalled this program and tried to reinstall it later...the program refused to reinstall...suffice it to say I had to edit my registry and I was not a happy camper.  Good program, bad price, if you get it free in a bundle with the anti-virus, then go for it, but don't pay for it.  It's also a bit of a memory hog, so slower computers will have troubles running it.  There is a free trial you can download at Norton Firewall.

     There are a listing of what I deem the top 4 firewalls out on the market today.  If you would like me to test drive a firewall that is not listed on this site at the moment, just drop me an email and I would be more then happy to take a look and run some tests on the firewall.