Do you use a software-based firewall? Which one and why?

Question

I've recently discovered Untangle and set it up on a dedicated PC and run as a bridge between my router and the network. I really love it but wanted to see what others use and why.

Answer 1

I have not set mine up just yet. But I am going to use PFSense.

1. It's FOSS

2. It seems to be very powerful

3. It can replace your router depending on the needs of your network (DHCP, NAT, DMZ, VPN server, etc)

4. It's a firewall, does stateful and stateless connections, you know it works

I am using it to keep a VPN (PPTP) client connection always on, while splitting traffic between the normal gateways and VPN. If you have several NICs you can do all sorts of neat things.

Answer 2

ESET Smart Security 4.0.

But I recommend Comodo Firewall Pro.

Answer 3

I use the ZoneAlarm free software firewall. I find it to train fairly well and easy to shut-up when I am installing software or something else that is driving traffic.

In the past I have used Sunbelt Personal Firewall and Comodo free products but they were both too noisy for me (too many pop ups, hard to train).

Also, I second many of the users who are running a software firewall if only to detect spyware/trojans making outbound connections. I have detected some nasty stuff several times just because of the pop-up alerts. If you can deal with the occasional inconvenience, it can be a great safeguard.

Answer 4

I have been a fan of the built-in Windows software firewall since Vista. It covers my needs fine and it's very easy to use. I don't like 3rd party firewalls because they often tend to cause issues or be quite annoying with all the questions on what to allow/not allow.

Answer 5

In the past, I used Sygate Personal Firewall. It's free and worked pretty well for me. You should give it a try.

I don't have any installed at the moment.

Answer 6

Sunbelt Personal Firewall and Jetico Personal Firewall are both good. At home all my machines are behind an ISA server.

Answer 7

First: what is the purpose of using a separate PC for a firewall? Are you hosting information to the outside world or just trying to be more safe?

Most routers have built-in firewalls that serve a home user just fine.

I personally use a Cisco ASA device which is small and supports 100+ users.

Answer 8

For my wife's Windows machine, we use ZoneAlarm.

For my Ubuntu machine, Firestarter works very well without a lot of setup, and can be easily found in the repositories.

Answer 9

I'm using a very old version of the Sygate Personal Firewall on this machine and Comodo on the kid's PC.

I've had absolutely no issues with Sygate, but Comodo does seem to require more training when allowing outgoing connections.

I have them installed as the Windows XP firewall only stops incoming connections, whereas I want to make sure I don't have any nasties running trying to make outgoing connections.

Answer 10

I use iptables, built into Linux. Mostly because it's already there, and can do just about anything(once you figure out how to it works which is not for the faint hearted).

Answer 11

wipfw for WindowsXP.