Advice Request What's the best free firewall?

[KillerSpy007]

I have Avast free installed with aggresive hardened mode, and Second opinion scanners like Emsisoft Emergency kit, Malwarebytes etc. and an Anti-Keylogger such as KeyScrambler.
I need a free Firewall or an extra layer of defence alongwith Primary AV (I think).

 

[CureVirus]

The only free firewall software I know are ZoneAlarm and Comodo Firewall. I used to have Comodo Firewall and liked it a lot until I decided to have Avast Internet Security (paid). You can try each one of them and see which works best. There is another free firewall software called GlassWire and I am unfamiliar with this firewall.

 

[Anupam]

I would suggest

If you need third party firewalls then
1. Zonealarm Free
2. Comodo Firewall

If you want to enhance Windwows Inbuilt firewall then
1. Glass Wire
2. Binisoft Firewall control
3. Tiny wall.

Personally I think windows firewall is more than enough for home users.

 

[Brahman]

Since you are using avast with hardened settings, comodo may have some conflicting interests with it. Apart from the above given options i would like to add one more Free Software Firewall & UTM - Simplewall

 

[redsworn]

Since you are using avast with hardened settings, comodo may have some conflicting interests with it. Apart from the above given options i would like to add one more Free Software Firewall & UTM - Simplewall

Spoiler: Copy-pasta from their site

Simplewall Pre-Install Requirements
Minimal system requirements:

• Dedicated hardware/virtual machine with cd/dvd support.
• Hardware must be x86 architecture supported.
• 2GB+ RAM (recommended).
• Two Ethernet network interface.
• 40GB (minimum) Hard disk drive SATA / PATA.
  Note: Take a backup of your data as installation process will erase all the data on your DISK.

Requirement for Virtual Machines:

• Refer http://www.simplewallsoftware.com/help/installation/
• Virtual Machine Supported: KVM, XEN, Vmware HyperV
• VM need virtual network NIC and 20GB HDD 2GB ram.
• Configure virtual network adapter so that it can reach internet.

I think it's more suitable towards multiple machines within a network.
Maybe what you meant is this one? GitHub - henrypp/simplewall: Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which can configure network activity on your computer.
Because it's what I'm currently using.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

Simplewall (simplewall (Wfp Tool) Download) which is free, effective and easy to use with some bonus features
I don't trust anything from ZoneAlarm and Check Point anymore! more than 5 times they (checkpoint) sent me some emails that contain office files and I didn't open any of them(i had subscribed to checkpoint security news).
After that, they sent me an email that was saying we apologize for this mistake and that was a wrong email or smth like that lol!
The last email I got from ZoneAlarm:

Dear Persian,

The ZoneAlarm Beta team has determined that your PC is showing a bug we would like to investigate. Please download the following link and install it. It should replace the existing version of ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware you have installed:

Download the following installer
Run the downloaded installer
The new version will install and run without issue. We are looking at the telemetry these new installs will bring. You are one of only 15 users that have this bug. So it is vital up run this installer.

Thank You

ZoneAlarm Beta Team
what do you think about it? what is this? strange things happen to me.

I didn't have anything from ZoneAlarm on my pc and there was nothing about ZoneAlarm Anti-Ransomware tool anymore(because i changed my windows)

 

[TairikuOkami]

Zone Alarm, because of HIPS functionally, thanks to which it can catch child processes.

There also those 2 not mentioned: FortKnox Firewall and Free Firewall (it can work alongside of Windows Firewall).

 

[dinosaur07]

I would say that the Windows built in firewall will be good and best if properly tweaked.

 

[JM Safe]

Comodo Firewall is really good, it has also interesting features, such as HIPS, sandbox. If set properly it can be considered the main real-time malware protection for a config.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

For me it's comodo firewall. However, it may be a bit difficult to use and it takes a bit of time to learn how to use it properly and handle it's bugs. When you can fully manage it, it's very easy to make rules

If you don't like tweaking, Windows firewall can be a good option but IMO, it's one of the weakest firewalls and could be the first one to be hacked. It's not easy to make advanced rules. For example, allow port 80 but block all the others

another option can be Xvirus firewall. It gives you a rating and allows you to block/allow connections of a process

 

[212eta]

Comodo Firewall

 

[DeepWeb]

Microsoft Windows Firewall

Everything else is fluff.

 

[LukeLovesSecurity]

I have Avast free installed with aggresive hardened mode, and Second opinion scanners like Emsisoft Emergency kit, Malwarebytes etc. and an Anti-Keylogger such as KeyScrambler.

I need a free Firewall or an extra layer of defence alongwith Primary AV (I think).

For free? Gotta say Comodo. It offers some great customization and has extra features such as HIPS ans auto-containment.

Paid? I personally like Glasswire because it offers a nice visual to what's going on. Not to mention it does technically use Windows Firewall.

 

[Danielx64]

My Votes goes to WF + Binisoft Firewall control

 

[KillerSpy007]

Since you are using avast with hardened settings, comodo may have some conflicting interests with it. Apart from the above given options i would like to add one more Free Software Firewall & UTM - Simplewall

Okay...>Recently installed the latest versions of Avast free and Comodo Firewall 10 (Cruelsister settings). HIPS is also enabled . But there is no sign of conflict till now. Even both are working well and very light for my system.

 

[KillerSpy007]

And Thanks all for giving me an idea. I am going with Comodo firewall for its easy to use nature, Killswitch and auto containment. I think there is no need of Avast free now

 

[Brahman]

Okay...>Recently installed the latest versions of Avast free and Comodo Firewall 10 (Cruelsister settings). HIPS is also enabled . But there is no sign of conflict till now. Even both are working well and very light for my system.

Well its good for you that you ain't have any issues.But i had issues whenever i tried the said combination, even with hips turned off.

 

[Faybert]

The Windows firewall is sufficient, but if I chose from third parties, it would be the firewall of ZoneAlarm, although it has an ugly and outdated interface, has excellent protection.

 

[HarborFront]

Zone Alarm, because of HIPS functionally, thanks to which it can catch child processes.

There also those 2 not mentioned: FortKnox Firewall and Free Firewall (it can work alongside of Windows Firewall).

FortKnox Firewall is NOT free. It's FREE to download and it's a shareware.

FYI, I'm using the paid version.