Advice Request Which of these Firewalls (/Control) have you used?

[Logethica]

Which (If any) of these Firewalls (/Control) have you used?

Despite the large amount of Antivirus software available, there are far fewer Firewall-only products in comparison..
Some are pure firewalls,while others offer additional control or features when used in conjunction with Windows built-in Firewall.
Which (if any) of those listed in this poll have you used?
..and which would you recommend to others?

Perhaps you have used,or still use,an Independent Firewall that is not listed here ,in which case please feel free to share your opinions and experiences of that too

• Comodo Firewall:

"This lightweight software is a popular free firewall software that comes with simple and easy to use interface for Windows but meant for users seeking a full featured security suite. Like any other firewall, this shields your PC from spy eyes and prevents malware from being installed on your PC."
Comodo Firewall

• Glasswire:

"Glasswire provides additional features to users of Windows built in Firewall,and can also be used as a standalone Intrusion Detection software alongside another Firewall.
GlassWire's firewall reveals all your network activity so you can easily see what your computer is doing in the background. GlassWire's firewall shows you what current and past servers your computer is communicating with."
Glasswire

• PeerBlock:

"The successor to the popular safety tool PeerGuardian, PeerBlock is a firewall with a difference. Unlike traditional firewalls, it protects your PC from intruders using a blacklist of sites in specific categories, including adware networks and known spyware providers.
PeerBlock is designed with filesharing in mind, and can also be set up to block websites with an anti-filesharing agenda."
PeerBlock Forum -Announcements -Beta Release, PeerBlock 1.1+ (r691) - January 07, 2014
Techradar Downloads -PeerBlock

• Private Firewall:

"Private-Firewall multi-layered endpoint security software protects 32 and 64 bit Windows desktops and servers from malware and unauthorized use. Personal firewall, packet inspection, URL filtering, anti-logger, process monitor, and application/system behavior modeling and anomaly detection components stop hackers, spyware, viruses and other forms of malware before they can cause damage."
Privacyware -Private Firewall

• TinyWall:

"A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall..
TinyWall is a free software to harden and control the advanced firewall built into modern Windows systems.Tampering protection, blocklists, and temporary firewall rules, among others, add new features to Windows that increase security."
TinyWall

• Windows Firewall Control (Binisoft):

"Windows Firewall Control is a powerful software which extends the functionality of Windows Firewall and provides new extra features which makes Windows Firewall even better.
Windows Firewall Control doesn't do any packet filtering and does not block or allow any connection. This is done by Windows Firewall itself based on the existing firewall rules."
Binisoft -Windows Firewall Control

• ZoneAlarm Firewall:

"Stops internet attacks at the front door and catches thieves on their way out. Proactively protects against inbound and outbound attacks while making you invisible to hackers..
Threat Traffic is monitored and blocked, both inbound and outbound.
Kill Controls instantly disable malicious programs."
ZoneAlarm Firewall

 

[DardiM]

I checked :

I have not used any of the above products
I do not currently use any of the products
​

I have always used the firewall of an "AV"

 

[ElectricSheep]

Using my AV firewall and it's pretty solid

 

[Deleted member 2913]

I have used Comodo Firewall
Currently dont use it

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I tired comodo, zonealarm and WFC years ago, can't even remember
- comodo: too many popups, uninstalled, couldn't stand by day 2, took too much time to read and allow/block things
- zonealarm: it was the best at the time I tried, when security wasn't a big deal like in the present. but it was many years ago when the UI was still ugly. Haven't tried recent version then
- WFC: tried for a week. I found out I didn't need it. It virtually didn't do anything, just be silent during the whole test. Maybe I didn't know how to use it properly but I believe it is not better than an AV firewall
- AV firewall: very happy, hardly get any annoying popups for known good apps, easy to use with nice UI

edit: I forgot Online Armor
I used it for a few months, the longest time I have used for a third party firewall. it was very very good, loved it but a bit heavy

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Cool thread Logethica
I have tried all of these at one point or another.
I am currently using the BiniSoft solution and have grown to like it a lot.
"for me" it took a bit of getting used to, but I have figured it out and I have found it to be a solid tool.
Just what I needed

 

[Lucent Warrior]

I have tried all of these as well at times. I currently use TinyWall in my Analysis Lab VM for outbound control.

 

[Omnipotent]

I've used Comodo & Glasswire in the past.

 

[DJ Panda]

Never used any of the products listed. I have been with Windows Firewall since the beginning.

 

[frogboy]

I am the same as @J Gamez065 i have never used any of these products.

 

[Logethica]

The only ones that I have used (and still use) are ZoneAlarm Firewall (for 4 years now)..I really like it.
and Glasswire,which I like because it allows me to monitor Network Traffic and many other things...such as changes of an App's version/certificate, and if my DNS server settings are changed.

 

[Lucent Warrior]

Never used any of the products listed. I have been with Windows Firewall since the beginning.

With these two listed in the quote below, you still use Windows firewall, only hardening it and adding more functionality/control. Of the two, Tiny wall is straight forward, and is my preference.

TinyWall:"A free, lightweight and non-intrusive firewall..
TinyWall is a free software to harden and control the advanced firewall built into modern Windows systems.Tampering protection, blocklists, and temporary firewall rules, among others, add new features to Windows that increase security."
TinyWall

• Windows Firewall Control (Binisoft):

"Windows Firewall Control is a powerful software which extends the functionality of Windows Firewall and provides new extra features which makes Windows Firewall even better.
Windows Firewall Control doesn't do any packet filtering and does not block or allow any connection. This is done by Windows Firewall itself based on the existing firewall rules."
Binisoft -Windows Firewall Control

 

[King Alpha]

I've used Comodo Firewall, Glasswire, Peerblock and Windows Firewall Control in the past. My favorite was Comodo. I remember installing avast free and Comodo Firewall on my uncle's laptop during my board exam review back in 2013. lols. It was one of the best known security combos that year.

 

[CMLew]

Tried Comodo firewall. Good but painful experience due to heavy tweaking for optimal security.

Later tried on Binisoft WFC (paid version) and never looked back since. It's basically using windows firewall so technically it's not a standalone software.

Tried Zonealarm firewall during uni days. nothing special just install for the sake of installing it.

 

[Aura]

TineWall, and I currently don't use any of the products listed above.

Emsisoft Internet Security takes care of the firewall control for me and I use it if needed.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

I have used most of them just for testing purposes,persently I use av firewall or Windows firewall,which I found better than most of the firewalls in the market

 

[Atlas147]

Used CFW and GW in the past.

Found that CFW is pretty heavy on the system, causing long boot times and just very buggy in general so I decided to lose it.

GW on the other hand was a pretty great tool to show you what was the connections incoming and outgoing, however the free version lacked some functionality and the paid version cost an unreasonably high price (in the past, not sure about now). So I just swapped it out for whatever AV firewall I was using at that time.

As of now I am using Avast free so there is no AV firewall and I am just using Windows firewall, and it works perfectly fine for me because I usually don't do much tweaking myself.

Just wondering if I should try Binsoft or TinyFirewall to increase my security? Personally I feel that there isn't much of an advantage if I make a switch, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[hjlbx]

Unless you are routinely connecting a system to public wifi there is no real need to have any firewall other than Windows Firewall.

TinyWall or Windows Firewall Control are sufficient for a home bound system - if you insist that you need a firewall -- which you really don't - unless you have a LAN setup for multiple systems with some or all being used by high-risk users (using the protected Admin account). If you have high-risk users then all your systems should be locked down inside a Standard User Account - in which case we return to the original premise = you do not need anything more than Windows Firewall for a home system.

TinyWall is simple and effective default-deny firewall (actually it is so good that it is a pain in the arse if you do regular malware testing; must always disable it).

If you need more flexibility then Windows Firewall Control.

This is not difficult...

 

[Vasudev]

I use W10 FW control by Sphinx. I noted only handful of members are users of TinyWall, las time I used TW was on v1.xx truth be told, I didn't like it and switched to Sphinx's software. @hjlbx : Is the functionality and UI a massive improvement than v1? Or is the current free version of w10 fw ctrl w/ some features disabled enough for occasionally used w10.

 

[hjlbx]

I use W10 FW control by Sphinx. I noted only handful of members are users of TinyWall, las time I used TW was on v1.xx truth be told, I didn't like it and switched to Sphinx's software. @hjlbx : Is the functionality and UI a massive improvement than v1? Or is the current free version of w10 fw ctrl w/ some features disabled enough for occasionally used w10.

TinyWall has been improved. Current version is 2.x.x. It is still default deny. I wouldn't say massive improvement over v. 1.x.x, because the GUI is still essentially the same. Bug fixes primarily.

I'd say you will still prefer free version of Sphinx over TinyWall.

There are other good, basic firewalls out there - like Evorim.

Really good, stand-alone, free firewalls are few and far in-between.