These days, it seems as if you cannot surf the Web for minutes without being attacked. The remedy is personal firewalls, but most are not built by the major software brand names. Look to the ISP professionals on the ISP-Tech list as they recommend their favorite personal firewalls.

[August 8, 2002]

On the ISP-Tech list in July, MR queried,

"I have a user who wants a great personal firewall, software-based, to use on his machine. I told him about Tiny Personal Firewall and ZoneAlarm. Which would you recommend?"

The respondents recommended a wide range of options:

[JM offered] "I recommend Agnitum Outpost."

[VS noted] "I use Sygate Personal Firewall Pro, which is a little better than ZoneAlarm because it gives you more flexibility."

[PI agreed] "Sygate Personal Firewall Pro seems like it's easy enough for even a novice to figure out. It prompts you when a program attempts to access the Internet: you can then select if you want to allow or deny it to go out, and whether it should remember your selection. It pretty much populates your firewall rules automatically, based upon your selections. I like it for a cheap home program."

[DC observed] "I use Tiny Personal Firewall: I like the ability to micromanage everything it does, and it does not seem to slow down my PC."

[AB advised] "I'd recommend ZoneAlarm Pro."

[JS countered] "Check out BlackICE."

A discussion of BlackICE brought up the difference between firewalls, AV, and IDS, all important methods of network protection:

[TH warned] "BlackICE isn't a firewall, but an intrusion detection program. It will not stop most Trojans, and does nothing to protect against outgoing packets. In everything I've read, ZoneAlarm, which is free and as easy to set up as falling out of a tree, has been consistently rated number one."

[JS explained] "You're confusing firewalls with anti-virus. All a firewall is supposed to do is stop intrusions. It opens or closes ports in IP, and that's it. You need to use a firewall in combination with anti-virus, which detects and stops Trojans, worms and viruses. Anti-virus, firewall, and intrusion detection systems perform different functions. For many people, firewall has now come to mean a host of services combined into one package, but a true firewall only opens or closes IP ports. You have to decide which services you need, and pick the package that will do what you want: don't just rely on the term firewall."

Others discussed the viability of software firewalls in general:

[DW warned] "Software firewalls don't work, because they're built for and run on insecure software."

[SV agreed] "I've played with most of the personal firewalls, and they just don't cut it in my book."

[JS disagreed] "They work better than nothing. I have all my Windows users running Norton Internet Security for firewall and anti-virus. I know it's saved at least one user from infection."

[TH noted] "I have a cable modem on a Windows machine, running Norton AntiVirus and ZoneAlarm. In the three years I have had it up, I have never been seriously attacked. For a home user or casual user, that should be good enough."

—End