Best Firewall? and/or Content Filter

[nzwizard]

I've recently installed Nod32 and it kick ass as a anti virus. But now I want a firewall that is similar to it. Anyone have any suggestions? Zonealarm cripples my system and i know how bad norton can get, want something fast and effective.

Also need something that filters content, little brother and sister don't need to discover the nasty side of the internet, any suggestions?

thanks

[thepuzzler]

little brother and sister don't need to discover the nasty side of the internet,

That's what got me into the internet in the first place!

Anyways I'm now using Outpost Firewall professional, and it works great for me. I'm sure you can block websites by content or by entering the url. You may also want to try net nanny or something similar for that though for offensive / vulgar content filtering.

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

I guess the best firewall is a hardware firewall.

As far as software firewalls go I have a feeling most people will recommend sygate, but I couldn't get used to the overcomplicated interface, the lack of control and the bloat.

I still use kerio 2.1.5 although it has been out of development for over 3 years now. It is an entirely rules based firewall and will always be as secure as the rules you give it. It also has a very small footprint.

On the downside the default rules are slack, and need a bit of knowledge on internet protocols to tighten up. There is a kerio forum on dslreports along with a really good FAQ which i can't be arsed to link to right now.

[lifehacker]

Hardware firewalls are the best as grab the haddock already said, but out of the software firewalls I reccomend Outpost Pro.

[nzwizard]

Sygate is now finished, symantec has bought them and shut them down.

Kerio has sold to another company, Sunbelt. I still have the original Tiny Personal Firewall sitting around here somewhere was a brilliant piece of software back in its day.

I've gone and installed Zone Alarm Pro with NOD32 as the anti virus. Hopefully this would be a good combination.

Its very difficult to find a pure firewall these days. So much crap is added to them they have become slow and tedioius, doing everything short of making you a cup of coffee.

Will give Outpost ago hopefully its no aggressive on system resources.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

[condorloco]

Have you tried jetico firewall. Is free and once you learn how to use it is quiet good

[Malakai1911]

I've gone and installed Zone Alarm Pro with NOD32 as the anti virus. Hopefully this would be a good combination.

Will give Outpost ago hopefully its no aggressive on system resources.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Both your choices of ZoneAlarm and Nod32 are really good. Outpost is a bit better.

Outpost has the "everything with a cup of coffee" but it uses plugins to do so, so you can remove them if you want a straight firewall. If you want it to be light on resources, go into the settings and go to the plugins tab and "stop" then "remove" all the plugins except "attack detection".

If you want it to be even lighter on resources, disable logging by unchecking "enable logging". This reduces a few mb of usage too.

Also my tiny guide on the subject is available here at the zp forums.

[Vampmon]

i recently uninstalled Norton Internet Security 2006, i liked it, but was having a few issues with its firewall, so now im using ZoneAlarm (Free) but it freezes my system sometimes, i'm using AVG for an AntiVirus now.