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>>I recently received this link to some firewall test results. Very
>>comprehensive and eye opening.
>>
>>http://tinyurl.com/ynzjj8
>
>
> Fascinating... and it shows yet another reason to keep the built-in
> Windows firewall turned OFF. It's the only one that failed ALL the
> tests. There is absolutely no reason to use it, and I don't.
>
> I never heard of those highest-scoring ones. I'll have to check
> them out. I use a hardware firewall, but a personal firewall can be
> useful for controlling the external communications of software
> already on your PC.
>
> My employer installs Zone Alarm Pro on all the company laptops. I
> find it interesting that there are two free firewalls (Online Armor
> and Comodo) that perform better.
I use Comodo Firewall Pro and it's great. However, it's more complex
than Zone Alarm and needs periodic attention. If you want a
set-it-and-forget-it application, none of those highest rated
firewalls are appropriate.
Dennis is correct that a software firewall isn't necessary if you can
keep spyware off your system; however many applications that aren't
considered spyware -- like iTunes, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player
-- will phone home to report statistics and usage details.
In addition, scads of other software will regularly phone home for
software updates. Many people like this and consider it a useful
feature, but personally I like to know when and why any software is
reaching out and touching someone I don't know.
Also, some software can unexpectedly leave you open to
vulnerabilities. I installed some data modeling software recently
that was intended to be used on networks, but it wanted to permanently
open a port to incoming TCP traffic that would have let outsiders
connect to my system.
A hardware firewall like a router is important to keep out most of the
inbound traffic, but it isn't foolproof. I think a software firewall
is important to keep out the things a router cannot and to monitor
outbound traffic.
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