Firewalls Comparison

1.1 How Does Your Firewall Rate?
At this site they test all the major firewalls using leak-tests. Now outbound leak-testing is only one criterion for assessing firewall performance indeed some would argue that inbound protection is more important. My view is that both are important as are user friendliness, resource usage, software compatibility and resistance to termination by hostile agents. That said Comodo, Jetico and ZoneAlarm Pro top he list while the Microsoft XP SP2 firewall get the wooden spoon. ZoneAlarm free was another notable poor performer.

Product		Product Score	Level of Anti-leak Protection
	Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4.18.184FREE	9475	Excellent
	Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0.0.28 beta	9375	Excellent
	ZoneAlarm Pro 7.0.337.000	8600	Very good
	Lavasoft Personal Firewall 2.0.1019.7604 (700)	8500	Very good
	Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.0.119	8375	Very good
	Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.0.1.190	8000	Very good
	System Safety Monitor 2.4.0.617 beta	7975	Very good
	Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.61 FreewareFREE	7750	Very good
	Privatefirewall 5.0.8.11	7625	Very good
	Ghost Security Suite [BETA] 1.110	7500	Very good
	Dynamic Security Agent 1.0.8.8FREE	7375	Good
	Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 15.30.1151	7000	Good
	F-Secure Internet Security 2007 7.01.128	6625	Good
	Outpost Firewall PRO 4.0 (1007.591.145)	6550	Good
	ProSecurity 1.30	6500	Good
	BlackICE PC Protection 3.6.cpv	5750	Poor
	Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.5.916	5200	Poor
	Look 'n' Stop 2.05p2	4800	Poor
	Safety.Net 3.61.0002FREE	4000	Poor
	Norton Internet Security 2007 10.2.0.30	3100	Very poor
	PC Tools Firewall Plus 2.0.0.25FREE	2625	Very poor
	Avira Premium Security Suite 7 build 98	2450	Very poor
	SensiveGuard 1.06FREE	2350	Very poor
	Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6.2808FREE	2350	Very poor
	McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 8.0	2325	Very poor
	Blink Personal Edition 3.0.8.1496FREE	2250	Very poor
	ZoneAlarm Free 7.0.302.000FREE	1500	Very poor
	CA Personal Firewall 2007 3.0.0.196	1000	None
	Outpost Firewall Free 1.0.1817.1645FREE	1000	None
	BitDefender Internet Security 10.108	750	None
	Norman Personal Firewall 1.42	750	None
	Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007 6.00.00	650	None
	Filseclab Personal Firewall 3.0.0.8686FREE	500	None
	Ashampoo FireWall Pro 1.14	500	None
	AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall 7.5.431	500	None
	Windows Firewall XP SP2FREE	0	None

 

http://www.matousec .com/projects/ windows-personal -firewall- analysis/ leak-tests- results.php

1.2 Utilities that Work with Vista
If you use Vista you will already have discovered that many of your favorite freeware and shareware utilities won't work with Vista. At this site they list many utilities that will work.  Note: despite the site's name, a good proportion of the products listed are non Vista. Many are also commercial shareware not freeware.
http://www.freevist afiles.com/

1.3 Free Web Based Applications
In recent issues I've mentioned how web based application may one day replace some of the programs currently running on your PC. Here's a list of just some of the products and services available.
http://tinyurl. com/2dztm8 (cogniview.com)

1.4 The Great Defrag Shoot-out
One of the best comparative reviews of defragment  utilities I've seen. I don't agree with all the author's comments but hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
http://donnedwards. openaccess. co.za/2007/ 04/great- defrag-shootout- part-1.html

1.5 How to Permanently Wipe a Hard Drive
Most users are aware they can securely erase files and drives using free utilities like "Eraser" [1] and "Boot and Nuke" [2] that overwrite the data multiple times. At this site [3], suggested by subscriber Chris Price, they show how you can securely wipe a drive using a little-known feature built into many hard drives. 
http://www.heidi. ie/eraser/
http://dban. sourceforge. net/
http://blogs. zdnet.com/ storage/? p=129&tag=nl.e622

1.6 Portable Software Lists
There are lots of these lists; none is complete but here are two of the best. The first covers free software while the second includes commercial products as well.
http://www.portable freeware. com/
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ List_of_portable _software


1.7 Free Online Services Offer RoboForm-like Functionality

1.8 How to Reduce Your Spam

1.9 Free Service Monitors Website and Server Uptime and Performance