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Comodo Firewall Pro

I normally use ZoneAlarm, probably the most popular and well known firewall, but now it has a challenger in Comodo Firewall Pro.
Installation of Comodo is very quick and straightforward, at one point you are asked for an email address for registration and to sign up for news about Comodo products, ignore this unless you like receiving junk mail!
You can choose between automatic and manual configuration, I would stick with automatic and let Comodo sort itself out. After a quick restart your new firewall is up and running.

Comodo has a very good help file, which I would advise reading after installation, but if you don't like wading through help files, it probably wont matter, as the default settings are excellent and you are protected automatically.
Like ZoneAlarm, Comodo "learns" as you use the computer. As each new internet application (a browser for example) is started, Comodo will give an alert, asking if you wish to allow or block the applications access to the internet. If it is software you use on a regular basis, you should check the box to remember your answer, then you wont be asked again.
The alerts are more detailed than with ZoneAlarm, giving more information about the application trying to access the internet and Comodos opinion on how much of a security risk the application represents.
Once Comodo has "learnt" about all of your internet applications, you shouldn't see an alert, unless you install new sofware, your current software is updated, or if a trojan, or spyware, tries to "phone home".

I've been running Comodo for over a week now and it has been very well behaved and I haven't noticed any difference to my connection speed. The system tray icon has a animated graphic to show internet traffic, it isn't quite as nice as the ZoneAlarm graphic, but it does at least show that it's working. Like Zonealarm you can stop all internet traffic, by right clicking on the tray icon and selecting "block all", which is useful if something untoward appears to be happening.

The main interface does initially appear to be quite busy, but it is actually well laid out and straightforward. The most important item is the Protection Strength graphic in the center of the window, which should have four green bars and read "excellent".
Unless you are a firewall expert and are keen to set your own rules and permissions, you should just let Comodo handle everything. I turned off the automatic program updates, until I find out how big they are (always a problem on dialup), but apart from that, I stuck with the default settings.

I tested Comodo using the Shields Up test at http://www.grc.com and the PCFlank stealth test at http://www.pcflank.com/scanner1s.htm . These tests probe your computers ports to see if they can gain unfettered access. The firewall should close the ports and ideally shouldn't respond to any external queries, which prevents a hacker knowing that your computer ports exist, this is called stealth. Comodo achieved a perfect score with both tests, with a fully stealthed result.

I then tested Comodo against a variety of leak tests, these check to see if a firewall can stop malicious outgoing programs, such as a trojan. The trojan would already be on your computer and have collected your passwords, banking details etc and now be trying to send the information back to its owner.
No firewall ever blocks all leak tests, but Comodo did very well, blocking about 75%, which is far better than any other firewall I have tested. It also showed very useful information about the attacks, even when they were using another application (IE for example) to try and sneak out.

Overall I was very impressed by Comodo it's easy to install and use, appears to give a very good level of protection, isn't too heavy on system resources and the download is a modest 7.6MB. Now that the test is over I wont bother to swap back to ZoneAlarm, which I suppose is the best recommendation that I can give.

Freeware -- Download size 7.6MB -- Win 2000,XP

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Note: Under the Computer Security Level section of the main interface, is the option to test your current security configuration. I wouldn't bother, as you have to jump through hoops signing up and receiving emails etc, before you can be tested. Grc.com, or PCFlank are much simpler to access for tests.

PC Tools Firewall Plus.

The problem with the majority of freeware firewalls, is that they are too complex for most of us mere mortals, you start them up and they give you an alert like "VPN client connection -- would you like to create a rule for this action?", after studying the help file, you give up, uninstall it and go back to using Windows own firewall.

Fortunately PC Tools Firewall Plus is very easy to use. After installation the attractive main page displays a button with "firewall protection is ON", showing that you are protected.

The firewall automatically recognises known windows applications and you will be asked if you want to allow (or block) access to the internet, for other programs.
The only setting I altered, was to switch off the automatic program updates, as being on dialup, background updates can slow your connection to a crawl. I did manually update, using Smart Update and the process was quick and simple, giving you the choice of which updates you accepted.
The Advanced Rules section, allows the more technically minded amongst us to manually edit the firewalls rules, but thankfully the rest of us can ignore that section.

In use I found Firewall Plus to be very well behaved and the occasional alert about a new application is easy to understand. The internet traffic is shown with a little animation in the System Tray, similar to Zonealarm.
I tested the firewall against incoming threats, with the Shields Up test, it did pretty well, all the ports were closed and stealthed, except for ports 1024 to 1055, which were closed, but not stealthed. Ideally all the ports would be stealthed, this prevents any possible hacker from knowing that the port is present, but being closed is good enough and prevents attacks.
I also tested Firewall Plus against attacks from within, that is when a malicious program that you may have unwittingly installed, attempts to "phone home", with your personal information (passwords etc).
It did reasonably well, blocking about half the attacks, which is about the same as Zonealarm and significantly better than XPs own firewall, which doesn't block outgoing traffic.
Note: Blocking outgoing traffic is more difficult than blocking incoming traffic and no firewall protects 100% from this type of attack.

A simple but adequate help file is provided. Confusingly the program is described as a fully functional 30 day trial, but it is freeware and you can register for free. Use a temporary email address such as the Ten Minute Mail, to avoid junk mail.

I was quite impressed with Firewall Plus, it's so simple to use and provides a reasonable level of protection, with no hassle.

Freeware -- Download size 4.44Mb -- Win Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003

http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

ZoneAlarm.

Probably the most famous firewall available, I have used it for several years and have found it to be very reliable, it is also very easy to setup and use, unlike most other firewalls.
The system tray icon shows the internet traffic to and from your computer so that you can see if something strange is happening, ie lots of traffic when your not doing anything.

When I first started using Zonealarm I used to leave the alert message system on, (This showed an alert on your desktop, if your firewall was probed.) but in the last few years the amount of alerts has risen enormously, particularly during the last big XP virus infection, when alerts were coming every 30 seconds. So now I leave the alert messages off confident that Zonealarm is doing it job in the background.

You do hear of a few people having problems uninstalling Zonealarm. I have never had any trouble, but it is important to turn it completely off before uninstalling and if installing a new version I would recommend a clean install.
If like myself you have a dialup connection you do not need to run your firewall when offline, this can be useful if you have a slower computer. But to be safe unplug your phone line when offline, this will prevent a malicious program dialing up in the background.

It is important when choosing a firewall to check that it controls outgoing traffic as well as incoming traffic, this helps prevent malicious programs from connecting to the internet and transmitting your private data.
You should only run one firewall, if you are using XP, turn off Windows own firewall, before using ZoneAlarm.

Note: I have noticed of late, that Zonelabs tend to hide the free version of Zone Alarm, but if you search the site, it is there. (I think they are trying to encourage you to buy the paid for version !!!)

http://www.zonelabs.com

Note: The latest versions of ZoneAlarm only work with Win 2000 and XP, but earlier versions that work with Win 98SE/Me/2000 and XP are available from the link below.

Additional information: The latest versions of Zonealarm are quite substantial pieces of software, which may slow older computers, but older stable versions of Zonealarm, ( I use version 5.5.094.000, which is stable and runs well on Win98se and XP.) can be downloaded from:
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html

Note: Updating your firewall with every new release is not necessary, just use the Shields Up test (See below) occasionally, to check you are still protected.

Testing your firewall.

Now that you have your firewall installed why not test it to see if its protecting you, go along to grc.com and try their Shields Up! security test to see if you are protected, ideally your test results should show a 100% stealth mode.

You can also try another product from grc, Leak Test, this is a small (25k) program that will try to penetrate your firewall from within, just run it and read the instructions carefully.

This program does not require installing, simply unzip it and click on the exe to run.
Leak Test v1.2

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