Firewall

Sygate Personal Firewall is much more than an user-friendly and advanced personal firewall, it is a bi-directional intrusion defense system. It ensures your personal computer is completely protected from malicious hackers and other intruders while preventing unauthorized access from your computer to a network.

In essence, it makes your protected machines invisible to the outside world. That makes it a must-have security measure for any PC that connects to a private network or the public Internet. Once you`ve been compromised, every other network you connect to is at risk; including your home, business and online bank accounts.

Online Armor Free is a complimentary version of our powerful windows firewall. Built on the same technology as Online Armor, the free version offers a basic firewall at no cost. There are no advertisements, no time limitations and no nag screens!

Online Armor 2.1.0.131
Size: 9.92MB
License: Free
Date Added: April 14, 2008

Minimum requirements: Online Armor currently runs on Windows NT/2000/XP. This program is not suitable for Windows Vista. However, check the compatibility section to see if there are any conflicts with other software you may be running. Please note: Online Armor Free does not contain all of the features of the full Online Armor version.

website | download page

The advantage of the ZoneAlarm firewall over the built-in Vista firewall is that ZoneAlarm will only allow those programs you specifically ok to access the Internet. Microsoft's Vista firewall does allow this kind of outbound filtering, but the feature disabled by default. Not only that, it's hidden and buried - you can't even get to it through the normal Windows Firewall interface.

ZoneAlarm's free firewall, by contrast, will display a pop-up if a new program attempts to access the Internet. That program will be blocked until you allow it. I installed ZoneAlarm's app on my Vista laptop, and it went smoothly for the most part. After double-clicking the 18MB download, I was prompted to shut down the Cisco VPN service. But after a couple of reboots - I had to reboot twice before my wireless connection re-activated - I was able to establish a VPN connection without any trouble.