BleepingComputer.com: Best Firewall

Hi michelle,

It is very important to have a firewall when you connect to the internet as it can stop all kinds of attacks. Suggest you immediately enable the windows firewall while you decide which one to use and you can disable it again later after you install a better one. You could give Comodo a try, but it will ask you what to allow fairly often if you don't also install the antivirus, as the default configuration is different.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Hi James,

I have installed the Comodo's Firewall, it does not slow down my pc. Clap

Hmm, while surfing, I've gotten about 2 HTTP500 errors or it says error, need to close down and I have to reopen IE again.
Does anyone know if this has anything to do with Comodo's firewall? I'm using IE version 6. Should I be upgrading to version 7?

If you open Comodo go to Firewall, click on Network Security Policy and click IE, you can then choose Edit, select Use a Predefined Policy and set it to Web Browser.

I don't use IE but think it is a website problem.

Are those HTTP errors on different sites or the same?

And upgrading to 7 is a significant change over 6. I'd suggest doing it, since it has been tested, and it's a bit better than 6.

I love my Zonealarm and it has never slowed any of my systems down and I have used it for many years on many comuters. However, I hear that the latest versions of it, the 8x family, really slow a system down so I would try one of the older versions. All of the older versions are still available to download. I use the latest 7x version with no problems. The firewall is free, the one that comes with antivirus (which is what I use) is not.

Some people have even the older versions slow their system and some people do not, only way to find out if it will slow yours is to try it.

ZAF 8.0.065.000 here and nothing has slowed down at all.

I am really glad to hear that 8x had not slowed you down. I know that when version 8 first came out a lot of people were having trouble with it slowing them down and that ZA was working on fixing that. It is good to hear that it isn't causing you problems, maybe they got the bugs worked out, or you are just one like me, who has never had problems with ZA slowing them down.
I have not been able to try the 8x versions as I do not have SP3.

ZAF has never slowed me down and 8x is now running on two of my three rigs that are still SP2.

Oh wow, silly ZA's site said you needed SP3 for the 8x versions so I did not even bother trying them.

Are you running the anitvirus program too, or just the firewall?

DSTM, on Mar 4 2009, 02:19 PM, said:

I do not do banking online but I do manage my 401K online and never had a problem. I also use the same credit card online if I buy anything. I also only deal with reputable sites.

I recall that most banking sites are: 1. Encrypted. 2. They give you a warning when you have unsafe material on your computer. When I got my first spyware, TDAmeritrade would not allow me onto my account.

Stang777, on Mar 7 2009, 06:03 PM, said:

Just the FW.

I am running both so maybe the antivirus program portion is the reason it said SP3 was required

I just visited the Zone Alarm website and I can not find a requirement for SP3. With all due respect, I think you may be misinterpreting something that is posted there.

I believe you are absolutely correct. I just looked again at its system requirements and found this...

Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2, SP3, Home or Professional Edition:
1 GHz 32-bit processor or higher
Recommended system RAM: 768 MB
250MB of available hard disk space

I think when I looked before I saw the SP3 reference and mistakenly thought that meant it required that and quit reading. Now I believe it only means that what is listed below it is what is required to run ZA for operating systems running Microsoft Windows XP SP2, SP3, Home or Professional Edition. I see now that it is listed under System Requirements for all Zone Alarm versions (other than Force Field) so those requirements would even be for the version I have, lol.

Funny thing about it is, I do not have what is listed in that list, my processor is only a 600 and I only have 640 meg of ram yet the program runs perfectly on my system.

However, when I tried to install version 8 it would not install. I do not recall what the message it gave me was exactly but that is what lead me to look at system requirements to begin with and quit reading once I saw SP3.