[achtung]

Are there any good firewalls anyone can suggest?  Preferably something cost-effective or free?

I've never been able to find a particularly good one that didn't cost 40 bucks if you bought it stand-alone.

[Mefustae]

Sygate Personal Firewall ain't bad.

Edit: Which seems to have been bought out by Symantec. ****ers. Anyway, you should be able to find v5.6 mirrors around, which is what I use.

[achtung]

Sygate Personal Firewall ain't bad.

That's what I'm using, it's just a bit buggy in a few areas.  The only thing that really gets me is when the little "such-and-such has been blocked from accessing the network" messages pop up, I click the "Do not show again checkbox", then, the messages continue popping up.

[redsniper]

plus Sygate is no longer getting updates. As far as I can tell, the best free firewall now is the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. 'Tis what I use.

[Huggybaby]

OK, call me stupid, but I started using windows firewall a while ago after I got tired of the overhead from ZoneAlarm free. I know it doesn't protect against outbound stuff, but I can't say I've ever been attacked since switching.

The configuration of the others was too much a PIA so I gave up.

[Mefustae]

OK, call me stupid, but I started using windows firewall a while ago after I got tired of the overhead from ZoneAlarm free. I know it doesn't protect against outbound stuff, but I can't say I've ever been attacked since switching.

I was under the impession switching on the Windows firewall did nothing to prevent attacks, instead just preventing any notification of an attack.

[Huggybaby]

LOL Wouldn't be a firewall at all then would it?

No, the knock against the Windows firewall AFAIK is that it blocks inbound only (but it DOES block inbound). Once something gets on your machine however it's supposedly free to "phone out".

[Mongoose]

At least to my knowledge, I've never had any problems at all with the free version of ZoneAlarm.

[achtung]

At least to my knowledge, I've never had any problems at all with the free version of ZoneAlarm.

It's a resource hog =/  Plus, if you decide to get rid of it, in my past experiences anyway, it's a total *****.

[Huggybaby]

Yes, the resource hoggishness finally got to me. Being a software solution, and with all the updates, I kept watching it get bigger, and bigger...

At some point it started slowing things down. I don't know when I first noticed, maybe when I got into torrents, I forget. Anyway, there was something I wanted to do and it was getting in the way.

I'd been using it so long though I was afraid to stop. lol

[WMCoolmon]

Yes, the resource hoggishness finally got to me. Being a software solution, and with all the updates, I kept watching it get bigger, and bigger...

At some point it started slowing things down. I don't know when I first noticed, maybe when I got into torrents, I forget. Anyway, there was something I wanted to do and it was getting in the way.

I'd been using it so long though I was afraid to stop. lol

Yeah, they've released a patch for that.

...

[Huggybaby]

Damn, I was staring at your post, wondering if I should try ZA again. 

For almost 10 seconds you went straight over my head! Good one WMCoolmon!

[Bob-san]

ComputerAssociates generally have good software. You can pickup a $10 copy (after $50+ of rebates, not including shipping) copy over at TigerDirect.com and just send in the rebates. They tend to have complete bundles every so often that after a while will be "free".

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:26|m:212|&Sort=4

Some temporary trial stuff, then some cheap stuff. It's worth the price; CA's stuff did more for me in 2 weeks then Norton did in a year. Firewall is A+ (10/10), when I used it AntiVirus was an A (9/10) (works extremely well though the interface was a bit rough).

You can get a trial version from their website...

[Huggybaby]

I don't use mail-in rebates anymore. I get burned too often and it's not worth the hassle and waiting for some redemption center to tell me I didn't send in the proper receipt, and BTW now it's too late.

To me they're an ugly gimmick and I don't support them. I'm probably just too lazy, disorganized and impatient.

[achtung]

eeehhhh, not too comfy with mail-in rebates.

[Bob-san]

TigerDirect is generally better with rebates... most people just forget to send them in ontime. Anyways I will still recommend CA... great software.

[Descenterace]

In theory, only ports with services listening on them can be attacked. Turn off any services you don't use and that reduces vulnerability to attacks markedly. Any remaining services damn well should be secure, but with Windows I wouldn't put money on it.

Firewalls are mostly unnecessary on a properly-configured box (entire networks are a different matter), and blocking outbound traffic shouldn't be required if you don't let any malware get a foothold (which is usually through a browser, not through subverting network services).

Finally, the best sort of defence you can have against attacks is a router doing NAT and the bare minimum of ports forwarded.

[Bob-san]

I don't run a firewall on my own PC. My network has software and hardware firewalls. It refuses random incoming packets, and only allows stuff that is requested. Nothing random coming in, and we run malware/spyware software to clean up the systems. No big deal. Firewalls are only really needed on unsecure networks and computers on their own connection (like the only PC in the house).

[Stealth]

likewise.

one of the best firewalls i've ever worked with are the PIX series.  after setting numerous 501s, 506s, 515s, and even a 520 up, i bit the bullet and bought a used 501.  Best thing i've ever done.  I have rules for everything I don't need.  Everything.