Anybody know of a good, free firewall that can be installed on XP Home Edition?

Zone alarm.

Heard quite alot of things 'bout it... nonsensical stuff that one does, so am not too eager to take that one.

I use it too. Can only recommend it...

I know that a recent version of Zonealarm wouldn't work with other firewalls and would just block everything and that's what led me to get rid of it, I don't know if it's been updated since that.

Kerio Personal Firewall seems to be a good option too... anybody heard 'bout that one?

Well, I didn't use other firewall besides ZoneAlarm at all, and I have ZoneAlarm PRO too, so I didn't encounter just about any troubles with it...
I heard that this one is good, also.

I use ZA too and I can only praise it. Never encoutered a problem and it's always active even if my explorer.exe fall appart (and God knows it does at time).

Could you bother telling us what is your grudge against ZA Kon-Tiki? Would like to know.

Grudge not, but I've heard things like it being too picky, alarming even when somebody just talks to you on Msn... stuff like that. I dunno which source I've had it from, though. Been too long.

Your source was obvious bad informed or did not know how to use a firewall prior to anything else. ;)

Depends what it is set to. If ou have everything set to high, then yeah, its gonna scream when anything internet-related occurs. I have it personalized and its as good as it gets... :ok:

It never blocked me on MSN or like. Just the first time a program is installed ZoneAlarm asks if that programm should be allowed to enter the net. After that ZoneAlarm remembers the answer and behaves accordingly to it every new time.

I've used ZA pro and free versions and neither of them have ever given me any problems. I did turn off the email scanning though - I found it a little bit aggressive!

It can definitly be an agressive program. I find that youve gotta set it up comletely right away. Set all the setting first off, or it will annoy you so much later on.

Installed KPF, and it seems to run smoothly. Does everything on the background and if you check the logs, it'll show you what it removed and what it blocked. MSN Homepage got quite some crap, it seems :D

I also run Kerio...it's a beuty!

Sygate must be a good firewall. I use zonealarm myself (works perfect), but some people like sygate more... Worth trying it. :ok:

Zonealarm gave me all sorts of problem when I used it.

Again, I'd like to know which kind of problems you might have run into when running ZA if you don't mind. Just out of curiosity.

I've seen a lot of machines where "disabling" Zone Alarm left rules in place, and uninstalling it left a machine with no network connectivity whatsoever. I've had to walk people through the manual uninstall instructions far too many times.

I never had problem with zone alarm. Had only once problem with Sygate, but was able to fix it.

Yeah, and I know a lot of people (including my brother) who have the stupid and nasty habit to delete the program folder when they "want" to "uninstall" a program on windows. Problem is, most of the time the uninstall informations are stored on that folder. If you really want to completely uninstall a program in Windows, you need to go thru the add/remove program in the option folder.

If you don't, you might run into random problems like not being able to reinstall old games (especially Sierra is prone to this) or double lines in registery.

This is a BKAC problem and I don't count it as a real problem IMHO.

Only one way to do it decent:
1) Control Panel -> Software
2) Check if the program's in the list there.
If it is, choose Remove while the program's highlighted, then go to 6)
If it isn't, keep following these lines.
3) Go to Start->Program Files->The program and look for an option called Uninstall or Unwise.
If there is one, click it, then go to 6)
If there isn't, keep following these lines.
4) Go to your program's folder.
5) Look for a file called Uninstall or Unwise.
If it is there, run it, then go to 6)
If it isn't, keep following these steps.
6) Remove the folder of the program (if it's still there) by pressing Shift-Delete.

It's not just user error. Sometimes the uninstall process just plain doesn't work properly.

Yes, I guess. Just like the 5% of all the users of any programs which happen not to work with their system in particular? :rolleyes:

While I understand it can happen, it's sure not a problem which would (or should) be an argument against the program itself.

My zone-alarm problems.

1] couldn't get a connection through it for playing games with out a very elaborate process involving several reboots.

2] Animated gifs would not display.

3] some ports were left open that should have been closed.

4] caused problems with several P2P programs.


My favorite firewall to date has been Norton but I don't have the money to pay for it right now.

What ports?

As for other issues, you might have done something wrong in your settings, as I can see all animated pictures, and I am able to play net games.

That again is part of the beauty of KPF. I installed it, and it worked fine without having to fiddle with the settings. Still checked them to make sure, but they were all set perfectly fine :ok:

You have to customize ZL for it to work the way you want it to...

But tit works perfect for me after 5 minutes of installing.

this link,
http://www.hackerwatch.org/probe/?affid=0-3&langid=1
is a site which will test your firewall. takes a few minutes but according to it I'm running an inpenetrable machine :P

My firewall have shows it blocked it.
ZA got a report on each port intrusion attemp.

I seems to be pretty secure. :D

firewalls never work with my computer now (and i can't check if the windows firewall is on because the firewall options don't show on my internet connection :ranting:) i can't system restore as i disabled it (i needed the disk space) and im not willing to reinstall windows (lost the xp disc and i have the computer running as i want it)

Zone alarm works for some people but not for others. I have heard many different people and some had the same problems as I had others had other problems and yet other had no problems at all. The firewall i use now works fine for me and once I have the money I will likely get Norton back.

i mean no firewalls work on my computer

That's impossible JJXB, you probably need to configure it to your system for it to work.

i have tried several firewalls and configured them properly and none have worked

Did you disable WindowsXP built-in firewall?

thats what i posted before, now read it to get the full jist of my problem.

Firewall settings are in Security Center in the Control Panel if you're running Service Pack 2 Firewall! Not sure about pre-service pack 2! :crazy:

im running pre-sp2 and not planning on installing sp2

Why?

I installed it on more then 20 computers and did not have a single problem. Works fine, you can turn of features you don't like (i never disabled anything), and you'll get good pop-up blocker, free firewall, and couple nice goodies.

im a pc gamer and i don't want it to screw up games and apps i use. and not to mention my key isn't valid with sp2 (don't ask)