Greetings from beautiful downtown Kalispell, Montana. I am here for a 3 day art show called Arts-in-the-Park and have done well, so far. It was a long day getting here and I will head for home on Sunday night as soon as I take down the tent and load up the van. I have another big show in Richland on Friday and Saturday next week and need all the time I can have to get ready for it. Its warmer here than at home, but I am parked under a huge oak tree and am very comfortable.
On to the business at hand. As you know, I travel a lot these days, always with my laptop, and always on the lookout for free wireless connections. I usually find them in non-Starbucks coffee houses, like the one I am in right now (City Coffee here in Kalispell...highly recommended). I have been doing some thinking lately that I need to add a software firewall to my laptop, at least something better than the built-in firewall that comes with Windows.
Until now, I haven't made it a priority since my home and studio both have routers which act as firewalls. But, after reading a couple of articles on laptop safety while traveling, I decided to look for a free firewall that would help me out on the road and act as a second firewall when I am back on my home turf. In talking with the technician at my ISP, they recommend a software firewall on all my computers, even though they are behind router firewalls.
Of course I wanted a free one, if possible. I did my homework and found that there are three free firewalls that rank fairly high for the protection they provide. The first, and probably the best is Comodo, a very good firewall product that has won some Editor's Choice Awards and raves from several user's reviews that I have read.
The second is the free version of ZoneAlarm. It also has some decent reviews, but several users report that it has slowed down their computers. Other on-line reviewers have stopped recommending it because it just hasn't kept up with some of the newer firewalls that have come out.
The third is a new firewall that caught me offguard when I found it. It is made by PC Tools, the maker of my new favorite spyware detector, Spyware Doctor. It came in third in a couple of reviews I read, but because it has the familar interface of Spyware Doctor, this was the one I chose. It is a very good firewall, but not my first line of defense (at home, anyway), and it will do the job I wanted, both at home and on the road.
In working with it for a few days, I have found it easy to use and set up. And, as I said, the screen interface makes it so easy to use in my case. It takes up very little memory and system resources, which also makes me happy.
Like all firewalls, it has to be trained, meaning that every time something on your computer tries to access the Internet, the software asks you if it is OK. If it is something like your Web browser, you obviously want to permit it, but the software also lets you make this a permanent "yes" so the program won't ask you again.
So what is the big difference between the built-in Windows firewall and all of the ones I have listed above? And why do most computer security experts recommend you use a software firewall other than the Windows one?
The answer is simple. The Windows firewall is a one way firewall, meaning it only monitors and blocks any possible illegal access attempts coming in from the outside. It does nothing about attempts to get on the net from inside your computer. So, if you picked up some bad rootkit, or unknowingly have a spyware program inside your computer that wants to send your personal information out along the Net, the Windows firewall can't do anything for you.
On the other hand, these other firewalls I've mentioned here monitor both traffic directions and notify you when a program tries to access the net from inside your computer. That is why you have to train it so it will not block your regular programs. So, if spyware is trying to send personal information out, you are notified and can decline to let it access the Internet.
The one unfortunate thing about most firewalls, especially the free ones, is that they don't block any potential malware coming in from bad site. For that, you need a good spyware software like Spyware Doctor or CounterSpy.
I hope this is of help to you.
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