Firewall?

[Maleficent_vf]

I'm looking for suggestions for firewall software. I'm on a PC and am tired of Norton - have been for sometime, but I've been too lazy to do anything about it. Now it's time to renew or find something else. I can get virus software from my employer, so that's not an issue. I'm not sure I trust Windows built in firewall, so I'm looking for suggestions. I'm not (too) picky about whether it costs $$ or is freeware.

[brownie]

You'd probably be okay be using Windows Firewall as well as Microsoft Security Essentials. Both are free. You can search for reviews on them both on Lifehacker. I use them both and have never had a problem. If you are using a wireless router, you can enable a hardware firewall through the router as well.

There's no need to pay for a firewall or anti-virus software.

[Ed]

You'd probably be okay be using Windows Firewall as well as Microsoft Security Essentials. Both are free. You can search for reviews on them both on Lifehacker. I use them both and have never had a problem. If you are using a wireless router, you can enable a hardware firewall through the router as well.

There's no need to pay for a firewall or anti-virus software.

I use all three of the ones mentioned, and have had no problems - - knock wood!

[DizneyRox]

Just using a router provides tons of security, so long as you don't enable remote administration and changing the password on the router is always good. It doesn't have to be wireless, but it should obtain the connection to the Internet, NEVER HAVE A PC CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO THE INTERNET!

Other than that, I'm just using Windows Firewall, mostly because I'm too lazy to turn it off.

I agree, there's no reason to pay for a lot of these things.

I used to run an old DACHSTEIN firewall (old PC running Linux) but administration became a nightmare. Now I loaded Tomato firmware on a Linksys router and use that. The control over port forwarding is/was much better than the firmware that came on the device. Most never routers support most if not all of the features I need. I use an SSH tunnel to connect to my PCs from the outside world, works good enough, never had any trouble, and I don't expect any. Overkill for most people however...