Firewalls Reviews

A firewall protects a computer against unauthorized access by hackers, hijackers, nefarious websites and malicious software. All firewalls, except the one integrated into Windows XP, also block threats already on your computer from communicating with the perpetrator or a third party, so that hackers can't gain access to your personal data or computer. Hardware and/or software firewalls are essential components of computer security.

Reviewers have not done the best job keeping pace with reviewing software firewalls. Because several companies have merged or gone out of business, and because software firewalls are frequently updated, many slightly older reviews are no longer relevant. The major U.S. computer magazines and consumer magazines, such as PC Magazine and Consumer Reports, have provided only cursory coverage of firewalls in the past couple of years. Testing, however, is up-to-date. Matousec.com completed tests of 42 firewalls in November. The most credible reviewers cite Matousec's results, which indicates how highly Matousec is respected by professionals who understand the complex operation of firewalls and how to test their efficacy. Matousec does not evaluate usage considerations, however, just effectiveness.

Two veteran computer journalists, Scot Finnie and Scott May, have been independently conducting searches for the best firewall program. With real-life tests and input from the knowledgeable readers of his newsletter, Finnie has narrowed the competition to two firewalls. May conducts his own usage testing, too, and both reviewers are influenced by Matousec's analysis of leak tests. A "leak test" is a malware program that tries to connect to an outside server from a computer to give a hijacker access. Reviewers also try to disable the software, as some malware programs try to do. While features and ease of use are important, technical performance is the most important buying consideration for firewall software.

ZoneAlarm Pro 7.0 produced very good results in the Matousec leak tests, where it ranked sixth of 42 programs. ZoneAlarm Pro also includes anti-spyware software. Scot Finnie informs, "Many [Scot Finnie's Newsletter] readers have complained that it has serious interoperability problems with other security products." ZoneAlarm Pro is not compatible with Vista, but the free version is. Users also report conflicts with other security software, and some complain that ZoneAlarm slows down their computers.

Scot Finnie comprehensively tests the free version of ZoneAlarm 7.0. "Check Point's free firewall passed only 5 of 16 tests," he reports. Finnie adds that the free version performed very poorly in Matousec's tests (though the paid version performed quite well). He concludes, "If you're concerned about your level of outbound protection from a software firewall, free ZoneAlarm is a bad way to go."

The sources covered in our report review both commercial and free programs. Commercial programs generally include updates for one year. Most of the commercial programs have 30-day free trials, but setting up and training a firewall is a time-consuming hassle that few people would want to repeat. You can buy a standalone firewall program or an integrated Internet security suite. Suites also include antivirus software, a spam filter, anti-spyware software and parental controls. They are cheaper to buy than separate programs, and most are more convenient to use. However, the consensus of reviewers is that standalone programs are more effective, and Matousec's results confirm that. See our report on Internet security software for more information.

The stock Windows XP SP2 firewall produced the worst results of the 42 firewalls tested by Matousec (Vista's firewall was not tested). Many firewalls provide no leak protection, and some well known products provide very poor protection against leak tests. Those include the firewalls in Norton Internet Security 2008 (*est. $55) , McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 (McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008, *est. $45) and the free ZoneAlarm firewall.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

In most of this decade, the commercial and free versions of ZoneAlarm were reviewer favorites. However, sliding test results and other ZoneAlarm issues are now causing reviewers to find better alternatives. Even though it's free, reviewers identify Comodo Firewall Pro Version 3.0 as the best all-around firewall. This version is brand new, and reviewers believe the major bugs were caught in beta testing and fixed before release.

Two other programs, Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1 (free) and Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 6.0 (commercial), were attack-proof in the most respected tests conducted by Matousec.com. Online Armor is not yet compatible with Vista. Comodo and Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0 were the only two other programs to produce excellent test results.