I have found that the McAfee firewall is really not that wonderful, and my free trial is getting ready to expire. I would like to know if there is another firewall that I can download that is hopefully free and will last longer than 30 days. Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
2006-11-21 11:44:25 · 6 answers · asked by SAGAL79 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
Zonealarm - free
2006-11-21 11:48:55 · answer #1 · answered by orlandobillybob 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I used http://www.zonealarm.com Free home personal use for nine plus years in two computers. This is the very best firewall in my own personal opinion. The company is out of San Francisco. They give you daily updates when needed on an auto. basis. Any new updated free version they will notify you auto that there is a new version ready for download.
When you download you don't have to remove the old version as the new version will also remove the old version. ZoneAlarm, will recommend that you do a clean install, instead of their wizard installer copy all of the related files where you authorized or deny a port to open.
I prefer the clean installation, and you just have to accept or deny all over again the program that you wish to allow to be opened or rec., auto updates from. This is better and safer.
Some one said to use Windows firewall. If you do you will only get one way protection. Traffice coming in. You will not be protected from personal data leaving your pc without your permission. If you have Windows Firewall turn it off from your control panel, under security center as you can only run one firewall.
Minddoctor, France
Excuse my english
2006-11-21 20:00:52 · answer #2 · answered by MINDDOCTOR 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zone Alarm is very good and it's free. Also, you may want to check out Komando.com. The site is owned by Kim Komando who is a computer pro. Sign up for her free newsletters. She gives a lot of tips on computer security and most of them are free. If you have Windows XP then you have a built-in firewall. But, according to Kim Komando, this is not sufficient. Also, when you get another firewall, she does not recommend that you disable the built-in firewall.
2006-11-21 22:33:34 · answer #3 · answered by butterfly 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ZoneAlarm free edition is a great firewall.
2006-11-21 21:17:05 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I beleive that Windows has a firewall biultin.
2006-11-21 19:57:45 · answer #5 · answered by Mn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are several free firewalls available. I highly reccomend you do some investigative work and find which one would be best for your particular needs. Everybody has their own personal preference and so you will get a lot of different answers here about firewalls and which ones are best. Go here:
http://www.cnet.com/downloads
This site has lots of freeware and shareware. Freeware is free software programs, and shareware is trials which allow you to try them out for a period of time, and then you are suppose to pay for them if you want to keep them, but many still allow you to continue to use them anyway. Some shareware programs lock down programs which expire, but others just allow you to continue to use them.
At that site, at the top right corner is a search box. Put in Firewall and you will be taken to a site with many different firewalls. What is great about this site is it has a place for users to post reviews so you can read the reviews of many different people. The ability to read reviews enables those looking for software to evaluate programs before actually installing them on their systems.
When it comes to Security Software this is very important as this type of software is NOT so easy and simple to just remove from your system. If you want to remove a McAfee firewall you are going to need to go to the McAfee website, go to support, select the chat option, link up with a support person in chat and requrest a Special Removal Tool. Make sure you insisit on the Full and Complete Removal Tool, not the partial tool,, otherwise files and Registry keys will be left on your system and this will cause hovac with any new Firewall you install on your system.
The reason you need special removal tools is due to how these types of software have to embed deeply into an OS in order to carry out the job of protecting the system. As it is impossible to have two firewalls or two Anti_Virus programs installed on a system at one time, it is vitally important you make sure you fully remove the McAfee FireWall first. It is not difficult. When you run the tool, and you can keep the tech person on the chat line while you run the tool if you are unsure of the process, the tool will throw a bunch of ghosted looking files and folders onto your desktop. Don't worry,, that is normal as it is taking them out of your super hidden folders and files, placing them on the desktop temorarily, and when you reboot they will be gone. If you odn't see any folders and files on your desktop when the tool runs then it has not done its job right, and you telll the tech it didn't work as it was suppose to.
I know as I recently bought a new computer with the full McAfee Security Suite pre-installed against my wishes, as I have my own Security Suite of preference, only mine is not for free, though it is the best in my opinion, and so I did not want any Security Suite to come on my new system, but was told by Dell that they could not stop it being put on the system as it comes "bundled". I then told them to just not put the bundled software on at all as I have my own software to install, and I was told that this is just how they do things now and I couldn't buy a computer without all the crap they put on them these days.. It is the new way Software Vendors get their products onto systems and people using them, then hopefully the people will like the software program and buy it when the trial period runs out. I think this is a horrid method of forcing products down the throats of consumer's and so my husband and I are going to build our own computers next year and put Vista Ultimate on them and ONLY the software we want, not a bunch of junk we never ask for nor wanted and simply have to run the Add/Remvoe applet several times, then the cleaner CCleaner for Crap Cleaner, to ensure no crap is left on our systems or in our Registry after we remove all this software forced down our throats we never wanted. Whew!
Sorry about that, it just makes me so angry whenever I think about how these software venders are forcing their junk on people who just don't want all those trials or other programs when we buy an expensive computer.
So, go to that site, make up your own mind about what Firewall you would prefer, then make sure you go to the McAfee support site and use the chat service at support to get the Special full Removal Tool. You will need to know the full name and version number of the Firewall when you do this. You can get the version number via the Help-About in the Firewall, or right click on the Firewall shortcut, select Properties, and on one of the tabs will be the version information.
Good luck and have a great evening!
2006-11-21 20:06:55 · answer #6 · answered by Serenity 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋