FYI: Windows 7 firewall and useful 3rd party accessory

[braindead]

I was a little scared when switching to Win 7 Ultimate after years of XP and ZoneAlarm firewall, which would not work with 7. A friend turned me on to 7's own firewall and in its advanced mode it scared me even more!

As far as alternatives went, I was really turned off by Comodo which to my eyes looked verbose and complicated. The free 7 Zonealarm drove me round the twist with all its deliberate hindrances and annoyances so I gave that up too.

I took a couple of valiums and decided to take a deeper look at 7's firewall and came away with the feeling that it was well thought out and highly effective. I was a bit bothered by the lack of a management console/interface and quite by accident came across a place called http://www.binisoft.org/ who have put together a superb and easy to use "plug-in" called "Windows Firewall Control". Go here and you'll find a good overview of his software. It's donation ware and the $10 asked is great value for what you get: a great management system for win 7 firewall.

I've been using it for some months now and it makes configuring 7's firewall a breeze.

Block all traffic in/out instantly, etc - it's all there. I won't go into more detail here. Have a look for yourself. My vote = excellent value for a $10 donation.

[Speedy Gonzales]

Yup seen that around. Altho I rarely look or touch anything in the firewall settings.

[linw]

Never felt the need to fiddle with the firewall, myself.

[Agent_24]

Never heard of it before, looks alright.

I'll be keeping Comodo though

[autechre]

The free version is not very useful though. Just installed it and it doesn't prompt you about blocked connections unless you pay for a license


Think i might give Comodo another try