Other Personal Firewalls

If you’ve considered the free personal firewalls just described but are looking for something better suited for long-term deployment, the following firewalls provide the capabilities and maintenance options only available from professional, commercial-grade software.

Kerio Personal Firewall

This is the software that used to be called Tiny Personal Firewall. You can have the rebadged version for a not-so-small fee, or you can get it with McAfee anti-virus protection for a lot more than a not-so-small fee. If you are interested in the protection offered by Kerio WinRoute Firewall, I recommend downloading Tiny Personal Firewall as trial software. If you like what you see, you can purchase Kerio Personal Firewall from www.kerio.com.

Symantec/Norton Firewall

This is the software that used to be called Sygate Personal Firewall. You can have this upgraded version and a year of automatic updates for a small fee. If you are interested in long-term protection, Norton Firewall is a good selection. Norton is a favorite for anti-virus protection, and the anti-spyware feature is nice too. The Symantec/Norton firewall can be purchased from www.symantec.com.

Zone Alarm Professional Firewall

If you resent that Zone Alarm is merely a ploy to get you to buy Zone Alarm Pro, wait till you find out that you actually need Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite to get both anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. Check out www.zonelabs.com for a complete marketing matrix of the Zone Alarm product line.