Which Firewall Software Do You Recommend?

Posted on: April 21st, 2009

Well, the answer might surprise you: Windows’ built in Firewall.

Why?

The reason is simple. It gets the job done without creating too much trouble.

I had probably a hundred, or more, service calls when the trouble was caused by firewall software. They tend to block too much and if you are not an expert then you can start wondering why you can’t get online, why you are not able to send or receive emails, etc.

Windows firewall is a simple but effective piece of software and pretty much all software that you use knows how to cooperate with it. That’s not at all the case with the other third party firewalls. They don’t provide significantly more protection but will give more notifications and occasionally cause problems by blocking things.

Another reason most people do not need a separate firewall software is that most households and small businesses have a router. Every router is a firewall as well, it blocks any kind of outside access to the internal network. So in most cases there are 2 firewalls – so a third one is really an overkill, and a possible point of trouble.

A little note: If you don’t have a router, i.e your computer is the only one on the network and it’s directly connected to a modem then I strongly recommend checking the Windows firewall settings and checking the “Don’t allow exceptions” box. This means all outside access to the computer will be blocked – no exceptions.