October 20, 2017 | By admin

(4 votes, 5.00 / 5

It’s a well-known fact that antivirus packages alone are not sufficient to safeguard PC(s). While antivirus does offer protection against malicious security threats out there, they can do very little in terms of “regulating or governing the traffic” which comes into and goes out of PC(s). For this, you need a dedicated firewall program.

A good firewall program will monitor traffic in both directions. Both incoming and outgoing. It will ‘regulate the incoming traffic’ by scanning for security threats (example: malware infection) and ‘protect the outgoing traffic’ (example: credit card information) from being compromised. Therefore a firewall is a must-have which along with an antivirus package can go a long way in safeguarding your PC(s).

Thankfully there are many firewall software – just like antivirus software – which do a very good job in protecting your PC(s). In this blog, we present to you what we think are the 5 best firewall programs currently available in the IT security industry.

Top 5 Best Firewall Software – Updated September 2019

Comodo Free Firewall

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall

Tiny Wall

OpenDNS

NetDefender

1. Comodo Firewall and Antivirus pack is available for $7.99/year and provides protection as good or better than its top competitors, which cost 5-10x as much.

Some Features:

Sandboxing Capability: This free firewall software allows you to isolate any suspicious looking application and run them separately without affecting your PC. An effective provision if you’re someone who likes to experiment with free (and therefore may be dangerous) software.
Virtual Internet Browsing: which allows you to surf the internet without giving away too many sensitive details like your location, IP address etc.,
KillSwitch: an advanced feature of which allows users to terminate or block any process they want. Sometimes, terminating applications and processes can be very tough. Under such circumstances, this provision can be pretty useful.
Game Mode: for those who love gaming and don’t want it to affect their PC performance, making gaming an enjoyable experience.

2. ZoneAlarm Free Firewall: Being one of those software(s) which made firewalls popular among the internet users, ZoneAlarm makes it to this list easily. This free firewall software is considered one of best free firewall programs in the industry.

Some Features:

DefenseNet: which provides real-time security updates as new threats are detected and also protects computers on insecure public Wi-Fi networks.
Customization: This tool can be easily customized to suit your requirements. When installing, you are provided with two options: AUTO-LEARN or MAX SECURITY. As you can probably realize, the former is for less tech-savvy users, while the latter is for the tech-savvy.
Reliable: because it supports provisions like hiding open ports, identifying dodgy traffic, disabling malicious programs and so on.
Game Mode: for those who love gaming and don’t want it to affect their PC performance, making gaming an enjoyable experience.

3. Tiny Wall: is a non-intrusive free firewall which does not affect PC performance while offering all the basic features these security tools are supposed to offer. It has been designed to work alongside the windows built-in firewall and thereby protect your PC efficiently.

Some Features:

Autolearn Mode: using which users can teach the firewall about their requirements. Like, for example, the programs you want to give network access to by default.
Connections Monitor: which allows you to effectively monitor all the active processes which are connected to the internet and also various other open ports if any. Users also get the option of efficiently ending processes without affecting the PC performance.
Whitelisting: this and other basic features that every efficient firewall software should include.

4. OpenDNS: especially useful for hyper-connected homes because of its ability to protect multiple devices within a home network. Not a downloadable free firewall, but a modification you have to make in your router’s settings so that it connects to the internet only via OpenDNS’s servers.

Some Features:

Data Protection at Router Level: router-level configuration ensures the network traffic is filtered efficiently.
No Download Required: PC performance improves greatly since no download is required.

5. NetDefender: Pretty basic firewall software, but an effective one. Because, under some circumstances, ‘simple’ is ‘efficient’. Therefore the last but certainly not the least on our list.

Some Features:

Port Scanner: helps users quickly scan for unnecessarily open ports and close them efficiently.
Enhanced Firewall Rule-Making Capability: allows users to configure firewall rules with ease and thereby increase their PC protection.

When To Pay For Firewall Software

Free firewall protection is good for protecting 1 or 2 PC(s), but when it comes to the protection of a group of PC(s) (maybe 10 or more) you have no other option but to pay. Because only when you pay, you’ll get the premium features which these security tools have on offer. So, simple user PC protection = free firewall software is sufficient; while enterprise PC(s) protection = paid firewall software is necessary.