Best Free Firewall?

[Atheling]

Hi,

I realise that this has nothing to do with mini's though i could hold out the tenuous link saying that if my laptop dies so do the pics of my work  .

I'm looking for a free firewall, that's tried and tested and not a 30 day trial thing if at all possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as it seems my laptop that had Mc Afee (for one month) is slowing.....  :-\ I'd like to avoid the Windows 8.1 trap of charging for everything each month if at all possible.

Cheers,
Darrell.

[Captain Blood]

I use Comodo free version.
Seems a very efficient firewall / virus-guard. Runs all the time in the background, blocks threats as and when they pop up, and asks you whether you want to allow or not if anything suspect comes along.
Auto-updates daily to take account of the latest nasties...
All in all, very good. Been using it for a couple of years now and never had a hostile incursion in that time.

[Poiter50]

Does it work on Android Tablets?

[Captain Blood]

Haven't got a clue I'm afraid. I've got Comodo installed on my desktop PC.
Most tablets come with pre-installed safeguards don't they?
I've had an iPad 1 for several years and just changed it out for an iPad Air2. I've never been aware of either any kind of visible firewall or antivirus software on there. But I've never had a single incursion from anything nasty in that time. So I assumed it just had some built-in magic that stops bad things getting through...
Don't know about Android, but I would guess they are set up similarly?

[Atheling]

Thanks Richard- installed and running..... I feel much better 

Darrell.

I use Comodo free version.
Seems a very efficient firewall / virus-guard. Runs all the time in the background, blocks threats as and when they pop up, and asks you whether you want to allow or not if anything suspect comes along.
Auto-updates daily to take account of the latest nasties...
All in all, very good. Been using it for a couple of years now and never had a hostile incursion in that time.

[freewargamesrules]

I also use Comodo on Linux for when people send me their windows documents. Works fine for me.

[Atheling]

I also use Comodo on Linux for when people send me their windows documents. Works fine for me.

It's already detected a problem in Open Office (Trojan) and I'm not sure whether or not to uninstall Open Office and s=tart again (which would mean losing my files [I think] or to keep trying to scan Open Office with Avast which is proving difficult as I cannot find the OO programme on my laptop 

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Darrell.

[gustav]

Darrell
A virus in Open Office itself ?  that would be unlikely to me sounds like a false positive depending on where you actually got your copy of OO.  Apache Foundation are pretty hot on security etc. afaik

Personally I would perhaps try / use LibreOffice instead.  Are you using Linux or Windows ?

Alternatively give ClamAV a go.  http://www.clamav.net/



 

[Atheling]

Darrell
A virus in Open Office itself ?  that would be unlikely to me sounds like a false positive depending on where you actually got your copy of OO.  Apache Foundation are pretty hot on security etc. afaik

Oh crap! i uninstalled OO a couple of hours ago..... ever wish you'd read something first before panicking?  

Lost my files too unless google can recover them?

Personally I would perhaps try / use LibreOffice instead.  Are you using Linux or Windows ?

Windows 8.1

Alternatively give ClamAV a go.  http://www.clamav.net/

Stored in the memory bank that is the LAF forum

Thanks for your help- appreciated.

Darrell.



 
[/quote]

[gustav]

Darrell
As you are using Windows, then to be honest Windows Defender although probably not ideal - but better than nothing and will likely catch most nasties.  Secondly Win 8/1 is more secure than the old Win XP / Win95 days.  Especially if you make sure you do not run as admin.

However as long as you are not downloading dodgy files from dodgy sources then it is harder to get malware'd these days.  Only have to sort out my son's PC every once in a while.
My office PC's on Win 8.1 are usually fine.  

Generally though I run Linux which is pretty bullet proof.

Some other useful software I have used is Spybot - Search & Destroy and Malwarebytes.

[Atheling]

Darrell
As you are using Windows, then to be honest Windows Defender although probably not ideal - but better than nothing and will likely catch most nasties.  Secondly Win 8/1 is more secure than the old Win XP / Win95 days.  Especially if you make sure you do not run as admin.

Run as admin? I'm not sure I know what you mean?

Re: Windows Defender, Should this be running anyway? I kept getting a Mac Afee "You have no firewall" pop up, that's when I started to get worried. How would I know if Windows defender was running or not? (I know, I'm certainly not savvy about all of this!)

However as long as you are not downloading dodgy files from dodgy sources then it is harder to get malware'd these days.  Only have to sort out my son's PC every once in a while.
My office PC's on Win 8.1 are usually fine.

I wonder if it was a Comodo anti- Open Office thing? 

Generally though I run Linux which is pretty bullet proof.

So, worth switching from Google Plus to Linux?

Some other useful software I have used is Spybot - Search & Destroy and Malwarebytes.

Can you have them set up and choose which one to use? Or is it a case of using one at a time?

Your hep is greatly appreciated 

Darrell.

[gustav]

Darrell
1) Run as admin.
You can have an administrator account or standard account.  An administrator account has full access, a standard account means to change anything an admin password is needed.
Thus it is harder for malware/trojans to infect or run if you run as a standard account.

2) Windows Defender is a free Microsoft firewall / anti virus / malware scanner built into Win 8.  Many PC manufacturers pre-install third party offerings such as Macfee and / or Norton (probably due to a kick back on sales) to add value on top of Defender and so it is "replaced".  If they are removed then Defender usually takes back over.  This can be done through the Security settings in the Action Centre I believe.

3) As anti virus relies on pattern matching it can be possible for an anti virus program to make a false positive match.  I would surmise Comodo found what it thought was a virus in OO.  If you have any doubts delete OO and get a fresh install (and check it again) from Apache or use LibreOffice.

4) Linux is an Operating System (well technically part of one) that is provided with as open software distros (distributions) such as Ubuntu, Mint, Debian etc.  In effect they end up doing the same thing as Windows - just using all Free (as in Open) Software which is usually provided at no cost.  Professional support is then also often available at a reasonable charge if the user wants it.  Obviously bear in mind that Windows software in itself will not run on Linux and vice versa.  However these days most open software is available on both platforms - Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird, Openoffice etc etc but obviously Word, Excel not.  Mind you as an android version is now out then as Android has a linux kernel it is technically feasible it's just that Microsoft have decided to not release it.

4) As far as I am aware there is no harm in having Spybot or Malwarebytes installed on the same PC.  The only trouble is they may interfere with each other if together run at the same time.

Only glad to help - however I am not a Windows 8 expert by any means as I use Linux far far more.  Unfortunately I do have a few Win 8 PC's that I look after,  Mind you those cause me no end of problems

[Atheling]

Thanks for the info matey  .

I will study and try my best to get it all sorted out .

Darrell.

Darrell
1) Run as admin.
You can have an administrator account or standard account.  An administrator account has full access, a standard account means to change anything an admin password is needed.
Thus it is harder for malware/trojans to infect or run if you run as a standard account.

2) Windows Defender is a free Microsoft firewall / anti virus / malware scanner built into Win 8.  Many PC manufacturers pre-install third party offerings such as Macfee and / or Norton (probably due to a kick back on sales) to add value on top of Defender and so it is "replaced".  If they are removed then Defender usually takes back over.  This can be done through the Security settings in the Action Centre I believe.

3) As anti virus relies on pattern matching it can be possible for an anti virus program to make a false positive match.  I would surmise Comodo found what it thought was a virus in OO.  If you have any doubts delete OO and get a fresh install (and check it again) from Apache or use LibreOffice.

4) Linux is an Operating System (well technically part of one) that is provided with as open software distros (distributions) such as Ubuntu, Mint, Debian etc.  In effect they end up doing the same thing as Windows - just using all Free (as in Open) Software which is usually provided at no cost.  Professional support is then also often available at a reasonable charge if the user wants it.  Obviously bear in mind that Windows software in itself will not run on Linux and vice versa.  However these days most open software is available on both platforms - Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird, Openoffice etc etc but obviously Word, Excel not.  Mind you as an android version is now out then as Android has a linux kernel it is technically feasible it's just that Microsoft have decided to not release it.

4) As far as I am aware there is no harm in having Spybot or Malwarebytes installed on the same PC.  The only trouble is they may interfere with each other if together run at the same time.

Only glad to help - however I am not a Windows 8 expert by any means as I use Linux far far more.  Unfortunately I do have a few Win 8 PC's that I look after,  Mind you those cause me no end of problems

[WitchfinderGeneral]

if my laptop dies so do the pics of my work 

Sounds to me like you need more a backup solution than a firewall/anti-virus.
Don't get me wrong. A anti-virus software is a good thing. On my windows PC I'm running the free version of avira.com.
My network setup (modem/router) does the firewall job.
But sooner or later every hardware gonna die.
And then I'm happy I dumped all files on various USB devices.
Get a USB harddrive on which you backup your files! Plug it in once a week or once a month, backup your stuff, plug it off again and put it in the cupboard. A good free software to help you with the backup (only need to copy the files that are new or have changed) is FreeFileSync.

[Atheling]

Even though my Lenovo is only about six months old?

Darrell.

Sounds to me like you need more a backup solution than a firewall/anti-virus.
Don't get me wrong. A anti-virus software is a good thing. On my windows PC I'm running the free version of avira.com.
My network setup (modem/router) does the firewall job.
But sooner or later every hardware gonna die.
And then I'm happy I dumped all files on various USB devices.
Get a USB harddrive on which you backup your files! Plug it in once a week or once a month, backup your stuff, plug it off again and put it in the cupboard. A good free software to help you with the backup (only need to copy the files that are new or have changed) is FreeFileSync.