[seti]

Originally Posted by Corrine

@alsiladka, in addition to tweakwindows response, should your computer become infected, a software firewall also acts as a barrier to block the infector from calling home.

I use the Windows Vista Firewall behind a Linksys WRT160N router. Linksys.com ? Products/Wireless/Basic Networking/Broadband Routers/Wireless-N (draft 802.11n)/WRT160N. (By the way, WVC member, Vista4Beginners, has a nice tutorial on the Windows Vista firewall: Windows Firewall | Windows Vista for Beginners

Since I find I am still running up against logs where the users don't have a software firewall, I keep the list of firewall programs free for personal use handy (Due to the Ask toolbar leofelix alluded to I don't choose to list either Comodo or ZA.)

Agnitum Outpost Firewall
Kerio Personal Firewall
Online Armor Free

Scott Finnie did a review of firewalls last year and selected Online Armor as the best product. (See Scot?s Newsletter Blog Blog Archive The Best Firewall Software of 2008: Online Armor)

This product at the time of the testing was for XP ONLY and from what I am reading it still doesn't include Vista (unless I've got it wrong). Personally I still got for AVG internet Security, because it does always rate highly in testing yes it does have a large foot-print, but with security suites, which ever you choose, you have one product that does everything and you don't have to then to look around for each individual part. And on the subject of testing every person seems to come up with a different idea which is why I like Steve Gibson's Shiled Up. It doesn't tell you what is best, only how your firewall is working. The Vista built-in firewall did well in the test, so if you want a free one then you might as well stick with that.