Windows 7 Firewall

Do you have a good firewall yet?

Vista users click here, Windows 7 users read on !

Actually it was quite a challenge to find a good Windows 7 firewall.
Most firewalls (ZoneAlarm, Agnitum Outpost) do not work yet and others (Comodo, ESET) are not working properly in Windows 7.

First I tried the ESET firewall which is currently in beta stage. Unfortunately this beta does not work at all. It seems to be a very professional firewall with lots of features and a very intuitive interface that looks good. On my PC it would automatically block the internet traffic after a while and wouldn’t let me browse any site at all.
However this is going to be a nice firewall in the future, therefore this firewall get 7/10 points.

Download beta here: http://beta.eset.com/

After that I tried to install Kaspersky and ZoneAlarm. ZoneAlarm won’t install at all (yet).
Kaspersky has a Technical Preview Firewall for Windows 7 which you can download here.
But it will only let you install the firewall if you deinstall any other AntiVirus first.
Of course it makes sense to only install one antivirus to avoid conflicts, but I wouldn’t want to miss the best AntiVirus from Avira: www.avira.com

AVG – a security suite

I did not know AVG before, but it is really one of the best security packages out there.

What will you get?

• AntiVirus
• Anti Spyware
• Anti Spam
• Firewall
• Anti Rootkit
• E-Mail Scanner
• Link Scanner (scans links before you even visit them, hot!!)
• Web Shield
• etc.

The firewall works very similar to ZoneAlarm and is asking for your permission if an unknown application tries to establish a connection.

You know what’s funny? mIRC was the first application that the  built-inWindows firewall tried to block as well. As far as I heard there shouldn’t be a problem running the Windows Firewall and another 3rdparty firewall simultaneously. However you should never run two 3rd party firewalls at the same time.

Overall this seems to a pretty nice solution for Windows 7. You can download the trial here.