Windows 7 Firewall ?

[Phage]

Hi All,

I have never used Vista, and have run Comodo and Avast in the past on my XP machine.
How does Windows 7 compare ? I have my pre-orders in and I will continue with Avast, but am wondering whether I should re-install a firewall on the W7.
Is the W7 firewall any good ? Or should I go with Comodo or similar ?

Thanks

[aidanjt]

The Windows 7 built-in firewall is pretty good. All you need is an anti-virus really.

[dangel]

I haven't unstalled a third party one on w7 either - i'm sure it's not 'as good' as it should be but given the hardware firewall t'interweb i'm not really that bothered.

[TheAnimus]

Your quite out of luck with most of the current firewalls and win7 with compatability, BitDefender's brought in strange quirks on my wireless card coming in and out of sleep/suspend.

Had to remove the bloody NDIS driver....

[Phage]

I have the router with firewall as well, so it's a 'no' to Comodo.
This is going to feel a little weird...

[PeteSmith]

The technical preview for Kasperksy anti-virus seems to run okay on windows 7. No issues so far. And its a good firewall/antivirus package.

[Phage]

The technical preview for Kasperksy anti-virus seems to run okay on windows 7. No issues so far. And its a good firewall/antivirus package.

Thanks for the tip - But I'd have to pay for that.

[smargh]

With a NATing router, you don't need a firewall.

My home PC has a direct public IP, and just use the built-in Windows XP firewall together with a small m0n0wall box blocking the usual suspects (137-139+445 plus a few others) just in case I hook up something with a public IP and forget to enable the firewall on it. There is really no need for any firewall-like security software unless you run dodgy software or you know other users of the PC will. Firefox+NoScript is more effective than relying on a software "firewall" app being the last line of defence. Firewall apps can cause a lot of headache from a tech support perspective.

[Saracen]

With a NATing router, you don't need a firewall.

My home PC has a direct public IP, and just use the built-in Windows XP firewall together with a small m0n0wall box blocking the usual suspects (137-139+445 plus a few others) just in case I hook up something with a public IP and forget to enable the firewall on it. There is really no need for any firewall-like security software unless you run dodgy software or you know other users of the PC will. Firefox+NoScript is more effective than relying on a software "firewall" app being the last line of defence. Firewall apps can cause a lot of headache from a tech support perspective.

I vehemently disagree.

For a start, a half-decent software firewall gives you some control about what applications are allowed to talk OUT, as well as what gets in, and it's quite an eye-opener what wants to talk out. That alone says a software firewall is essential for me. And, in my case, there are NO other users on my PCs and I am not using dodgy software.

[lodore]

You could learn how to setup windows 7 firewall with advanced security or use a tool such as

windows firewall control

windows 7 firewall does seem to have alot of control but using the control panel MS ships its quite hard to use thats why the tool above is useful. it makes it easy to configure.

not sure how good the free version is.
for the price of the plus version you could get a paid antivirus with HIPS and firewall for 3 users for example f-secure or kaspersky.

[Phage]

Thanks everyone. I can see that the community is as undecided as I am !
I will probably have a go at the W7 firewall and see what it can deliver. If it's not a great experience, then I'll pick up a paid service I've used Kaspersky and F-Secure before, and I've seen some posts praising Norton 2009, so I'll do further research this autmn when I migrate.

[Barrichello]

Thanks for the tip - But I'd have to pay for that.

I would continue with your Avast, works really well on Windows 7 i have found (and read up on the net about it) It doesnt seem intrusive and yet caught and dealt with a trojan that tried to get on my pc from a url redirect last week. And its free

Im using both windows 7 and firewall on router. Seems to work fine.

[Singh400]

Both Windows 7 & Vista firewall's are bi-directional. They both give you some control of outgoing and incoming connections.

But they don't give enough control for my liking so I still plan on using (and do use) Comodo Personal Firewall.

To those who say a hardware firewall (the one inside your router) is enough - it is not in my opinion. Since when do a hardware based firewall give you control of outgoing connections? Exactly.

[Tonka777]

I was using Comodo on Win7 until recently. It was causing me to have some massive pings for some reason (>500ms) Disabling it didn't help, i had to uninstall it to get my pings back to normal. Keen to use it again though for more control, so i'm hoping they fix it soon.

[Agent]

Since when do a hardware based firewall give you control of outgoing connections? Exactly.

Pretty much every firewall in the existence of man will have the ability to control outgoing connections.

The issue is that it can't be done easily on a per application in a home environment for most users. You don't get a pretty popup telling you something wants access, but rather you would have to log into the firewall and manage it yourself.

[Singh400]

Pretty much every firewall in the existence of man will have the ability to control outgoing connections.

The issue is that it can't be done easily on a per application in a home environment for most users. You don't get a pretty popup telling you something wants access, but rather you would have to log into the firewall and manage it yourself.

Maybe so, but who can be really bothered to login into their router just because you've installed a new application. I'd rather have a "pretty popup" informing that application 'x' is trying to get internet access there and then. Rather than having to trawl traffic logs.

Point is, both hardware and software firewalls are needed in my opinion.