Firewall

[Cozwin]

So out of interest, who here uses a windows firewall application?

As honestly every time I reinstall mine, I find it so annoying I remove it again, so if you do use one, what do you use? I normally use Comodo but it has that many pop ups etc. it annoys the hell out of me.

[aidanjt]

Meh, I just use the Windows built-in firewall. It works well enough. NAT routers block most net nasties anyway.

[smargh]

Built-in Windows firewall. Nobody needs anything else, and third-party products only introduce potential instability.

I also use m0n0wall on an Alix box, so there are two filters to configure whenever I need to allow anything, and it's a good fallback in case apps automatically add firewall exceptions, i.e. vmWare Workstation opens up auth ports every time it's upgraded, as does Windows itself whenever new roles are added.

[Kumagoro]

Comodo has a built in sandbox which I guess is what you get most of the pop ups from
Maybe have a tinker in the options to see if you can tone down the number of pop ups.

[kalniel]

Windows 7 firewall + router hardware firewall.

[this_is_gav]

I don't even use the Windows one. Router firewall only for me.

[Behemoth]

Like many others here, Windows Firewall and then whats into my Router

I hate software ones, always eating ram and slowing stuff down.

[Iron Sights]

I never have any problems with comodo, its pretty good, sometimes it can interfere with certain games but it has a "game mode" setting with helps a lot.

.....Now excuse me while I put on my tin foil hat

[Behemoth]

Its all about personal choice in regards to software, and to be honest I don't see that in addition to what Windows has plus my router that extra software is actually required.

I a scan on my PC a few nights ago using Malware Bytes and Spybot Search and Destroy and neither scanner found any kind of malware. My windows has been installed since beginning of January.

[peterb]

If you are using a NAT router then that is probably sufficient for most people unless they are doing anything relatively unusual (running a publicly visible mail or web server for example) that requires open ports or port forwarding.