fwiiw says:

One that runs on a dedicated gateway server. I just read that all the popular personal firewalls were easily bypassed during a test.

I took an old pc and installed Ubuntu server (free). I loaded FireStarter which is a font end to the built in firewall. It is easy to setup however I found the DHCP settings did not work for some reason. So managed the DHCP server manually.

Firestarter makes it easy to setup the server as a gateway.

Just gotta love Ubuntu! and the price! $0.00

oddball says:

Have you noticed that the people who are always pushing different Browsers and operating systems always claim that any Windows based program(s) are bad.

In the last year of so, the Scumbags that write these programs have been insulted by the Firefox, Opera, Linux, and Mac users. All the bragging they do about being Malware proof has spurred the Scumbags into action.

The only reason these area have not been attacked is simple: Not enough users. The Scumbags get high off the attention their Virus(s) get in the media and the only way to get the attention is to infect the most computers. With approx. 600 million Windows users and approx. 60 million others, the Windows systems have had all the attention. The extensive media coverage of Windows OS’s being attacked is a way for the media to try and bring down the big guy.

The Scumbags are now attacking these other browsers and OS’s with a vengence. You are not hearing about it in the news media because they don’t generate the attention the media want. If you saw a headline in the paper or on the net that said “LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM ATTACKED BY WORM”, odds are you would not read it because you don’t use Linux and the Worm doesn’t affect you. Maybe a few thousand Windows users will read it. Change Linux to Windows and you will now have millions of readers. Since the number of readers equate to higher advertising rates, publishing a story about Linux is like reducing your AD rates.

Back to your question. Windows has a good Firewall built into the SP2. It does have one flaw in that it does not stop a Virus or spyware program from sending information out of your computer. This has been corrected for the Vista OS but not XP as of yet. Many security experts expect Microsoft to address this with XP after the Vista release early next year.

Zone Alarm is an excellent Firewall program that works in both directions (incoming and outgoing). Zone Alarm is free and will provide you as good protection as any brand you purchase. Most of the people you read that say any product like Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm etc. is worthless or bad, usually have never used it, or, didn’t know or understand how to use it properly. You know these kind of people. They make statements like “Zone Alarm is worthless” and then are incapable of providing and facts to back up their claim.

I recommend you read this site. It covers a lot of information on Malware, how it works to attack your computer and programs best suited to deal with each type of malware. It also has a very good area on Firewalls and how they work. This site is well worth the read.

http://www.internetinspiration.co.uk/computer_privacy_and_security.htm