Review roundup: Slim is in for Windows desktop firewalls

The contenders

Products that bundle in four or more security modules (such as antivirus/anti-malware, separate antispyware engine, firewall, antispam, identity theft, privacy) are specifically excluded from this evaluation. Some consideration is open to products with two or three modules when any or all of those modules can be fully disabled and when the product has few or no incompatibility issues with other software security products.

As with stereo components, you should be able to mix and match security software. A jack-of-all-trades is often a master of none. In other words, less is more with security software -- as long as it gets the job done and plays nice with the other programs.

That specific requirement lets out the products of several notable names in the software security field, including Kaspersky, Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, CA, Check Point/ZoneAlarm (including ZoneAlarm Pro), F-Secure and others. They're out of my research on purpose: I don't recommend any of them.

I've tested a long list of additional software firewalls over the last nine months that I dismissed from consideration because of one or more of my evaluation criteria, including:

• ZoneAlarm 7.0.337 (free version): poor outbound leak testing results (see my note for details).
• Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2: very poor outbound leak testing scores.
• Outpost 4: became a complex suite product, hard to control, incompatibility issues.
• Norton Personal Firewall: overly noisy with repetitive program-control prompts.
• Sygate Personal Firewall: Symantec bought and is no longer supporting.
• Tiny Personal Firewall: CA bought and is no longer offering.

I've also eliminated several software firewall candidates from consideration based on the test results of outbound leak tests performed by Firewall Leak Tester and Matousec. The Matousec tests, called Windows Personal Firewall Analysis, are fully up to date with leak test results conducted on the latest releases of several firewall products. Avira, BitDefender, Norman and Ashampoo Firewall Pro are some of the products that were eliminated based on the Matousec results.

When the smoke cleared on all the research, initial trials and hard first-pass comparisons, five software firewalls remained on the list:

• Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4
• Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0 beta
• Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.5
• Look 'n' Stop Firewall 2.06
• Eset Smart Security Beta 1a

I've tested the operation and functionality of all five of these products. My evaluation process is continuing, but here are my initial test notes. If you've tried any of them, I'd welcome your impressions and feedback.

Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4

Comodo's user experience is greatly improved.

"Comodo reminds me of Norton Personal Firewall. It's very noisy, always popping up boxes, repeatedly -- even when I tell it to remember settings. In one browsing session with Firefox, I had to say, 'Yes, let it work and remember this' eight or nine times. And I had trouble networking with Comodo; its settings for allowing networking were tough to configure."

Well, the Comodo Group must have been listening. The maddening pop-up boxes are a thing of the past in the recently released Comodo 2.4. You'll still encounter a few pop-ups on the first or second usage of many apps, but the program has a system of aggregating pop-up boxes and accepting answers a lot more adroitly. While I could quibble with the UI of the pop-up boxes, overall, the user experience is greatly improved. Bottom line: I can live with Comodo (and that's exactly what I'm doing).