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As with my anti-virus, I decided to look at
other firewall options a few years back when my Norton subscription was about
to expire. The biggest thing I was concerned about was overhead and ruleset
configurability. Norton was a littls sluggish when there were lots of
connections and a lot of traffic, causing extra latency with the one online
game I play, Counter-Strike: Source.
I checked out BlackICE Defender, ZoneAlarm, a few others I don't recall,
and Kerio. The thing I like about Kerio most is the sleek interface. It shows
active connections dynamically, whereas others I tried would have to be
refreshed manually. I check up on what kinds of traffic are active
periodically enough that this feature is very handy, and has come in useful
when debugging various connection issues and IP binding issues.
Configuring rules is extremely easy for a novice - you can simply allow or
deny access ansd remember the choice. But for more complex rules and more
advanced users, the packet filter options let you get highly specific as to
application, protocol, remote and local ports or IPs, etc - so there's almost
nothing you can't configure.
Recently, Sunbelt Software purchased this product from Kerio, so it's now
marketed as the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. As before, it can be used
free for personal use, and gives you almost all options. The registered
version also provides ActiveX, script, and popup blocking, as well as Host
Intrusion Prevention. Since I use Firefox, the Swiss cheese of vulnerabilities
that is Internet Explorer is not a concern. And since I also use the AdBlock
extension, I've almost forgotten that ads exist on the internet.
Whether you need just the basics of the free version or the extended
features of the registered version, I have to give this product a great
rating.
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