Personal Firewall

With the increase of intrusion and attacks coming from the Internet, a personal firewall is no longer just an option but a much needed addition to your computer system. Even though Windows XP comes with a firewall feature that you can enabled from your Control Panel, this firewall provides limited protection, since it isn't a full featured firewall. Normal firewalls allow you to specifically control each TCP and UDP port. Windows XP’s firewall doesn’t provide you with this capability. Instead it allows you to enable or disable a few common ports. And its logging capabilities are also minimal. Windows XP firewall does a great job blocking inbound traffic, but makes no attempts to filter outbound traffic. Filtering outbound traffic is an important and necessary part of an adequate firewall.

My recommendation is the ZoneAlarm firewall. I have been using the free version of ZoneAlarm for a number of years and have found it to work quite adequately for my basic firewall needs. However if you find the basic features inadequate, you can upgrade to the commercial version based on your needs and requirements.

For more information or to download, please visit their website.