What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

I used Sygate for a pretty long time before Symantec took it, but Norton is awful so I assume they ruined Sygate. Also, when I used Sygate and was transferring at high speeds (my internet speed is 5mb/2mb) it would cause noticeable lag on my computer, which isn't by any means fast (I'm using an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with 512MB RAM and an NVidia GeForce 6200 A-LE graphics card with 256MB RAM).

So for the past few months I've been using ZoneAlarm. The lag when doing a lot of transferring is smaller, but still present. However, sometimes I get an error and ZoneAlarm shuts down and says I have to restart my computer. I have not discovered what exactly causes this, but it's a hassle.

So what are some other good, reliable, safe, and non-resource-hogging firewalls?

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

The old versions of "Kerio Personal Firewall Free" are superb...

unfortunately I can't find the link to the site that has all these old versions hosted right now - hopefully someone knows where I mean and will link to it [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

I agree. If you must run a firewall, Kerio is good. You can download it here:

Kerio Personal Firewall (free)

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

I paid up for Kaspersky but I was using Jetico Personal Firewall in the past. Very low resource usage but it will annoy you with confirmation messages until it learns what programs are ok to use.

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

Whether it's freeware or not isn't important. Obviously I'd prefer saving a few bucks, but if there's a significant difference in one over another then I don't mind paying. Also LOL piracy.

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

I can't say enough good things about Kaspersky Internet Security. It's amazing the kind of traffic that loads up just in normal operations. For instance, running my mouse down my list of favorite sites loads up something related to my CD burning program. What's up with that? The amount of control this thing gives you over your computer is unmatched by any program I've seen. It's very unobtrusive, doesn't use much in resources, and operates in the background scanning startup programs, updating itself, etc. without affecting the games I'm in or anything else I'm doing. I haven't seen a banner ad on this site since installing it either.

The only negative is occasionally it does seem to affect certain sites that use a flash media player like movie trailers but it's easy to pause and reload protection. It also seems to block avatars here and there so I'm guessing in both cases the banner ad blocker may be overly aggressive. Some people might be annoyed at all the prompts as you "train" it what to load and what to avoid but I like the control it gives me and I know nothing's getting out of this computer without my permission. Otherwise you can set it to the lower security level and let it make the decisions. With the kind of money we splash around online, $90 isn't a lot for that kind of peace of mind. They have a 30 day trial.

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

uh, i still use sygate. you can get it off download.com. It's not supported, but you can get the last non-nortified version of it for free.

Not vista compatible though

Re: What\'s a good low-resource firewall?
 

Comodo is the best free firewall.