Firewalls

Hi and Merry Christmas to all

I have to make a presentation for software firewalls.I have tested a lot of them and keep testing the new versions of firewalls that i appreciate because I'm interested in such issues.So if you want to help me(i would appreciate that),i would like to know which software firewall you use in your windows system and the most important WHY you use it .

thx for your answers

I use ZoneAlarm Pro, as it's never failed me yet. It catches every outsided-coming-in connection, and every single inside-going-out connection, alerts you to the connection attempt, and then asks for you permissions to allow/deny it. (Last time I tried BlackIce I think it was still buggy in doing this.) It also makes it easy to set rules to consistantly allow/disallow programs to connect to the Internet.

It also monitors programs trying to access important services in Windows, and alerts you the moment a program starts asking for too much. It does this so flawlessly it's almost annoying. Just in order to run a video game I usually have to process 3 or 4 alerts by ZoneAlarm.

And a nice thing, in my eyes, is that it monitors for keyloggers. The moment any software program attempts to bind itself to the keyboard and monitor keystrokes, ZoneAlarme suspends its activity and asks for your permission to allow it to do so. (I don't really have to deal with many keyloggers, but it's nice to have that protection.)

It also has quite a few other services for spyware and e-mail protection, but I never use those as I have other programs to take care of that.

You guys will think Im nuts because most people dont even have a clue novell exists but they have a client firewall that comes with bordermanager (their firewall and vpn server) it is very nice IMHO and is what I run on my traveling laptop. 90 day trial at download.novell.com search bordermanager.

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/appnote/7981.html

Features include:
Traditional network and transport layer firewalling via System Rules
Application-based firewalling via Application Rules
Autodetection of most applications
Application Component Control
Stealth Mode firewall operation
Windows boot protection
Intrusion Detection
Content Filtering
DNS cache
Detailed display of real time network activity and open ports
Granular, filtered logging of all activity
Automatic update with latest patches and threat responses from Novell