I've used ZA for 4-5 years now and have always found it competent as far as software firewall is concerned … recently I've had difficulty when opening any browser (IE or Firefox), and the problem always seems to relate to ZA. I'm using Spyware Blaster in the background, but was wondering what this site would recommend as a more than competent anti-virus/firewall program.
Any ideas would be welcomed.
Kind regards,
Declan
I feel your pain. I used to recommended and used ZA, then ZAP for many years before I started getting problems, similar to yours - over and over again. I switched to Comodo Firewall Pro last year and like it very much. It does bug you a lot at first, but that settles down shortly. Sunbelt Personal Firewall (formally Kerio Personal Firewall) is another popular.
That said, if you keep your system patched and updated, you run a good anti-malware defense, you are behind a router, you (and anyone using that computer) never open attachments or downloads without scanning first, and you stay away from sites badguys wallow in (porn, gambling, P2P where illegal filesharing of copyrighted materials is tolerated), then Windows Firewall is just fine.
