Member Avatar for niceboy

please suggest a good freeware firewall for windows.

thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #286602

Dani AI

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Several good points already in this thread. rightly points to the built‑in host firewall as a sensible baseline, while reminds that a home router’s NAT provides substantial protection. and noted third‑party firewalls and raised the valid point that vendor ownership and licensing can change. A layered approach is safest: router/NAT as the network boundary, the host firewall for per‑machine rules, and a third‑party product only when its extra features are actually needed.

Practical, low‑maintenance steps that still give strong protection:

  • Keep the router’s NAT enabled and avoid unnecessary port forwards; disable UPnP unless required.
  • Use the host firewall across all profiles and set unknown networks to a restrictive profile.
  • Default to blocking inbound connections not explicitly allowed, enable logging of dropped packets, and export the firewall configuration before major changes.

Example commands (safe on modern Windows) to enable the firewall and back up rules:

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state on
netsh advfirewall set allprofiles firewallpolicy blockinbound,allowoutbound
netsh advfirewall export "C:\fw-backup.wfw"

# PowerShell: list enabled rules
Get-NetFirewallRule | Where-Object { $_.Enabled -eq "True" } | Select-Object DisplayName,Direction,Action

When evaluating freeware firewall products, prioritize current vendor reputation, signed drivers, frequent updates, clear logging, and minimal bundled extras. Avoid running two endpoint firewalls at once (driver conflicts and false positives). Be cautious with strict outbound blocking—use it only if willing to maintain rules—otherwise rely on the host firewall plus a reputable anti‑malware solution for routine protection.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Riptyed

For personal use, usually Windows Firewall (included) is the sensible choice. If you mean antivirus etc., check out Malwarebytes and AVG for good free options.

Member Avatar for rubberman

I never advise a software firewall, but a hardware one. Most personal LAN routers provide this service quite reasonably. Set your computers to use DHCP, or a local static IP address, and your router will use NAT (Network Address Translation) to map local->internet->local addresses. That way, unless you configure the router to tunnel specific ports to local servers (such as HTTP requests to a web server on port 80 or 443), nothing from outside can connect to your systems and compromise your network.

Member Avatar for JessieMay

If you need a free Firewall s/w I would advice you to go for the Zone Alarm. The basic version is free and works great.

You can also visit the below link for other alternative.
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/security/fwfirewall.html

Member Avatar for XP78USER

Comodo Firewall although not free but can offer a trial through it's webpage

Member Avatar for Member #286602

Yes I agree, ZoneAlarm has been great free Firewall in the past. Although, I'm not familiar with the product since CheckPoint purchased it.

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