To continue our security software tests, for this week we have tested 3 top downloaded free Firewalls: Prvex Home 2.1, Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.61 and Zone Alarm 6.5.714.

We have performed a series of online firewall tests supplied by http://www.pcflank.com/, http://www.hackerwatch.org/ and http://www.auditmypc.com.
During testing of each Firewall we also looked at the frendliness of the user interface,the system resource usage of each software and the configuration process.

Zone Alarm
ZoneAlarm uses a simple wizard to configure the firewall, which makes the configuration process incredibly easy. It also
comes with online video tutorials and a good help system. The user interface is very friendly and intuitive which makes it easy to use.
You can even select different levels of security for the local network and the internet.
The settings for the local network are automatically recognized. In all our tests, the firewall guarded against all external and internal threats it encountered.
Due to the simple interface it has low system resources consumption.

You can download Zone Alarm from here.

Jetico Personal Firewall
The first feature that occurred when installing Jetico Personal Firewall, that popped up was the annoying configuration process. In the addition to that DJ uses a "not so intuitive" interface.
Unlike Zone Alarm, JPF doesn't configure settings automatically for common applications such as browsers and instant-messaging programs.
It has no tutorials to guide you through the configuration process which makes JPF a firewall for more advanced users.
Another annoying thing would be that it doesn't remember the perditions for the applications that access the Internet and pops up every time when an application is trying to connect to the Internet. Although the security system works very good (it passed all firewall tests), the hard configuration process and the unfriendly interface makes JPF a bad choice for the common user.

You can download Jetico Personal Firewall from here.

Prevx Home
Although offering a simple interface Prevx proved to be very friendly and easy to configure firewall.It offers many types of protection such as Trojan Protection, Worms&Hacker Protection and Spyware & Adware Protection which is very good for a free firewall.
Unlike JPF, Prevx auto configures the permissions for the main applications that access the Internet making it more easy to use.It uses little system resources and opens up very quickly.
It has a good help system which makes it easy to configure and understand by any user.
Unfortunately Prevx has a very poor security system.
It failed some adware and firewall tests which makes it less reliable than the other two firewalls we have tasted.

You cand download Prevx Home from here.

Offering "easy to customize" system, friendly interface, low memory usage and outstanding protection, Zone Alarm proved to be the most reliable and easy free firewall, offering good protection for any type of user.

written by Adrei I.
Helpero.com