I'm looking for a freeware firewall to install in Windows 98 and XP.

Please give me your opinions.

Thanks in advance.

For ME get Zonealarm from.....
www.zonelabs.com

I don't know about XP as it has it's own built in firewall but is not very good (so I have read).

try sygate personal firewall, as when ever I have had a virus it remains active, so you can stop the virus connecting to the internet! when i had zone alarm it was disabled by viruses.

You will get many different opinions as everyone has their own favourite. I persevered with ZoneAlarm for a long time both with Win98 and WinXP but it would lock me out of all connections at random and I would have to close it down and start all over again. I then tried Sygate which was much more stable than ZoneAlarm but ran into a couple of problems which may or may not have been due to Sygate. To overcome these problems I changed to Kerio 214 and have not had any problems since. I did try to upgrade to the 3 Beta version of Kerio but that seemed to have a few bugs so I went back to Version 214. It passes all the test at the various firewall testing sites.

You can download Kerio 214 for free at http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html

Good luck!

J_Squared is right. You'll get different answer to almost any firewall someone likes/dislikes or had problems with, but for me it's ZoneAlarm. Unlike Bexm, I have never had any problems with ZoneAlarm and I have been using it for about 3 years. I've used it with Win 98, Me, and Xp with no problems, but that's just my experience with it everyone else could have had a good or bad one.

You guys are right it is just a matter of choice. But Remember this about ZoneAlarm... It is a Real HOG ,When it comes to your systems resources... That is why I would use either Sygate Or Kerio.... Kerio take up the Least amount of your systems resources...Also there is another one called OUTPOST,which is very good as well. I am using Sygate right now,And it works great for me..

I have installed Zone Alarm,Sygate,and Kerio on my xp system at one time or another.

I currently use Kerio 2.14.It's rules based.That didn't take much time to set up.It installed flawlessly.It's a great firewall.

Sygate.I installed an older version(1.5?) on a 98 system and it works very well!
I know from uninstalling it on my xp that it's a very clean uninstall.Only 3 traces left in the registry.
The reason that I switched from the latest version is because of CPU usage.It "maxed out" on me too much.I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem.It's probably an issue with my video card.

Zone Alarm.
This is the first firewall that I installed on my system.I really liked it.But I had conflicts due to uninstalling improperly and installing a different version over it.That's more of a "human error" issue IMO.
But it is a resource hog!

My advice is to check out Sygate and Kerio.
Sygate and Kerio both passed tests at pcflank and Shield up!
If you want to use Kerio,do a Google search for "Kerio rules".You can get a lot of good, detailed instruction on rules and how to set them up.
Hope This Helps,
JB

Zone Alarm PRO has been my choice for a while now. Just because a program uses resources does not mean it is NOT proper.
When you install ZA PRO on abox, it is well integregated, through-out the whole machine.
I use ZA PRO on a 1Gig 3P machine with XP and have not had any problems at all.
But being application based, the install has to be done correct and most important the UNINSTALL MUST BE DONE CORRECT. I honestly believe that over 75 % of the user complaints I heard and/or helped with were related to either improper product use or
incorrect uninstall from a previous copy.
Lately, on this board and on 2 others I know, SYGATE has been having more complaints than ever before.

I must say KERIOand OUTPOST are strong contenders and maybe even climbing but you'll not find a large enough pool of users to get an opinion, at least not without really spending some time.

That being said, I think it's a sensible conclusion to start with Zone ALarm FREE and then monitor that and posssibly move to the PRO, as it's worth the $39.

I have known 2 PCs I have NOT been able to get ZA PRO on and still to this I do not know
whys,there are just too manyfactors for what could
cause that, and I'm not about to waste that
much time, just move on to a firewall that
helps you out.

How about Norton 2003 Firewall, thats's pretty tight too!

Sorry it's not free! But still a great one none-the-less!

:P