Free Personal Firewall & Internet Security Software

These are some of the best personal firewalls and Internet security products and services that are available free for personal use.

Personal Firewalls

ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall from Zone Labs is a well known and widely used free personal firewall.

Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall -- Free download, full function for 30 days, then reverts to the free version features (or pay $15 to keep all features, $20 after March 31, 2006). See free/full comparison table at the bottom of their web page.

Notes: We used to recommend the free version of the Sygate personal firewall but it was discontinued in December 2005. See our firewall reviews page for more choices.

Important Firewall Installation Tips -- Before installing personal firewall software on a Windows XP computer, be sure that the firewall built into Windows XP is turned off. Never use two software firewalls at the same time. Completely uninstall one before installing another. Use the vendor's uninstall utility or if not available, use the Windows XP add/remove software tool in the control panel.  After you install a firewall, be sure to check it with a service like the Security Space Desktop Audit to make sure that it is configured correctly. Testing your firewall is the only sure way to tell that your computer is really being protected. See our installation page for more information.

Ad Blocker -- WebWasher Classic for Windows, Macintosh and Linux includes filters for web bugs, referrers, cookies, and urls. See our Privacy products page for more information.

Anti-EULA -- EULAlyzer [say what?] checks an "end user license agreement" (EULA) before you install software to check for amazing provisions like it's ok to spy on you or to swamp you with ads.

Anti-Phishing -- Try Earthlink ToolBar or the Netcraft Toolbar. See our anti-Phishing page for more information.

Anti-Spam -- SpamBayes and Ella for Spam Control. For more information, see our anti-spam page.

Anti-Spyware -- Use Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta), Spybot Search & Destroy and/or Ad-aware to find and remove spyware on your computer. Use SpywareBlaster to block spyware from loading onto your computer. See our Anti-Spyware page and [Free] Antispyware, Neil Rubenking, PC Magazine, September 28, 2005, for more information.

Anti-Trojan -- Try the online GFI TrojanScan and take a look at a² free. See our anti-Trojan page for more information.

Anti-Virus -- AVG AntiVirus, AntiVir Personal Edition, avast! 4 Home Edition, and F-PROT for DOS. See our Anti-Virus page and [Free] Antivirus, Neil Rubenking, PC Magazine, September 28, 2005, for more information.

Back Up Files Online -- Streamload; for review, see Back Up Online and Share the Wealth, Tom Mainelli, PC World, February 11, 2005. Their free account allows up to 10 GB storage and allows download of up to 100 MB per month.

Browsers -- Try Firefox as an alternative to Internet Explorer.

Email Client -- Try Thunderbird as an alternative to Outlook Express.

Email Encryption -- Pretty Good Privacy, PGP Corporation; and the Hush Mail email service. See our Privacy products page for more information.

Instant Messaging -- Try IMsecure.

Intrusion Prevention -- Try Prevx Home v2.0; for reviews, see Prevx Home IPS at about.com and Intrusion Detection Software: a Survey of Products at TechSupportAlert.

Password Managers -- RoboForm and AccountLogon; see our Privacy products page for more information.

Privacy Cleaner -- IE Privacy Keeper, CCleaner and CleanUp! See our Privacy products page for more information.

Security Testing Services -- Free basic security audits from Security Space and Hackerwhacker. See our test page for more information.

Wireless Hot Spot Protection -- AirDefense Personal