I need a free Vista 32bit compatible firewall

[looqas]

I was trying to get Freelancer to work online and took away Avast and Zonealarm to eliminate possibilities. It turned out that Avast just being installed were blocking me accessing online gaming glory for that game. I tried even shutting all Avast services, but only after complete uninstall I was able to access online gaming.First time ever that something like that to happen to me.

I switched to AVG and when I tried to reinstall ZoneAlarm it blue screens in the middle of the installation with some not so funny side effects like blocking the whole net access. I had to take it off and again tried to reinstall it after reg clean-up. The BSOD came again. After that I'm not so willing to try third time because it might completely screw up the registry.

So I'm in need of free firewall since there is almost no way I'm gonna trust Vista's own.

Sygate would be a blessing since I have used it with XP. However when I made the transition to Vista I lost the install package and as you know it's not available anymore. I'm not even sure it works with Vista.

Suggestions?

[TheHeartSmasher]

You have way too much stuff installed.
Install your favorite AntiVirus, don't use ZoneAlarm, install Comodo Firewall Pro(Free and the best firewall available(outperformes all others paid/free)), uncheck the Defender+, if you don't want to answer many questions, just go with the default settings, and you will be good to go.

[=98=]

Why not Zonealarm.... works fine for me?

[looqas]

Because Zonealarm blue screened twice during installation and made a general mess.

Everything is explained in the original post.

[=98=]

I was replying to TheHeartSmasher, i thought he was implying there was something wrong with Zonealarm i was not aware of.

[Stormy{CAN}]

Sygate would be a blessing since I have used it with XP. However when I made the transition to Vista I lost the install package and as you know it's not available anymore. I'm not even sure it works with Vista.

Suggestions?

Just need to know where to look,

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Sygate_Personal_Firewall_Free_d3356.html

and like you, not sure if it will work with Vista (I know for a fact it won't work with Vista 64).

[=98=]

But, surely for a firewall to be effective, it needs updates?

Sygate hasn't had updates since 2005 or so.... ?

[Stormy{CAN}]

Sygate hasn't had updates since 2005 or so

Late 2004 actually.

surely for a firewall to be effective, it needs updates?

Not particularly. A good software firewall's main purpose is to stop unwanted inbound traffic and unauthorized outbound, both of which even with no updates Sygate still does very well.

Firewall's like Zone Alarm have updates more for adding features (and fixing things they break) than anything.

P.S. Glad ZA works for you, you should take a swing by the ZA forums some time to see how many have problems with it. I swore off ZA years ago when testing it and it trashed Windows after uninstalling it (Win 98); sure it doesn't do that anymore, but as a result I have been very leery of recommending ZA ever since.

[=98=]

I have only really had one problem with it which was a a dodgy install, but i fixed that.

I usually go by the idea that if something isn't broken, then don't try and fix it, but then again, getting a virus isn't really something you want to wait for before acting :p

[Stormy{CAN}]

A firewall was never meant to stop viruses but to stop unwanted traffic.

[Vash2051]

Ive been running Sygate for 3 years its good stuff. Just get the Vista version as shown above. It works great.