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I am exceedingly upset that Norton has taken over Sygate, and that it now seems they have "discontinued" both the Pro and the free version.

For me, Sygate Pro has done a blinding job protecting my and many friends' pcs, and going back to ZoneAlarm would be a retrograde step. Not having a dig at ZA, it is a fine firewall, but it simply isn't for me.

I liked that Sygate "cloaked" my pc, and was non responsive.

Can anyone recommend another (hopefully free) similar firewall?

Or can I simply carry on using Sygate as is?

zone alarm isnt bad, you should try it

I have used ZA on many occasions, and I don't like it. It is a fine firewall, but it simply doesn't suit me. Sygate keeps itself to itself, but does it's job perfectly without advertising it's presence. When the pc is probed, the firewall doesn't react, it hides your pc, and therefore whoever is testing thinks there is no pc there. ZA is reactive, I believe.

Typical of Norton to take over a singularly successful competitor and remove the challenge.

I am NOT using Norton's shonky, and relatively expensive rubbish. /rant!

Kerio personal firewall, now belonging to Sunbelt software is an excellent product.

I think the free version of Agnitum Outpost does that as well.
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpostfree/index.php

I've used their (paid for) Outpost Pro version for years now, and am very happy with it.

Kerio free FW will also stop being supported as of end December 2005, so there are not many free options left left.

As far as I have read from kerio's (or is it sunbelts yet?) site, Kerio personal firewall will live on beyond december. It's apparently a simple case of downloading the trial of the pro version firewall, and after a time limited trial, the paid for otions will be out of bounds but the free firewall functionality that kerio have always had will remain for as long as you use it.

I may be wrong, but those wre my impressions from the KPF site.

I shall have a look at them both. Thanks all!

As an afterthought, keep using the Sygate firewall until further notice.
The product, as is, does a good job, and FWs don't need that many updates anyway.

Sunbelt Software has aquired the rights to Kerio firewall products and has vowed to keep supplying the free personal edition.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Press.cfm?id=135

While the free fw's (my fav is Tiny/Kerio/whatever it is now) are great for an os that has no native fw, the native fw is always best. The fw in XP, for example, is really underrated.

I have to say that XP firewall fills me with no confidence at all.

Shall stick with Sygate for as long as possible, then.

Thanks everyone!

The XP firewall is not "native". It's a crippled stop-gap measure bolted on the NT 5.x kernel.
The firewall in Vista will be truely native in a sense that it has been a part of the OS design from the beginning and actually has the features one would expect from a decent firewall.

Just windows firewall; but I am behind a router so that helps.

Get behind a router and any old firewall will do.That`s my philosophy.

Makes you wonder why Norton acquired Sygate and immediately removed both the pay for AND free versions, doesn't it?

Competition, perhaps???

I like 'Sygate' the most. But. I've heard recently that Symantec has acquired Sygate company. I really hope that 'Symantec' won't turn it into a bad product.

zone alarn i would reccomend

Worse than that mate, they have taken both versions off the market and are no longer supporting them.............. Hmmm, couldn't have something to do with the fact that it is a better product than theirs, could it??

LMAO symantec suck.

Wish Sunbelt had taken over Sygate... Quote from them re Kerio:

"One of the main reasons we took Kerio over aside from it complimenting our security product line was keep this very good firewall out there for customers to use. Kerio was dropping the product, a couple of other companies were dropping their free versions and we thought we could step in and keep the product alive. Of course we hope to benefit as well but that is further downstream. I don't see us creating an obese suite as others have done. It's just not our style. So I don't think you have a thing to worry about."