Discussion on:

10 things you should look for in a desktop firewall

Has your organization standardized on a desktop firewall solution that offers everything you need? What other features or considerations would you add to this list for those evaluating firewall products?

Don't use 2 firewall solutions at the same time? Why?

Would you run two antivirus solutions on the one machine?

Conflicts, more administritive work-theres lots of reasons.

Simply put, you can have overlapping rules that can make troubleshooting 'fun'.

Just to clarify, we mean two firewalls installed on the same system at once - not two firewalls within your client environment.

Mainly because if you configure one firewall properly you shouldn't ever need a second one, and having a second one can cause all sorts of conflicts and issues. It means if you have an issue you have to verify settings in two programs instead of one. To me it just seems like a potential administrative nightmare with little to no added benefit

Does anybody have any suggestions for good Desktop firewalls? There are a ton out there. I was a fan of Sygate, but I refuse to go the Symantec route.
Thanks

Sygate personal is still available: http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160

Firewall & VPN Client are free. Antivirus, webfilter come with a paid subscription.
http://www.fortinet.com/products/forticlient.html

I just read yesterday at this link about different magazine's reviews on firewalls some credible, some not, about their favorites:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/software/firewalls/reviews.html

A jumping off point for those who need a different firewall, and so far, Outpost Firewall is doing its job FOR ME, we have to let you decide, because lets face it, they all have their good points and some bad points too (especially for P2P applications, you have to let the whole world into your PC because you have to share, and the hackers love this about Firewalls and P2P sharing. But, anyways, moving on to the Firewalls.

Some of the favorites from the magazine link above are:

1) Outpost ---- so far so good
2) Zone Alarm (however, i've been using Zone for the last year and half and lately, while using P2P (Bitcomet), my DSL connection disconnects a few times a day using it, and I have no idea other than not to use P2P/Torrent Programs for so many good reasons and immoral idiot-savant hackers.
3) Kapersky or BlackIce or Kerio --- I would be interested in these 3, have not had a chance to try them out, maybe others can post their likes/dislikes on these 3.
4) Symantec Norton --- the restrictive, slow nature of this hog I think NIS being in 3rd or 4th place is very generous.
5) Comodo --- newbie on the block?

I would not use Sygate anymore as it does not have stateful packet scanning or TRUE STEALTH protection and can not do the job for protecting against todays hackers. I used it for 3 years, loved it, but had to finally move on to something better. I have been trying Outpost now, and although it asks too many questions (even about system dll changes), I think I will keep it until I have another issue.

I like to stay away from the "Internet Suites" because while keeping with this Article good points about using a different Antivirus program than your Firewall Program so NIS (Norton Internet Suite), BitDefender, and probably, Kaperskey (have not tried this one) are out, so ALL INTERNET SUITES will NEVER be installed on this PC owner's machine.

I've yet to find a Swiss Army knife that could perform all of it's intended functions as well a could tools specialized for each task. From experience, I find that security suites are no exception in this regards.

If I must use a suite, in order to get the best-of-breed re. a particular function, I disable all other functions on that suite.