Firewall Challenge (the best personal firewall)

Source

The table below sorts the tested products by their total score, which is displayed in the Product score column. The second number in this column, separated by a slash, represents a number of tests that were in the system when the given product was tested, i.e. the number of tests with a valid test result value (other value than N/A). This table also shows the exact version of every tested product. The Level reached column presents the highest level that the product reached in Firewall Challenge. If it passed all levels, this number is suffixed with a plus sign. For products that score at least 80% in Firewall Challenge, the Recommendation column contains links to the online stores or products' webpages of the vendors that we have affiliate agreements with. If you click on any of these links and then buy the target product or other product offered on the target webpage, we will profit from it. This is one of the ways how you can support this project. The PDF document icon allows you to download the testing report in PDF format for the tested product.

Product	Product score	Level reached	Protection level	Recom- mendation	Report
	Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 6.5.2355. 316.0597	99% / 73	10	Excellent	GET IT NOW!
	Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131	98% / 73	10	Excellent	GET IT NOW!
	Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.22.349	95% / 73	10+	Excellent	GET IT NOW!
	ProSecurity 1.43	93% / 62	10	Excellent	N/A
	Privatefirewall 6.0.19.29	90% / 73	10+	Excellent	GET IT NOW!
	Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131 FREE	89% / 73	10	Very good	GET IT NOW!
	Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 8.0.0.454	87% / 73	10+	Very good	GET IT NOW!
	Netchina S3 2008 3.5.5.1FREE	86% / 73	9	Very good	N/A
	ZoneAlarm Pro 2009 8.0.020.000	86% / 73	10+	Very good	GET IT NOW!
	PC Tools Firewall Plus 4.0.0.45FREE	85% / 73	10+	Very good	GET IT NOW!
	Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0.2.4.2264	78% / 73	7	Good	Not recommended
	System Safety Monitor 2.3.0.612	77% / 62	7	Good	Not recommended
	Norton Internet Security 2009 16.0.0.125	71% / 73	7	Good	Not recommended
	Lavasoft Personal Firewall 3.0.2293.8822	70% / 73	7	Good	Not recommended
	Dynamic Security Agent 2.0.11.22FREE	62% / 71	7	Poor	Not recommended
	Webroot Desktop Firewall 5.5.10.20FREE	60% / 73	7	Poor	Not recommended
	Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4.18.184FREE	55% / 73	7	Poor	Not recommended
	Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 16.10.0.1106	27% / 73	4	None	Not recommended
	G DATA InternetSecurity 2008	19% / 73	3	None	Not recommended
	FortKnox Personal Firewall 2008 3.0.195.0	16% / 62	2	None	Not recommended
	Look 'n' Stop 2.06	15% / 62	2	None	Not recommended
	McAfee Internet Security 2009 10.0.209	12% / 73	2	None	Not recommended
	F-Secure Internet Security 2008 8.00.101	12% / 73	2	None	Not recommended
	Panda Internet Security 2008 12.01.00	12% / 73	2	None	Not recommended
	Avira Premium Security Suite 8.1.00.206	11% / 70	2	None	Not recommended
	Rising Personal Firewall 2008 20.59.10	11% / 73	2	None	Not recommended
	BitDefender Internet Security 2009 12.0.10.2	7% / 73	1	None	Not recommended
	Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.6.1839.0	7% / 73	1	None	Not recommended
	AVG Internet Security 8.0.93	6% / 62	1	None	Not recommended
	Ashampoo FireWall FREE 1.20FREE	5% / 73	1	None	Not recommended
	ESET Smart Security 3.0.621.0	5% / 62	1	None	Not recommended
	Windows Live OneCare 2.0.2500.22	5% / 62	1	None	Not recommended
	BullGuard Internet Security 8.0.0.13	4% / 70	1	None	Not recommended
	iolo Personal Firewall 1.5.2.7	3% / 62	1	None	Not recommended
	Filseclab Personal Firewall 3.0.3.8982FREE	3% / 73	1	None	Not recommended
	Steganos Internet Security 2008 7.5.509	3% / 70	1	None	Not recommended

Interpretation of results
Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 6.5.2355.316.0597 leads the challenge with 99%, tightly followed by the paid version of Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131 with 98% and
the best free product – Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.22.349 with 95%.
ProSecurity 1.43, which will be replaced by Real-time Defender in the future, is on the third place with 93%. Privatefirewall 6.0.19.29 scored 90%. All these products reached the Excellent protection level. Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131 Free, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 8.0.0.454, Netchina S3 2008 3.5.5.1, ZoneAlarm Pro 2009 8.0.020.000 and PC Tools Firewall Plus 4.0.0.45 are close to the excellent results.

Among the newly tested products, Privatefirewall 6.0.19.29, PC Tools Firewall Plus 4.0.0.40, Rising Personal Firewall 2008 20.59.10, BitDefender Internet Security 2009 12.0.10.2, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 9.1.108 and Ashampoo FireWall FREE 1.20 reached the best network performance results. The worst results were measured with G DATA InternetSecurity 2008 and Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.6.1839.0.

It seems that Firewall Challenge tests make a big difference between really good products and the rest of the world. Most of the products are filtered in very low levels which means that they probably miss some critical features.