An awesome free firewall for your Windows operating system

ZoneAlarm by CheckPoint has been my personal firewall for the past 4 years. Sick of the windows firewall that was as holey as Swiss cheese, I sought a reliable firewall that blocks all uninvited intrusions while enabling me to access the internet, without fear. In my search, I remember that I had to choose between ZoneAlarm's free firewall and the Comodo free firewall. For some reason, ZoneAlarm looked more attractive to me and I chose ZoneAlarm. Over the years, there have been many software that have received the "uninstall" axe from me when they did not perform to my expectations. ZoneAlarm exceeded my expectations in every form as did Avira Antivir (in my previous post).


This is the part where I give tribute to ZoneAlarm and Avira Antivir. There are thousands of software out there that do many things in the world. It is only once in a while that you come across a software that truly lifts your heart; like these two software. These software are never out of date. They are constantly being updated, work perfectly and have amazingly simple and cool interfaces. I wouldn't trade these free software even if someone gave me a fully paid Norton or McCafee Antivirus gift-wrapped on a silver platter.

It is incumbent on every individual who loves his computer to at least try out ZoneAlarm and Avira Antivir for their firewall and Antivirus needs.

A free Antivirus software

Antivirus software are considered a necessary evil in all windows computers. Necessary because if you don't have one, you will definitely have a virus in your computer before the end of the day. On the other hand, when you do have one installed, it consumes every ounce of resource your CPU can juice out. Norton and McCafee are the most common antivirus software in the world and the most notorious in scanning anything that moves in your computer thus hindering anything you do in your PC. Why these software need to scan every single byte that moves in your PC is beyond me. Norton was so terrible with their hidden firewalls and email scanners (that sent all my legit email to spam) that I would often just uninstall it and risk my computer to viruses just so that I could get some work done. That is until I found this beauty called Avira AntiVir.



This antivirus was like a godsend. It was everything that I wished an antivirus software should be. As a person who loves free software, this was the best because it is free for personal use. When I used it, I immediately felt the difference. It worked seamlessly in the background and I never notice when it scans incoming data. It was so quite in fact that I wasn't really sure that it was working and deliberately went to a "bad" website to test it out; and Avira immediately popped cautioning me that a virus was trying to enter my PC and is denying it access. That was so cool.

If that wasn't enough, the Avira virus database in Germany is updated EVERYDAY. So when the Avira on my computer searches for updates everyday, it always has a new list of viruses to download. The files are just a few kb and take less than a minute to download to my computer. Except for one popup that advertises it's paid versions (Avira AntiVir Premium and Avira Premium Security Suite) for corporations, there is no indication that the Antivirus is running on your computer (except for the taskbar icon of course).

I have always recommended Avira to everyone I meet. It is quite frankly the best free Antivirus software any individual can want. I have to assume that if their free software is so powerful and so awesome, their paid software must be PERFECT. I would recommend any company to give this Antivirus a try and see for themselves how it solves their security problems.