Installation and Setup

The initial application file downloads the rest of the program, which then installs quickly but requires a restart to work. Optional elements include email address, entry into the ZoneAlarm community and a ZoneAlarm browser toolbar, so if you don’t want of the ‘extras’ you’ll need to keep your wits about you. The program will then scan to find programs which use the internet and true to its word, this only takes a couple of seconds. The program uses a respectable 40MB of memory on our test system. We couldn’t get the program to run on Windows 7, however.

Ease of Use

The interface of ZoneAlarm Firewall is a little Spartan and certainly not the best looking amongst its peers. Options are hidden away and much of the overall GUI is taken up with greyed out features of software that isn’t installed.

Luckily, the interface is in no way indicative of the quality of the actual firewall, which is excellent at protecting your computer. It does need to be configured, though, or you’ll find the program asking you for your permission every single time your browser or OS tries to connect to the net.

Luckily, configuration is easy and familiar to anyone who has used any form of Firewall service. You can also set various modes such as a ‘game mode’ that stops interruptions for a short period of time – although obviously this isn’t a great idea if you want to maintain security.

It’s not pretty, but ZoneAlarm’s free firewall is not only competent but also lightweight compared to its peers, and should definitely be worth considering if your security suite doesn’t have a fully functioning firewall.

Differences between Free and Professional

Although there’s no direct upgrade, ZoneAlarm’s internet security suite offers 2-Way Firewall protection, Antivirus and Anti-Spyware in a single package along with other advanced features for £30.45 ($50).

[ Download ZoneAlarm Firewall Today ! ]

Installation and Setup

The program initially scans any ‘problem areas’ of your system, allowing you to check and confirm that everything you have running is something that you wish to run, either as a process or during start-up. OA uses a surprisingly small amount of RAM, taking up about 30MB, in total. You can even turn the GUI of the program off to free up some memory, which is a great feature. The program installs to 20MB of hard drive space.

Ease of Use

Online Armor has won various rewards for its Firewall software, which is very simple to use.

Once the initial checks have been completed, you’re pretty much set in terms of protection, although you’ll need to do some of your own setting up depending on what programs you want to communicate with the web.

The program is designed to stop all of the targeted, malicious attacks by hackers often using open ports or operating system exploits to gain access to your computer and personal data. As it’s not a security suite, it doesn’t protect you against any other online problems like viruses or spyware, but it can make up for this with its very low system overhead.

However, despite all of the rewards for the program, few have applied to the free version which is incredibly neutered compared to the professional edition. It’s a shame that a few more features weren’t allowed in the free edition, especially as many other security programs consider many of the ones left out as ‘basic’ protection.

Nevertheless, Online Armor can do a lot more than your default firewall software without consuming up your entire systems memory and its interface and looks are superb.

Differences between Free and Professional

The professional version of the program – with the same name minus the ‘free’ tag costs $39.95 or £24. As well as offering full technical support the program provides various protections against keyloggers and includes a resident mail and web shield.

[ Download Online Armor Today! ]

The keys comes courtesy of the excellent folks over at Comodo and yes – you heard right – we’ve got a whopping fifty keys so there’s plenty of chance to get your hands on the program, which we took a look at in our recent review.

Comodo is a fully featured security suite which includes not only a standard anti-virus scanner and removal tool but also one of the best software firewalls ever created. It also incorporates Comodo’s excellent Defense+ system, which provides another layer of protection for malicious attacks.

Comodo is as full featured as many of the big names in security but it’s also lightweight and the standard version is totally free. The professional version steps up personal security and computer maintenance to another level however – it gives you access to ‘LivePC support’. LivePC allows you to connect to real expert, 24 hours a day, to help diagnose security issues. You’ll even find people on hand to help you install the program, so the support starts from the very first time you download.

This is perfect for people who understand how important internet security is but don’t have the time to dedicate themselves to learning every single thing about virus protection. Even if you consider yourself tech savvy, we bet you’ve got a friend or relative who could really benefit from a service like this!

Entering the giveaway couldn’t be simpler: just leave a comment on this thread. To keep the giveaway fair we’re only allowing one entry per person.

Be quick though -  only the first 50 to comment will get keys!

Installation and Setup

For a security suite, Comodo is a relatively small install at around 125MB. Installation gives you several options about which programs you wish to install. It also asks if you want to join the Comodo community and if you’d like to submit your email address. Both are optional. A full scan is run during install.

Ease of Use

There are plenty of programs offering either free software firewalls or free virus scanners, but few that can combine themselves into a suite in the same style Internet Security can. The firewall is one of the best we’ve ever tried allowing full configuration, port stealthing, access to authorized programs and protection from buffer overflow attacks. If you’ve never used another firewall except the Windows default, you’ll be very pleased by how much more configurable and safer Internet Security can make sure system.

The virus checker isn’t quite as flawless and it does have a habit of reporting things that either aren’t threats or might be not totally defined as threats. For example during our test scan it picked up Gamespy Arcade, a game server program that while not known for having the best reputation can’t exactly be classed as a virus. You have to pay attention to what Internet Security finds during a scan, but otherwise it’s an incredibly capable scanner that can rival many full price security applications as well as other freeware competitors, like AVG.

Although it might not be as famous as its immediate competitors, Comodo is an excellent option for those that want instant protection with no price tag. It’s also lightweight, using up around half the system resources of Norton’s security suite.

Download Comodo Internet Security Now