Hi,

Just wondering, is there an open-source firewall available for Windows? Or open-source anti-spyware? So d*** annoying everything for Windows concerning security seems to be proprietary.al

I've also decided to uninstall avast and got for ClamWin, I hardly ever download questionable files anymore, and when I do I'll just use ClamWin.

Still, I assume its wise to keep on running a firewall? Also, in terms of anti-spyware/malware, I only have Spybot and SpywareBlaster. Do they suffice for a regular user who hardly downloads any questionable files?

I've heard countless bad things about ClamWin. The biggest is that the detection rates, virus removal, etc. are very bad.

I have seen a few open source firewalls, but for most users they are "too complex" or "too complicated" as far as making the rules and so forth.

I'll see how ClamWin goes. What is Winpooch like?

I've used it once though not for a long period of time. In fact, I believe I used it for under a week. I found it to be a bit too annoying and configuring some of the rules took far more time than necessary.

I see. Is the latest version any good?

I don't think there are so many FOSS anti-spy/virus/malware for Windows.

ClamAV is used in some commercial solutions in hardware appliances by Barracuda Networks, etc.

ClamAV is used a lot in mail servers.

I read some comparison, and it didn't score well on detection rates.

I like the simplicity of it though.

There is a Firefox extension called ClamWin Antivirus Glue for Firefox, that integrates ClamWin with Firefox, but I never tried it.

WinPooch I never tried either.

You can try search SourceForge.net if you find something...

When I used Windows, I used only the built-in Windows firewall, without any anti-virus or anti-spyware/malware software.

I wouldn't recommend it for the average non-technical person though, but for me it worked quite well.

I haven't touched it since. Comodo works perfectly well for my needs.