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Protection for your computer is of the upmost importance nowadays, as we store pretty much everything on our computers – names, credit card numbers, places of work and even addresses. Did you know that even without typing your address, hackers can still get it and other personal information from a number used by every single person on the Internet? Well, here is a short review of 3 firewalls for your protection:

• AVG Internet Security
• CA (Computer Associates) Internet Security Suite
• Zone Alarm Pro with Anti-Spyware

AVG Internet Security

AVG is known by a lot of people. Their user interface is simple and easy to understand, and it gives you real-time info on your computer, such as number of intrusions blocked. This allows for easy management, and is good for users who dislike pop-ups asking you what to do. Overall, it’s a pretty good firewall, being quite strict on protecting your computer.

Computer Associates

Computer Associates is an OK Internet security suite. In older versions, it was much more secure, when it went under the name EZ-Firewall and EZ-Anti-Virus. The program itself alerts you (depending on your settings) when another program tries to access the Internet. It gives you the IP Address and Port upon which it is trying to connect, and it is all logged for your review. It’s not very good in the anti-virus and spyware department, but that’s a different subject altogether. Computer Associates is surpassed by AVG and Zone Alarm Pro.

Zone Alarm Pro

Zone Alarm Pro (and free versions) is the best firewall I have personally used. It gives very detailed information and is ironically built off of the original firewall engine made for Computer Associates. However, the manufacturers have added much more to the program than what it used to pack. Just like Computer Associates, it alerts you (again, depending on your settings) when a program tries to access the Internet, tries to track your movements (keystrokes, mouse movements), and even tells you if a program is trying to install itself and start every time your computer does. Depending on the privacy settings, Zone Alarm can watch over your web browser to block cookies and direct you away from websites that may be harmful. It’s a definite must-have if you’re an Internet Explorer user. If you’re a big gamer and don’t want pop-ups in your games, it has a ‘game-mode’ where you can set it to answer all alerts with ‘allow’ or ‘deny’.

Overall, if you want to be as safe as possible, with a few pop-ups here and there, go with Zone Alarm. If you want to be slightly less feature-rich, have no pop-ups, and not pay a cent, go with AVG. In my opinion, Computer Associates would really just be a waste of money.

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