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 Personal Firewalls vs. Leak Tests: Part II: "Leak Tests Win Again!"
August 7, 2003
Best performers
All 24 firewalls were tested with these leak tests. The detailed results can be seen on the next page. Here are our comments on the winners, the firewalls having the best results using their default configurations.
Outpost Firewall Pro 2.0.226
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/
Version 1.0 of Outpost Pro was not a great contender in our previous tests last year. However, version 2.0 is rock-solid, not only in comparison to Outpost Pro 1.0 but to the other firewalls as well!
Its new Component Control feature enables Outpost Pro to pass most of the leak tests without extra configuring. All you need to do is block suspicious DLLs when Outpost 2.0 reports them.
Developers of Outpost Pro told us the next build of the program (Agnitum is testing it right now) blocks all these leak tests. However they refused to disclose exact time frames for the release of this update.
Look'n'Stop 2.0.4
http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm
The winner of our previous tests proved its high rating again this year. However, it failed at the “Atelier Web Firewall Tester” (with a score of 2 points out of 10) and it failed against Thermit and Copycat. We contacted the developers (Soft4Ever) and they confirmed those results, but reported their beta version (2.04p2) should pass both Thermit and Atelier Web Firewall Tester. That’s good news for users of L’n’S firewall!
Other firewalls
The other firewalls, such as Sygate and ZoneAlarm Pro, can do much better if properly configured. So users of ZoneAlarm Pro/Plus should enable the “High” level of control to pass more tests.
Results
Here are the results:
Standings
Each firewall was given a point for each passed Leak test (including 6 separate tests of AWFT) and here are the standings:
| |
Firewall |
|
Points |
|
| |
Outpost Firewall Pro 2.0.226
|
|
11 |
|
| |
Look'n'Stop 2.0.4 |
|
7 |
|
| |
EZ Firewall 3.7.179 |
|
5 |
|
| |
Norman Personal Firewall 1.3 |
|
5 |
|
| |
pcInternet Patrol 2.0.1.1
|
|
5 |
|
| |
ZoneAlarm Free 3.7 |
|
5 |
|
| |
Kerio 2.1.5 |
|
4 |
|
| |
McAfee Firewall for WinXP 8.0 |
|
4 |
|
| |
Outpost Free 1.0.1817 |
|
4 |
|
| |
Steganos Online Shield 1.52 |
|
4 |
|
| |
Kaspersky Anti-Hacker 1.0 |
|
3 |
|
| |
McAfee Firewall Plus 4.1 |
|
3 |
|
| |
Sygate Pro 5.1.1615 |
|
3 |
|
| |
Sygate Firewall 5.0.1175 |
|
3 |
|
| |
Tiny Firewall 4.5 |
|
3 |
|
| |
ZoneAlarm Pro & Plus 4.0.123.012 |
|
3 |
|
| |
Tiny Firewall 4.5 |
|
3 |
|
| |
Norton Firewall 6.0.2.25 |
|
2 |
|
| |
NIS Pro 6.0.2.23 |
|
2 |
|
| |
TGB BOB |
|
2 |
|
| |
BlackIce |
|
1 |
|
| |
PrivateFirewall 3.0 |
|
1 |
|
| |
GIS TermiNET XP Firewall 1.82.043 |
|
0 |
|
| |
SecureUp Personal Firewall 2.0 |
|
0 |
|
| |
Look'n'Stop Light 1.0.4 |
|
0 |
|
| |
VisNetic Firewall 2.0 |
|
0 |
|
|
|
According to these results, most firewalls are not protecting their users against hacking techniques. However, some of the top firewalls, such as ZoneAlarm and Sygate, will score better if you specifically reconfigure them. We do not know the reason those developers did not apply those settings by default. Perhaps they suppose those settings can limit the user’s activities on the Internet. However, without those settings, their users are at a much higher risk!
What is even more serious is that none of the tested products can pass all leaks tests even after reconfiguration. The leak tests won the battle again. We hope the next one goes to the firewall developers.
Previous:
Introduction
Leak tests descriptions
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