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Software Reviews

by tarquinbiscuitbarrel

The reviews and opinions below are posted by SnapFiles visitors. They do not necessarily reflect our opinion, and are solely based on the experience of individual users.

R-Firewall
  • Freeware
  • Win98/ME/2000/XP

qleft  Tons of features  qright

R-Firewall version 1.0 build 53
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 5
  • Overall: 5

R-Firewall works well. It has a lot of features and it's relatively easy to use: harder than some (ZoneAlarm), but easier than others (Jetico). At setup, it detects some commonly used programs on your machine and offers to configure the firewall around these, making interruptions less frequent when first using it. I've also noticed that it will even prompt whether to use certain .dll's and plug-ins, such as the first times I accessed a browser page with Java-- R-Firewall prompted me for each java .dll. Another time, I watched an embedded Windows Media movie and was similarly barraged with prompts, which I actually found useful and was pleasantly surprised that it was checking things on that level. In addition, it uses relatively little resources (about 10-14 MB of memory) on my aging machine. I'm not sure if this is the most secure firewall out there, but it is the best for my purposes.

    Review date: Jul 16, 2007

SoftPerfect Personal Firewall
  • Freeware
  • WinWin (All)

qleft  Minimal protection and minimal footprint  qright

SoftPerfect Personal Firewall version 1.4.1
  • Interface: 5
  • Features: 3
  • Ease of use: 5
  • Value: 4
  • Overall: 4

Softperfect is an excellent packet filter. It doesn't offer the protection that an application-level firewall can provide, but conversely it uses very little resources and CPU time. (On average, I found that it used only 4-5 MB of memory and about an equal or slightly higher amount of virtual memory.) It's extremely easy to use. When you set it up, you specify which types of presets you use and allow (email, p2p, IM, FTP, etc.), and these can be changed easily later on as well. I believe that more advanced rules can be set, but I never tried this. As stated though, there is no application-level firewall, so outbound packets aren't monitored if they use a standard port. But as an easy-to-configure packet filter, I recommend it.

    Review date: Jul 16, 2007

Comodo Internet Security
  • Freeware
  • WinXP/Vista

qleft  Resource-intensive, but comprehensive  qright

Comodo Internet Security version 2.4
  • Interface: 4
  • Features: 5
  • Ease of use: 4
  • Value: 4
  • Overall: 4

Comodo Firewall works very well. It's one of the better firewalls out there, and it's free to boot. I found it easy to use. However, it uses more memory than some other firewalls and occasionally it used a lot of CPU time, slowing down my computer (it would use 60% of the CPU at times for unknown reasons). This recurring problem led me to remove it eventually and reluctantly. :-( If you have a newer machine, this might not be an issue. Nonetheless, I recommend it, and hopefully you won't run into the same problem that I did.

    Review date: Jul 16, 2007

Tanida Quiz Builder

Tanida Quiz Builder

Create educational quizzes in Flash format that can be distributed online or as standalone .EXE file.

Spytech SpyAgent

Spytech SpyAgent

A powerful monitoring solution to record PC activity, including keystrokes, email and more.

Demo Builder

Demo Builder

Create interactive Flash movies and tutorials to show how applications and systems work.