PC Tools Firewall Plus Free Edition Overview

PC Tools Firewall Plus Free Edition is a powerful personal free firewall for Microsoft Windows that protects your computer from hackers and intruders. Firewalls control the network traffic in and out of your PC by monitoring applications that connect to the network. It can stop Trojans, backdoors, and keyloggers from damaging your computer and stealing your private information. PC Tools Firewall Plus is advanced technology designed specially for people, not for experts. Powerful prevention against attacks and known exploits that is activated by default and advanced users can also easily create their own packet filtering rules to customize the network defenses. The program is recommended for use alongside of AntiSpyware and Antivirus software like AVG or Spyware Doctor to protect PC against Spyware, hackers, worms, and viruses.
PC Tools Firewall Plus Free Edition is a personal firewall that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic on your computer and allows to to create rules to limit and control network connections. The program includes an application level firewall as well as a rule based TCP/IP firewall. The status window of the application displays the state of the firewall (“on” or “off”), the number of sent and received packets to and from the Internet. Applications window shows the user the active programs that are connected to the Internet – web browsers, FTP clients, messaging applications. In the right pane, there is the list of the applications that are blocked or authorized
 

Main Feautres

• Comprehensive Malware Protection
• Constant Real-time Protection
• Advanced Detection and Removal Technology
• Protection against zero-day threats – Behavioral Heuristic Detection

New Feaautres

• Advanced Rootkit Detection
• Works silently in the background with low CPU usage
• Automatic and silent Smart Updates
• Most internationally awarded anti-spyware product

What We Found

 
PC Tools Firewall Plus Free Edition provides enhancements in protection, detection and scanning. This has been achieved through the introduction of next generation sliding signatures, specifically designed to better cater for the significant numbers of threat variants in the wild. PC Tools next-gen sliding signatures have also delivered performance improvements to scan time and system impact with a further reduced memory footprint and overall system impact during scanning.
This New version features new improved scan engine, smaller memory footprint, and much improved system performance. The default settings of the firewall will prevent several common attacks while allowing normal internet traffic. You can create your own rules using protocol, port and IP address – however it requires some experience with TCP/IP configuration, as no documentation is provided. The integrated application filtering engine will prompt you each time an unknown program is trying to connect to the Internet, giving you the option to block or allow current and future activities by the same program. Requires free registration after 30 days.

Pros:

 

• Easy to use, even for beginners
• Two user modes: Normal and Expert
• Attractive design
• Controls incoming and outgoing traffic

 

Cons:

 

• No documentation
• Application rules are not verified with file fingerprint
• Default settings block LAN connectivity

 

 
 

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