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| Software firewall | Product type | Street price when ranked | Ease of use | Performance | Protects against shutdown | Protects against deletion | Blocks Bagle worm backdoor | Blocks Bagle worm mass mailer | Blocks basic port scans | Blocks outside access to shared drives on network | Blocks Windows Messenger pop-ups | Comments |
| Microsoft Windows XP, SP1 Internet Firewall | Port-filtering software firewall | Free with Windows XP Home and Professional operating systems (3/15/2004) | Very good | Good | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Included as part of the Windows XP operating system, but not enabled by default. Its non-permission-based port filtering is a good free choice for people who run Windows XP. |
| Network Associates McAfee Internet Security Suite 6 | Permission-based software firewall | $70 (3/15/2004) | Poor | Good | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bundled firewall offers good protection but conflicted with other components of the suite, resulting in testers? inability to send e-mail. |
| Panda Platinum Internet Security | Permission-based software firewall | $80 (3/15/2004) | Fair | Fair | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Firewall?s preconfigured permission list automatically gives access to installed apps and components of the Windows OS, lessening security. Only product to leave a port (number 135) open to our scan tests. Panda later issued a patch. |
| Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.5 | Permission-based software firewall | $40 (3/15/2004) | Good | Good | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | High degree of granularity gives experienced users maximum control. Interface can be confusing to less experienced users, but default settings provide a high degree of security. |
| Symantec Norton Internet Security 2004 | Permission-based software firewall | $69 (3/15/2004) | Fair | Fair | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Preconfigured permission list automatically grants Internet access to certain programs; though convenient, it lessens the effectiveness of a permission-based firewall. |
| Best Buy Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2004 | Port- and packet-filtering software firewall | $50 (3/15/2004) | Very good | Good | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Includes privacy controls to prevent sending of sensitive information from the PC; port filtering approach makes it a good choice for novice users. Network worm awareness isolates infected systems. |
| Best Buy Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5 | Permission-based software firewall | $50 (3/15/2004) | Outstanding | Very good | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Best-performing program is also easy to use, with simple configuration and meaningful alert messages. A free version lacks mass-mailer protection and extras such as privacy-guarding features. |
| Router firewall | Product type | Street price when ranked | Ease of use | Performance | Protects against shutdown | Protects against deletion | Blocks Bagle worm backdoor | Blocks Bagle worm mass mailer | Blocks basic port scans | Blocks outside access to shared drives on network | Blocks Windows Messenger pop-ups | Comments |
| Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54G | Router port-filtering firewall | $90 (3/15/2004) | Very good | Very good | Yes | n/a | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Management console is slow to load, but very easy to navigate for configuring the firewall and other features. Wireless encryption is disabled by default. |
| Microsoft Wireless-G Base Station MN-700 | Router port-filtering firewall | $90 (3/15/2004) | Outstanding | Very good | Yes | n/a | Yes | No | Yes (but with standard settings, allows pings) | Yes | Yes | Provides a responsive, easy-to-use management console. Intuitive setup enabled WEP encryption by default and automatically generates encryption key. |
HOW WE TEST: We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the bundled DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software; we use vendor-supplied media or Verbatim media. Tests conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.