When the subject of firewalls comes up I usually cringe. This topic is akin to discussing which is better, AMD or Intel or Windows vs Apple? We all have our personal favorites and I try to steer clear of the zealots and fanboys who love to profess their preferences.

Over the years I have tried many different types of firewalls with mixed results. I have found that the firewall software seems to work OK for a few weeks, maybe a few months, than somewhere along the way it decides to go bonkers and misfire. What is most annoying are the ones that no matter how many times you tell the darn software to let something thru, it still wants to ask again and again if I am sure. My response. Uninstall the POS.

So last week in an article if which I was describing a squabble about a certain firewall product, I received a comment from Marc aka the oracle who also writes here at LG. He mention an older firewall product called Sygate which was boguht by some company [Symantec] and is still available. Though the product is now about 4 years old it is still available for download. I had forgotten about Sygate but Marc’s comment jogged my memory. I recalled that the freebie did a good job and the best part was that it was not annoying nor was it a performance killer.

So I did a Google, found an old copy of Sygate freebie and have been using it for about 5 days or so. My opinion. It is simple to use, easy on performance and the most important thing is that it has not irritated me yet with nag screens. So far so good.

Is this software right for you? Maybe, maybe not. You decide.

Comments welcome.

Free copy is here.

[tags]sygate, firewall, protection, free, easy to use,  [/tags]