You can click on any feature to scroll down to its description.

The following are descriptions of each feature used in the comparison table above.

Number of Leak Tests blocked — Leak test is a program that tests the efficiency of outbound filtering used by personal firewalls. Leak test in some way are similar to trojans (backdoors) but their methodology is more complicated. There are 5 so called leak test included to this comparison: Leak Test (http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm), Yalta (http://www.soft4ever.com/security_test/En/index.htm), TooLeaky (http://tooleaky.zensoft.com/), FireHole (http://keir.net/firehole.html), Outbound (http://www.hackbusters.net/ob.html). top

Application packet level Filtering — Application level filtering enables firewall to monitor the behavior of applications. This kind of filtering should allow specifying individual activities for an application. For example, ”Allow Outlook Express outbound communication using TCP protocol to remote port 80 and remote host mymail.server.com and deny all other activity“ top

Detects Internet attacks — Detection of remote attacks and exploits, such as Nuke, Teardrop, NesTea, IGMP_SYN and others. top

Stateful inspection protocols — Stateful inspection firewall technology keeps a table of active TCP and UDP sessions and is more secure than packet filtering because it allows smaller paths along which traffic can pass. top

Stealth from hackers — Normally, when your computer receives a connection request from another computer to a closed port, it sends an answer back to let the other computer know that the port is closed. In stealth mode, your computer will not respond, making it seem like it is not turned on or not connected to the Internet. top

Email attachments (worms) quarantine — Possibility to neutralize (rename) dangerous attachments in incoming e-mail. top

Blocks Web history (referrer) — When you surf the web your browser can reveal the information about previously visited web sites. Web site operators can use this private info in marketing purposes. This info is called “referrer” and some firewalls can block it. top

Blocks Flash / Banner / Pop-up ads — Ability to block web page advertisement banners (including Flash) and annoying pop-up windows. top

Filters executable (ActiveX) in web / email — Ability to block potentially dangerous executable content (ActiveX) of web pages and email messages. top

Filters cookies in web / email — Ability to allow/block cookies. Cookie — is a small piece of information transferred by the server to a browser and saved on the user's computer. The browser stores this information and sometimes transfers it to the server. top

Filters active scripts in web / email — Ability to block potentially dangerous scripts (Java, Visual Basic etc.) of web pages and email messages. top

Auto detects apps / network during install — Ability to detect and apply applications and local area network and applying the setting for them during the installation. This lets rookie users start using the firewall without any configuration changes. top

Predefined access levels for apps / system — If a firewall has predefined access levels (presets) for applications and network, it means that it will search its application database and suggest to you a set of rules that were worked out by personal firewall developers that are optimum for this application. This very powerful technique lets you create rules with one click and without any special knowledge of ports or protocols. top

Automatic update — Automated separate utility that downloads and installs new Firewall executables and settings for optimal protection against new attacks. This is not to be confused with a “Check for updates” button that just checks if an update is available and gives instructions on how to manually install the update. top

Can switch between different configurations — Ability to create different configurations for you and your family or colleagues, even if you use the same Windows profile. top

Trust address group — Special dialog where you can allow all network activity for selected, trusted home or work place computers without creating special rules for them. top

Displays active connections / open ports — Ability to report about current network status of computer by displaying active connection and open ports. top

View / Filter connections history — Special utility that displays the history of all connections and events. User can filter the information to display any connections or events he or she wants to see. For example, “All connections made by Outlook Express from 9am to 11am on May 11th”. top

Passwords protected security settings — Ability to password protect your settings. top

Halts / Allows all internet traffic — Ability to stop/allow all internet traffic with one click ignoring all firewall rules. top

Parental and employee control — Possibility to block some web sites because of its content, based on a database of such sites, domain names (playboy.com) or keywords in web pages (“explosives”, “violence”, etc) top

Visual Trace — Special utility that can trace the origin of hacker attacking your computer. top

Alerts messages — Pop-up messages which warn you about attacks on your computer or any other dangerous activities of your. top

Can run hidden from user eyes — Possibility to Block unwanted traffic or content in a way that's completely hidden from a user's eyes (also called “Run as service”). top

Accelerates connection time — Caches all resolved DNS names in a special database that significantly decrease connection times to any kind of service or site — WWW, E-mail, News, ICQ, etc. top

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