Sygate Personal Firewall had been my favourite free firewall for Windows XP box since ages and I’d been using it even after Symantec took over Sygate and discontinued the products, including the personal firewall. If you still want use the firewall for your Windows XP box, it’s latest version is still available at Softpedia.

Okay, so back to the main topic. Since I got my Dell Studio 15(pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium) in early April, it had been a nightmare for me to use my BSNL Broadband connection because Sygate Personal Firewall is not compatible with Windows Vista. And therefore there was no way to put check on bandwidth eating softwares like Adobe Acrobat who aren’t courteous enough to ask for your permission before downloading updates and therefore my bandwidth used to get wasted. I tried to use Commodo firewall but it sucks like hell and and leaves a mess when you try to un-install it.  Me and my two other friends had to reinstall OS just to get rid of the mess created by Commodo Firewall.

So, after getting my bandwidth wasted and paying for extra bandwidth for two continuous months, I struck upon Vista Firewall Control by Sphinx Software. God bless them. I had totally lost hope on finding a decent firewall that would be able to replace SPF but after using Vista Firewall Control, life had never been easy. The software isn’t that complicated. Infact, I just wanted that all outgoing connections should go through my approval and permanently block the applications that are rejected. And, Vista Firewall Control does it very smoothly. With size under 1.5 MB, the application is very light weight on system(so unlike Sygate Personal Firewall!!!) So if you want a firewall that should control which applications should connect to internet, Vista Firewall Control is there for you.

Regards,

Mayank