I’m going to evaluate a new Internet Provider in my laptop in the company where I’m currently consulting for, but this means I’ll need a Windows Firewalll which support ICS. ZoneAlarm seems to be too expensive, being the most popular, and I’ve also feared that it’s being targeted the most by criminals. So I started to look for alternatives.

Basically, ezFirewall is a rebranded version of ZoneAlarm (just try installing ZoneAlarm with ezFirewall already installed – it’ll complain that ZoneAlarm is already installed). But at almost only half the ZoneAlarm’s price, ezFirewall is quite interesting.
Sygate got loads of recommendations. Kerio seems to have security holes and issues.

But Jetico interest me the most, probably being a geek I like it’s detailed interface where you’re given a load of controls – not a watered-down version like the others. But I have a few questions, so I sent them an email.

To my surprise, I got such detailed answer below.
It’s easy to guess which firewall is going to be installed in my laptop.

From: “Jetico, Inc.”
Subject: Re: Feedback

Dear Harry Sufehmi,

Thank you for your interest in Jetico Personal Firewall.

Let me answer on your questions below.

> Jetico Personal Firewall: YES
> Windows XP: YES
>
> Hi, since I can’t find the answer to my questions below, here goes :
>
> 1. Does your firewall works with XP SP2 ?

Yes, the firewall works with Windows XP SP2.

> 3. Does it work with Windows 2000 Server ?

Yes, the software works with Windows 2000 Server too.

> 2. Can it protect shared Internet connection / ICS ?
>
> As you can see, we’re planning to use it on several scenarios, but we don’t know
> if it’ll work. So I’d be grateful if you can let us know.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Harry

The firewall can be configured for using it with
Internet Connection Sharing, but please note that
an overall level of protection aginst inbound
scanning will be lower in this case. It happens
because of the following.

JP Firewall has two levels of protection: low-level
Network Level and Application Level. (We don’t keep
in mind here third Process Attack Protecting level,
because it will work in any case.)

Application Level provides Network Level with information
about applications that have active connection and about
all the network traffic Windows applications are interested
in. All other network traffic is blocked. It is so-called
Stateful Inspection.

Now when you turn on Internet Connection Sharing, you get
private network (for example interface B: 192.168.0.1) and
continue to have interface with IP address that is opened
to Internet (say interface A: 207.46.156.188).

All the packets that come from interface B to interface A
and all the packets that come from Internet for interface B
– all that packets do not correspond to any application
in Windows! The packets should simply go from/to interface
A to/from interface B.

So default JP Firewall configuration with stateful inspection
rules will reject the “interface A < -> interface B” traffic.

Hence, to get Internet Connection Sharing working, we should
turn off Stateful Inspection in JP Firewall:

1). Select “Configuration” tab in JP Firewall;

2). Select the following table in “Optimal Protection” configuration
tree: Root -> System IP Table -> System Internet Zone;

3) In the “System Internet Zone” table find rule with
“Stateful TCP Inspection” rule and run “Edit” command for the rule;

4) In the “Protocol specific” settings for the rule uncheck the
“Stateful inspection” checkbox.

5) Do the same for the “Stateful UDP Inspection” rule.

Then, Private Network with interface B should be added as
Trusted Zone in JP Firewall. It can be done quite simply.
After you finish configuring Internet Connection Sharing,
run Configuration Wizard program from “Jetico Personal Firewall”
program group.

Configuration Wizard should automatically discover the Private
Network address and add it to the list in the “Trusted zone”
dialog window. Just finish Configuration Wizard normally.

After the procedure Internet Connection Sharing should work on
your computer.

Sincerely,
Sergey Frolov

=================================================
Jetico, Inc. phone: +358-9-25173030 =
Tekniikantie 14, fax: +358-9-25173031 =
02150, Espoo e-mail: info@jetico.com =
Finland http://www.jetico.com =