Freeware Tools: Privatefirewall 2.0

Privatefirewall is a Personal Firewall and Intrusion Detection Application that helps prevent unauthorized access to your PC, at home, the office, or on the road. Privatefirewall constantly monitors the sensitive areas of a PC where intrusion can occur, including browser security settings, network settings etc. and reports on their status. The program is easy to install/use and provides protection right "out of the box". The interface will accommodate advanced users as well as novice users, it does not overload you with options and features.

This application integrates several different protection methods, which include a desktop firewall, an application manager, a process monitor, port tracking and traffic filtering. Furthermore, you can set different protection profiles for home, office and remote access.

Using Privatefirewall, you are able to easily customize the Internet and network security features to a level that suits your needs and preferences. This can be done easily, as the program offers you a user-friendly interface.

Nevertheless, it is advisable that beginners use the default configuration of the application because rules granting/denying access to various programs could work against you unless you know what you’re doing. For example, activating some rules can lead to blocking network file sharing.

The application allows you to create a 'Trusted sites / IP addresses' list, as well as a black list for untrusted websites and IP addresses. Thus, Privatefirewall automatically blocks the access to the web pages that are found on the black list.

Also, you can enable the email anomaly detection, in order to filter the received messages.

A list of all the applications that attempted to access the Internet is also displayed. For every one of them, you can configure the rules to allow or deny online access.

Processes can be filtered for potentially malicious system API calls, thus blocking the dangerous ones. It also tracks all system ports, protecting them against unauthorized entries.

For every detected activity, the program displays an alert and you can allow or block the corresponding process. However, you are offered the possibility to change the notification method.