Best Free Firewall and Anti-virus

grace2much

Hi all, I use windows 10 and the inbuilt windows defender antivirus and firewall for years but recently its been causing me problems with a game I play. Rather than trying to spend any more time changing settings I want to just disable it and try a different Free firewall and antivirus.

Any recommendations? When I look at the free ones I don't see much info on the Firewall aspect and more on the virus threat. Whilst I need both its the Firewall that has given me my windows defender problems. So I need an antivirus with a firewall as well. I don't want to go down the route of a separate firewall like Zonealarm unless I really need to.

So to summarise I need a good free Firewall and anti-virus combination........thanks in advance for any help offered....:D

AndyPix

Iv never ever heard of the windows firewall causing problems before so im a bit stumped what to advise here.
As it is the most basic of firewalls (which is all you need) im struggling to see what could be going wrong.


Can you confirm that if you turn the firewall off then the game works ?


Its just that if we start advising on installing free ones, these will be set up the same as the defender one initially so you will likely need to start changing stuff (forwarding ports etc) on another firewall anyway (if that is even the issue)

grace2much

Hi AndyPix, yes when I turn it off the game works (its euro truck 2 sim) the game has an online aspect to it and it's this that is blocked somehow even though the game is ticked as allowed in the settings. As I said I've tinkered around for a few days so I'll try another firewall/virus just to see if this fixes my problem and if not I'll leave the country......LOL

AndyPix

Looking around the internet, it seems you need to add the multiplayer mod the the exception list in the firewall and then clear the DNS cache..


If that is the case then you would have to do that on any 3rd party firewall you obtained too - so may aswell stick with defender

Stoke

Surely it's just a port that needs opening. Open the port or add it to the exception list. Job done.

Lexon

And if to choose an antivirus? which is better.
I am considering AVG or Scanguard. I watched avg review. I think to stay on this option. What can you say?

forgotmyname

Whichever AV/FW you choose though will need setting up. Even more so if its a fresh install compared to adding a single allow item with the windows FW.

I gave up on the free AV's. For me they all became too intrusive and trying to be the all and everything except concentrating on the single task of being an AV or FW.

System

On Windows 10 it has different entries in the firewall exclusion table for home/work network and public. It may be that it is in the list of exceptions for home/work network but for whatever reason Win10 has the network set as a public one. You need to go to the exceptions list in the Firewall settings and see if both boxes are ticked for the application entry.

John_Gray

Tarambor wrote: »

for whatever reason Win10 has the network set as a public one.

"Public" settings are the most restrictive, and thus safer. As you say, they can be changed...

letsbehonest

Try bitdeffender, it's very good and their customer/tech service is excellent.

slinga

Comodo Internet Security.


Free and comes with Firewall and AV.


Have used it for years and never had a problem.