Software Firewalls

[<Lance.Druger () wellsfargo com>]

I'm personally (not the company I work for) looking for a new software firewall.  I was using Sygate as it has an 
active IPS and excellent logging, but it was purchased by Norton and has been discontinued. 

- Zonalarm - 6.0 is unstable and lacks an IPS and the OS firewall slows the PC down, and creates shutdown delays of 
over 2 minutes on a virgin install of Windows

- Norton tends to litter the registry, but feature wise may be the best option.

- Kerio has ceased development 

I have a NAT router, but really need a software firewall (paid is fine) with the following features:

Required:
Windows XP Compatible
IPS - unattended active shunning of users that attempt hacking activity
Does not slow traffic significantly
Bi-directional
Actively being improved/updated
Advanced rule creation
A decent (but not completely intuitive) interface
Program access control (preferably w/ MD5 hash)
A minimal IDS (logging suspicious activity)
Resistant to various "leak test" type attacks

Desirable:
Small memory footprint
Clean uninstall


Any recommendations or experience with the Norton product would be greatly appreciated?

Lance Druger

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