+ Found a new, solid freeware firewall to install by Comodo. I’ve used Sygate’s personal firewall for 6 years or so. Last year they were bought by Symantec, who has taken dowloads offline. I realised it might be time to use a new firewall when I could not configure the firewall to allow pinging so I could run a complete tweaktest from broadbandreports. Not much luck “>changing settings based on Sygate’s forum. Which leads to the following:

Comodo Personal Firewall 2.0 review by PC Magazine

Comodo Personal Firewall is a kick-ass free firewall. It keeps hackers out and tricky unauthorized programs off the Internet. And it resists being terminated. It works as well as all but the best for-pay firewalls—and did I mention it’s free?

Blocks attacks from outside. Controls which programs can access the Internet or network. Recognizes known safe programs. Blocks malware-style leak tests. Resists termination by malware-style techniques.

Initial bombardment of program-control confirmation pop-ups can be annoying—as with most firewalls.