I use the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. on all my family’s computers and my business computer, too. It’s easy, convenient and inexpensive.

I also like that it stops a lot more things by default — I hate firewalls that accept outbound connections automatically without even telling me.

I used to think that was just the Windows Firewall, which is only a one-way firewall. It only stops outsiders from getting to your computer. But, one of its biggest flaws is that it accepts anything originating on your computer as if it were valid — and it permits it to access the Internet.

That might be a program calling home to check for updates. Or, it might be a program calling home to log that it’s being used from that IP address, or even more details like the “registered user” of the computer. Or, it might even be a spam program or other nasty that you picked up on the Internet by accident, and don’t even know that it’s there!

I used to use the ZoneAlarm firewall. It wasn’t until I changed to the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall that I learned that Microsoft itself was calling home way too often. ZoneAlarm used to tell me about the “call home” in Windows Media Player. But, it never told me that Windows XP called home when I simply clicked on Search (Start, Search).

But, the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall told me. I’m much more comfortable knowing when an outbound connection attempt is made — and allowing it if I want — than to let the program have a pre-defined, un-editable list of “OK programs.”

Sunbelt offers a free full-function 30-day trial of the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. After 15 days, if you’re using it at home and not for business, you can use it for free (but with fewer functions).

Regularly $19.95, Sunbelt offers a special two-fer — two licenses for Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall for only $29.92. At this price, all my copies are “paid” copies.