(OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Please recommend a personal firewall, preferably a free and open source, that runs on both win32 and ubuntu, similar to zonealarm in interface ( blocks programs from connecting to internet, acting as server ... outbound blocking?)

I would also appreciate links to firewall survey reviews that you've found trustworthy as I value perlmonks opinions.

Thanks

Comment on (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls by SilasTheMonk (Chaplain) on Jul 01, 2010 at 21:00 UTC
Get an old machine, remove the hard disk, stick in a second ethernet card, run Devil Linux (http://www.devil-linux.org/home/index.php), connect one ethernet card to the outside world, one ethernet card to a switch and all your ubuntu and windows machines to the switch. Voila!	[reply]
Re: (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls by sierpinski (Chaplain) on Jul 01, 2010 at 18:09 UTC
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=firewall+open+source	[reply]
Re^2: (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls by Anonymous Monk on Jul 01, 2010 at 19:05 UTC
That is very bizzare favorite firewall that you use all the time	[reply]
Re^3: (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls by Argel (Prior) on Jul 01, 2010 at 20:22 UTC
Well, it's kind of a bizarre request in the first place considering most Linux users use iptables. And with Windows Vista+, you can get away with the Windows firewall. Just doesn't seem like there would be a lot of interest in cross-platform compatible desktop firewalls. I could see it for commercial grade firewalls, but those target the firewall server/appliance market. Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks	[reply]
Re: (OT) perlmonks favorite firewalls by Anonymous Monk on Jul 06, 2010 at 09:20 UTC
A Windows firewall has to hook into the native TCP/IP API. A Linux firewall is just nice sugar on top of the built-in iptables. So there is no commonality. And a quick glance at wikipedia shows no software for both platforms. To have only one firewall software to deal with, you could run e.g. Vyatta within a virtual machine alongside another VM for your OS.	[reply]