Personal Firewall Pro Reviewer's Comments

Please Note: This product is no longer available through 3B Software.

Personal Firewall Pro by 3B Software is one of the only firewall software programs that comes with a list of blocked sites. This saves time; most firewalls require you to develop your own list from experiences over time.

Feature Set:  

Personal Firewall Pro lets you view web browsing history and instantly lets you add a website to your block list. This is ideal if someone visits a website you don't ever want accessed from your computer again.

Even though Personal Firewall Pro does a fine job protecting your computer from hackers, it lacks extra features to customize and secure your system. For example, top firewalls offer ways to view and trace an IP address of an intruder, but Personal Firewall Pro does not. (An IP address is an identifying number assigned to each computer system online.)

Ease of Use:  

Personal Firewall Pro is simple to use; the program automatically stealth's the computer (keeps the computer hidden from others online). All you need to do is develop your approved website list. Personal Firewall Pro does the rest.

Ease of Installation:  

We had no problems installing Personal Firewall Pro.

Reliability:  

Personal Firewall Pro performed well with most of our firewall tests. The only tests the Firewall failed were the cookie and referrer tests. This firewall allowed websites to store bits of identifying data on your hard drive (cookies) and revealed general browser information (such as which browser you use and the last website you've visited). Unfortunately, Personal Firewall Pro offers no way to block cookies or hide browser information.

Help/Support:  

To ask a technical question, you must complete an online support form. We received errors the first time we tried the form, but later we were successful. This is the only support Personal Firewall Pro offers. A response takes two or three days.

Summary:  

Even though 3B Personal Firewall Pro is weak on customization, the program does a good job as a basic firewall and Internet filter. We liked the filtering features since these allow parents to block specific web content easily.

If you are looking for more control, we recommend one of our higher-ranked firewalls. But if you want a basic firewall that requires few changes, Personal Firewall may be the software for you.