The Best Free Windows Firewall | Portmaster Guide

Portmaster is a free open source firewall for Windows and of all the firewalls I've tested for Windows, it is the cream of the crop. This guide will show you how to set it up and use it.

Timestamps:

00:00 Network Activity Screen
02:02 Apps Settings
02:43 Safing Privacy Network (SPN)
04:20 Encrypted DNS
05:28 Website Loading Issues (⚠️IMPORTANT⚠️)
06:38 DNS Options
10:00 Filter Lists
10:43 Website Loading Issues (Continued - Filter List Blocks)
11:24 Portmaster vs. other firewalls
12:35 Outro

Article about DNS filter testing:

Portmaster Firewall:

Background Songs:

Floof - Jobii
Smithereens - Jobii
Laundry List - Dylan Sitts
Cold Leftovers - Dylan Sitts

[pabloqp]

Great video! Your channel seems to be a goldmine for networking/security content. Hope it becomes more popular 🎉

[shanevickers]

Thankyou for introducing me to Portmaster and taking the time to explain its functions..

[ridley]

Ive been using this since the suggestion from pc security channel and it hasnt failed. I use comodo firewall on top of this and comodo has auto containment for apps which is good.

[the_]

Thank you Ken for the informative content. Keep up the good work.

[mremeyse]

Thanks a lot for the tour and the explanation!

[nubfaceforthelose]

Thanks for this, another great video from you I have stumbled upon.

[jkbobful]

I'm surprised how easy it was to set up

[ReheatedDonut]

It looks cool and seems good on the outside but it caused me more problems than it's worth (blocking certain websites and links I wanted to visit but they had "tracking" scripts or whatever, slowing down my internet speed, and being too resource intensive). I really wanted to like it and use it but couldn't.

Back to ole simplewall.

[-zerocool-]

Glasswire is great though, notifies you to block or allow each app connection

[naofacadieta]

Hello! Great content; Would IPFIRE be a good firewall for home network security, or do you have any other open source suggestions?

[tunnsie]

Unfortunately I had to uninstal as I ran into many issues with my local LAN and DNS.

Problem # 1 and it's a big one is the subnetting in the configuration. For local LAN the mouse-over example shows a /24 with the example of 192.168.0.1/24 <-- That is wrong and breaks things.
192.168.0.0/24 is correct but does not work in the config. I had nothing but problems with my LAN after installing Portmaster. I really wanted to like this program but after many attempts to allow my LAN in both global and app level, I finally gave up. Sometimes my LAN appears, sometimes not.
If the base code is trying to make sense of a network where the first usable address in a subnet is utilized as the network address then you will and do have timebombs in the code.
Problem #2, DNS was a nightmare. Response for resolution times were painful. Latency made simple surfing a chore.
I will monitor the project as it has promise but please fix the network issues in the code.

[shuvamsky]

Great video.Btw Do you know anyway to exclude certain apps from portmaster for e.g steam, spotify etc?

[iseptimus]

Its lack of compatibility with newer VPN connectivity is a downside. It’s like they are pushing SPN by forcing DNS locking.

[peterg]

Seems like a great tool. Thank you for the video. Comodo free firewall has been suggested to be adequate, but can Portmaster compare to it and other known paid products - it would be good with your expertise if possible if you could test this? Thanks again.

[marcusnascimento]

Good video and I use it as a network firewall?

[Sam-rzrd]

How can I set a default, that I get popup asking to allow or deny access to a given app as it tries to acess the internet? ..and how can I create a "local loop" rule (allow -> 127.0.0.1
Block range -> 127.0.0.2 - 255.255.255.255)? Thanks

[senritsujumpsuit]

do you have a more detailed experience with Postmaster Pros SPN alternative to VPN am curious since no one else on youtube really talks about it XD

[ZenEagle]

The firewall looks good, and it offers a fairly easy interface but it HAS to work.
My problem is that it will not connect to my NAS local network storage/backup device.

Using Windows 11 Explorer connecting to the NAS first and then enabling the PortMaster firewall the connection will be maintained until the Explorer is shut down. Afterwards reenabling the explorer and logging to the NAS will be blocked.

I have tried numerous other Firewalls all connect to NAS without problem.

[SBL-one]

hello
the best firewall?? while this one does not indicate in which direction this one blocks.
if this one is blocked in 1 direction only, then this one is not a good one!

[Barncore]

Interesting. How would you say it compares to the Malwarebytes WFC? In what ways is one better than the other? And should they work in tandem or instead of each other?