I'm looking for firewall information. No idea if I should go for a free (free is always better) or a paid-for firewall. I'm the only one on the computer, do little shopping or surfing. Been researching and more confused than ever. Tried Comodo but found it very difficult to use so looking for one that is easy and I put the emphasis on easy. Also want one that doesn't slow the computer down. Read about leak prevention, don't have a clue what that is but it sounds bad. Also need to know if I need a software and hardware firewall. Read on one of the firewalls about a desktop security audit. Is that something I need too? Right now I have a free version of Sunbelt. Please help and thanks ahead of time.

I'd suggest Outpost Firewall Free. Highly rated and well respected.

That's what I would recommend too. IMO, that's the best free firewall out there.

Outpost Firewall Free, Sunbelt Personal Firewall Free, and ZoneAlarm Free are all good if you don't want to have a degree in setting up a firewall or don't have the patience.

For absolute complete newbies ZoneAlarm Free has to be the easiest to use in my opinion - sort of like the AOL of software-based firewalls.

I've heard ZomeAlarm slows down the user's computer a lot of times.

Outpost has an Auto-Learn Mode that you can engage for whatever period of time you think is necessary. During that time, everything is virtually "hands free." For most, a week should be more than adequate -- several people I know have used Auto-Learn for as little as 3-4 days. It works very well.

That Auto-Learn portion of Outpost Free has drawbacks though. It does make things very easy for the user to configure if opening every single program back to back for a quick configuration then of course disable it, and also super easy for malware to have full access to update itself.

Also consider Online Armor free.

Good out of the box protection and ease of use.