Yes, i've read several threads on this and other groups about personal firewalls, and i'm aware of the various aspects about their real effectiveness, security, etc. But my concern at the moment is not security.
I just want to, let's say, 'play around' with networks (only for personal knowledge, i'm not a professional), and try to know more about about what goes in/out to/from a pc.
I'm not comfortable with linux (that will be my next 'play around' campaign), so i'd install a test xp machine and try to investigate what happens at the network level: for example, connecting directly to the internet and see quantity and types of attack attempts (I've always wanted to know this!).
I know there are good network analyzers like Wireshark, but, besides good logging feature, real-time display of traffic, etc. i'd appreciate configurable alerts, eg. popups on incoming connections attempts, or when a program opens a tcp port for listening, or initiates a connection, etc. It seems Wireshark doesn't have them.
I think a personal firewall could be good at that, couldn't it? Of course i don't (and i wouldn't) need all the 'anti-spyware' features like registry/file system monitor, etc. Only 'plain' network control. Which one would you suggest? Of course it could also be a fully loaded PF, provided that it permits to disable unwanted features (unlike Comodo, according to
Any suggestion is appreciated, thank you in advance.