This is a very powerful firewall, quite possibly the most brilliant firewall I have ever tried... hands down!

Yet, Tiny 2005 takes some time to master. It has a steeper learning curve than other great firewalls such as Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.x, Look 'n' Stop 2.0x and Agnitum Outpost Firewall 2.x. To fully appreciate the program’s vastness with respect to the control of your system’s security, you'll have to spend some time on it. But it’s a very rewarding experience once set up. I use this for personal use and I am not running it through a network. I would consider myself a 'PC power user', but I am not an expert/professional in the field of security or software programming. So my perspective and review of this software is limited somewhat.

Considering that routers nowadays (e.g. D-Link 604-T) have powerful inbuilt firewall protection you are less likely to be attacked than if you weren't behind a hardware firewall. So where does Tiny 2005 come in? I won't pontificate about the programs features and abilities, but one of the most complete features that Tiny 2005 offers is her ability to 'Trust' particular programs or Dlls either when installing or injecting code. Many of these features available are comparable to the DiamondCS’s awesome application monitoring program, ProcessGuard 3.x (which is very easy to use). If you don’t like Tiny then, perhaps one could use their preferred firewall with ProcessGuard, which may provide the same level of protection that Tiny offers. This is something to think about. Remember also that Tiny has the usual inbound/outbound access creation rules that most decent firewalls have. I believe that Tiny 2005 presents a more complete and secure package than the other firewalls out there.

I own the Pro version of Tiny 2005 which offers some extra features than the Standard Edition - although both have very similar levels of (potential) security protection. You have to decide for yourself whether you need the extra features as the Pro version is not a cheap piece of software! But one of the neat components that make it into Tiny 2005 Pro is the ability to “Track n’ Reverse”. This feature works on a similar design to Norton GoBack (previously owned by Roxio) and allows you to completely roll back registry and file changes. If you just want to test software then the Track n’ Reverse option turns out to be very handy! This method is a much quicker process than other methods available. E.g. when you are reverting to your original Acronis/Powerquest Drive Image or using GoBack. Although, I found that the Track n’ Reverse option tended to leave behind the program icon in the Add/Remove control panel on several occasions. But this is easily removed with a good registry clean-up app, ala jv PowerTools or a good uninstaller/clean-up application.

The bottom line is that Tiny 2005 provides extensive customizable features for the power-user to have a very secure system. Tiny 2005 offers neither ad/content filtering nor antivirus software in-built into it, so you are going to need some additional appz for privacy and virus protection. I would suggest the following first-rate programs to make your PC almost impenetrable: Ad-Muncher 4.x and SpyStopper 3.x for ad removal; SpyBot - Search & Destroy 1.4 plus Ad-Aware SE Professional 1.06 for spyware removal; and NOD32 2.x for anti-virus.

Have fun and enjoy your playing. Tiny Firewall 2005 rates 4.5 Stars.