Looking for a new, free firewall (Sunbelt has a huge hole)

I've been using Sunbelt Personal Firewall v. 4.5 (previously Kerio). I've discovered that blocking Firefox connections in the configuration doesn't stop EXISTING Firefox connections. (See my post here yesterday Sunbelt Firewall 4.5 won't block Firefox) The "stop all traffic" may work on existing connections - but I'm done testing, as I need to be able to be selective, at any time. I was using the free version, so the "web filtering" option quit working after some time (mostly blocking ads and popups), but I didn't use that anyway. I used the last free version of Kerio before finally having to go to Sunbelt, because Kerio had an unfixed bug where you'd eventually get the BSOD and have to reset Kerio's configuration and start over (configure everything again).

So I'm looking for a new Firewall. I don't like ZoneAlarm at all (no offense to all it's users that may be here - personal taste).

I need the following: (Sunbelt has all these, except *)

1. Be able to block in/out to localhost (trusted)/internet selectively for each application with a click (so there's 4 click boxes for each application) [*that effects everything immediately, regardless of what's already connected]. When a new application attempts a connection, you get an allow/deny/remember windows.
2. Be able to easily set up filter rules for 'individual application'/'all applications,' by protocol, port/address (range), local, remote, in, out. [*Adding a filter rule also doesn't block existing connections in Sunbelt. That needs to work too.]
3. Have an easy-to-get-to way to "stop all traffic" (like a right click option on the running icon in the task bar).
4. Be able to set trusted/internet in/out block/allowed (4 things per item) for each of IGMP, ping, DNS, DHCP, VPN, and broadcasts.
5. Define locahost as trusted/untrusted, define adapter connections as trusted/untrusted.
6. Block incoming connetions during boot-up and shutdown.
7. Show existing connections, including local & remote ip/port, protocol, current speed, total bytes transferred, and local ports opened for Listening.
8. An Intrusion Prevention System which blocks (optionally select each one) known intrustions (long list).
9. Block/allow applications from starting other applications (deny/allow/remember window).
10. (Wish list) A way of knowing what svchost.exe is doing - who is actually using it/calling it. I allowed it for localhost, and selectively allowed it for internet each time the allow/deny window came up.

Thanks for any help/suggestions. (I'm using Windows XP SP3.)

Solution 1:

I recommend using Comodo. It's great for power users and lets you finely tune all of the options you want, plus it's totally free. Chris recommended Sygate, but unfortunately it hasn't been updated since 2004 and is likely full of bugs.

Solution 2:

Software Firewall: Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6

Hardware Firewall: Pfsense