netfilter/iptables is nice and works without a hitch for me, but different people have different needs, you will not find a best, one size fits all firewall
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Hardware - Celeron 266 MHz, 128MB RAM, Intel i740 8MB RAM
Software - Slackware Linux 10.1; Archlinux 0.7; Windows 98 SE
Humanware - GS/CS C++ L+++ w b+++ DI+ D+ e