Best firewall? Your opinion

[FEARHQ]

I recently found the need to install a firewall as I kept being flooded with malicious http commands and such, being constantly scanned for subseven netbus and such, so I went out for the obvious choice to me - blackICE.3.5!. BlackICE felt "good", but the application protection is just too much, especially for someone who likes to test many apps, then delete them when dissatisfied. The packet logging was unusual, to me at least, and well I'm really interested in what were those so-called "attacks", what did they try exactly, and what was my response to it. Sure, application protection can be eliminated, but what about the logging? So I tried Sygate.Personal.Firewall.Pro 5.0.1150, great! Logging's never been better, but what good is it when I realised that well-known IIS attacks fell right through it, without it even finching! And if it's going to ask me if every single network app I have installed should allow to communicate with the web, then it gets pointless. I run some services, like ftp for example, and would not want to kill them either, and this firewall was not very permissive... I avoided mcafee and norton firewalls because they are way too big and bloated, and have way too many features that I find useless. DaNu.TermiNET.Firewall.1.82.041 was a complete letdown, it had a tighter grip on all inbound-outbound connections than a vice, basically not letting me do anything, always popping the confirmation dialog.

Ok, I know I've written this from a subjective point of view as I required a program that 1 - logs specific ports (add specific commands and jackpot!) 2 - is slack on security (or can be), that is only blocks/loggs known attacks/suspicous activities 3 - is small

Anyone know any such program? What about the firewall you choose? What is it and why did you choose it?