Privatefirewall Now Free!

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Anupam

What other settings would you suggest MC?

The process monitor is best left at Medium otherwise your main settings are fine.

You might want to edit the trusted publishers list via "Settings", "Advanced", to remove anyone you don't like the look of such as Adobe or Microsoft Then you'll get alerts when anything connected runs for the first time, otherwise not.

Check out also the "Advanced Reports" (right click on the log setting) and "View", "HTML Firewall Log" which makes reading 'em much easier

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by kendall

Anupam, since PrivateFirewall includes DSA as a HIPS, why would you need to add Threatfire? Do you like PrivateFirewall better than PC Tools Firewall?
Do you plan to continue to run all 3 resident? How much RAM does IOBIT take up on your system?

I didn't pay enough attention that Threatfire is an HIPS . I just wanted to try it... and I thought it was more of an antivirus, as the site says its a behavioral antivirus . Now, that I know, I will try it some other time, maybe on my other system, which has just Avast and IObit Security 360. I hope I won't get any trouble from Threatfire, which will jeopardize my system .

Yes, Kendall, this is my testing hard disk, and I plan to continue all 3 of the softwares I have now as resident, and will see how things go. If I had to format this hard disk, I won't mind.

At the moment IObit occupies 30.01 MB on my system.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

The process monitor is best left at Medium otherwise your main settings are fine.
You might want to edit the trusted publishers list via "Settings", "Advanced", to remove anyone you don't like the look of such as Adobe or Microsoft. Then you'll get alerts when anything connected runs for the first time, otherwise not.
Check out also the "Advanced Reports" (right click on the log setting) and "View", "HTML Firewall Log" which makes reading 'em much easier

Thanks for the tips MC, I will check them out . I will keep the process monitor at high though .

Personally, I like Privacyware Firewall... mainly for the fact, that things and popups are explained in a nice way, which I find quite helpful.

Originally Posted by kendall

Do you like PrivateFirewall better than PC Tools Firewall?

Yes, I like it better than PC Tools Firewall. PC Tools Firewall is in my opinion a very good solution for a normal user. It is an install-and-forget software, and I liked that thing about it a lot. But, in terms of more control over the software, I think it lacks somewhat. With PrivateFirewall, I feel I can have more control over things.

To be frank, I am not an expert with firewalls, I have just started to use firewalls, and get the feel of it. I was too scared with firewalls earlier, because one time long ago, I had tried ZoneAlarm, and I was not able to connect to the internet .

I have used Comodo Firewall earlier, and I think it is a solid product offering solid protection, and if someone is comfortable running Comodo, then definitely they should go for it. But, the recent increase in the size of Comodo has put me off a bit, and I also feel it is a bit more of the advanced user kind of firewall. That's why I am on the lookout for a more lighter, so to say, kind of firewall.

So far, PrivateFirewall seems good to me .

[garbanzo]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

There are of course two points of view here from garbanzo and Anupam.

Of course it doesn't really matter what a program looks like and personal preference will always rule here. I for instance think that the Rising GUI is the best I've seen but others hate it. That said I can also understand that if you don't like the look of something then you are less likely to want to work with it and for security software this is not ideal

I would also say that 10 minutes is not long enough to offer constructive criticism of what a program does or does not do. Privatefirewall sets nothing to "safe" but it does "allow" programs from vendors in the trusted list the first time they are run. These are still monitored though in accordance with the system rules. To be honest no one should have an "un-trusted" program on their machine to start with or you should manually edit the trusted list to reflect your own preferences, then everything will be alerted. It certainly won't ask you anything about these applications unless configured to do so.

yes, i probably should have spent more time with it, but the fact remains that Comodo appealed to me, while Privatefirewall did not. i tried it because of the hype it received here, but i was disappointed with the out-of-box user experience, so i went back to an app i was comfortable with. you can brush off my comments if you like, but it would behoove you to pay more attention to the responses of average users like me. we do, after all, make up the majority of your readership...

[PeterGriffin]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

Hi
Another user asked this same question yesterday in the "Best Free Firewall" comments section and I directed him back to the GRC website where Steve Gibson posts information about how a router can sometimes still reflect the ping. The other poster adjusted his router settings and now the ping response is gone.

Your other settings are fine. "Closed" ports give the same security as "stealth". It's only ports listed as "open" which need attention.

Your memory use looks a little on the high side but it may reduce after the learning period finishes. You should see two services for Privatefirewall in Task manager. On my system pfsvc.exe is using 5.3MB and PF6.exe 24.3MB.

I went into my router settings and there is setting for configuring the firewall in the router which I would guess is off right now. The manual was no help at all. I probably should check D-Link for forums on how to set it up, unless someone here has experience with this router . I posted a screen shot of the Firewall config screen.

[PeterGriffin]

My training period is over with Privatefirewall and now it these files are using
pfsvc.exe is 5.3MB and PF6.exe 31.2MB.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by garbanzo

yes, i probably should have spent more time with it, but the fact remains that Comodo appealed to me, while Privatefirewall did not. i tried it because of the hype it received here, but i was disappointed with the out-of-box user experience, so i went back to an app i was comfortable with. you can brush off my comments if you like, but it would behoove you to pay more attention to the responses of average users like me. we do, after all, make up the majority of your readership...

I wasn't brushing off your comments at all. I had already said that I understand why people don't like working with something if they're unhappy with how it looks.

None of us are infallible but we do also try to be accurate, and this statement "and a dozen programs were automatically set as 'safe' without asking me" does not convey an accurate account of how Privatefirewall deals with unknown applications which could easily have been inferred this way by people reading it.

I'm pleased that you are happy with Comodo yet this too still has some issues to overcome including the random acceptance of unsolicited incoming UDP broadcasts which has gone unresolved on their forum since December 2008.

Since posting I have just discovered that this new version of Privatefirewall is somehow mismatched with my USB broadband modem because the logs are only recording incoming events, no matter how I set the filter options. This is a known issue (to me anyway) with the Sony Ericsson MD300 for Ashampoo and Fortknox too. I've already had a response from PWI and they are looking into it.

Maybe I'll end up going back to Comodo myself?

[Anupam]

I see lots of incoming UDP connections from local network. How to block those?
Also, I think my browsing has slowed down, maybe because of the firewall?

[MidnightCowboy]

Where are you seeing these incoming connections? If they're in the log then they're blocked anyway as it doesn't record the allowed traffic. What are the port numbers given? Can you post a screenshot?

If anything, your browsing should be quicker with PFW than most others but these things are always subjective. I doubt if PFW is slowing you down unless there's another issue connected with it outside of normal use.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by PeterGriffin

My training period is over with Privatefirewall and now it these files are using
pfsvc.exe is 5.3MB and PF6.exe 31.2MB.

Hi Peter, these readings are normal now.

Sorry I can't help you with your router query, but I have no useful knowledge in this area.