White knight rescues Kerio's free firewall

[msanto]

Good news for fans of free security software: The Kerio Personal Firewall isn't going away after all.

Sunbelt Software, best known for its CounterSpy anti-spyware product, said on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire the Kerio Personal Firewall from Kerio Technologies, saving the popular consumer desktop firewall product from the chop. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
_____________
Read More / Source: News.com (http://news.com.com/White+knight+rescues+Kerios+free+firewall/2100-7350_3-5978683.html?tag=nefd.top)

[ronjor]

Good news! Thanks.

[ErikAlbert]

Maybe Sunbelt Software is planning to create their own Frankenstein Security Suite :
Firewall (Kerio) + CountrySpy (AS), but they still need an AV. :)

[Bubba]

A few other good reads and Sunbelts Press release:

We liked the product so much, we bought it (http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/we-liked-product-so-much-we-bought-it.html)

Sunbelt Software to acquire Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Press.cfm?id=134)

[Notok]

That's awesome. I'm glad to know that not all the decent freebies are disappearing. It will be interesting to see where Sunbelt takes all of this.

[Hyperion]

Very good news.Now if they decided to make it also lighter,it would be perfect ;D

[Kerodo]

Yep, a good rewrite, or even a reversion back to the old Kerio 2 layout would be nice... although that'll probably never happen.. Still, nice to see it stay alive one way or another.. :)

[rdsu]

Good news :)

Hope they improve it and let it using very low resources...

[QBgreen]

A product worthy of being saved. Version 4.2.x is robust, and if Sunbelt can keep it that way and/or improve upon it, so much the better. Good to hear that a freeware version will be made available.

[chiawaikian]

Woohoo!

[Paranoid2000]

The key issue is whether Sunbelt are hiring/acquiring Kerio's developers also. If not, it will take them longer to get to grips with the code to provide any updates. It will be interesting to see how things progress but it looks like another example of an all-in-one security suite being put together.

[sweater]

I hope if they made it into another newer versions that their upgraded 4.2.2 will not crashed again on my system. :-[ Maybe, the HIPS feature is not compatible w my system. :-\

And aside from improving this firewall that i hope that they can also make it more lighter and faster and safer. 8)

[Mele20]

They are planning on a suite. They already have an AV they are working on. When the suite will be ready, I have no idea. Hopefully, they will keep a free version of Kerio separate from the suite.

[mercurie]

-{ Quote: "They are planning on a suite. They already have an AV they are working on. When the suite will be ready, I have no idea. Hopefully, they will keep a free version of Kerio separate from the suite." }-I agree totally. But no matter what they do with it unless you are going to "Nortonize" the product, it is a positive development. ;)

I thought about this and did not want to confuse anyone. "Nortonize" = beyond their past history which is well documented here at the Wilders, I was thinking about the Sygate FW fate, playing out again. :(

[chaos16]

is there known a release date ofr this firewall?

[Kerodo]

No...

[controler]

I bet ther are alot scrambling to gather suite components right now.

Those that frequent wilders like forums do not like suites.
They want CONTROL. they want MORE resorces, they want HYPER speed LOL

Home users on the other hand NEED suites.

It is not what is best for you and I but rather what is best for the average user.

controler

[ErikAlbert]

Yep, security suites are "in" and the majority of the users (average users) will buy them.
That's why all these companies were so quickly to create one. As always MONEY is the main reason.
Quality doesn't matter for these users, they want a simple, cheaper and all-in-one solution.

I wonder if Agnitum has already an AV for their security suite LOL.
I find it amusing to see where each company is getting its firewall, AV or AS.

[chachazz]

CounterSpy News
Issue #18 - Dec 16, 2005
The Kerio Personal Firewall will be re-branded on an interim basis as the "Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall".
All existing customers of the Kerio Personal Firewall V4 will be able to receive support through Sunbelt once the acquisition is completed.
Upon the close of the deal, Sunbelt will also announce new reduced pricing for the full version of the product and a variety of special offers for both Kerio and Sunbelt customers.
Additionally, Sunbelt will continue Kerio's tradition of providing a basic free version for home users.
During the transition period, Kerio will continue to support the product and users are encouraged to download the Kerio Personal Firewall from the Kerio website at www.kerio.com until the acquisition is completed.
http://www.counterspynews.com/

[starstruck]

I'm personally fine with 'security suites'. look at ghost security's ghost suite.

You pay seperately for each component, if you want it, you pay for it, if you don't want it , you don't pay for it. Talk about the advantage of suites, with the advantage of control!

Much Much better than all those people selling suites, that force you to buy the whole package. Sure the whole package is cheaper than buying each component seperately, but there's no control!

[controler]

Well duh?

Money? Yes it is and that is what motivates people. Or human rights or sex, or doing the right thing.

BUT, Think about what is best for home users here not your own agendas, OK?

Actualy think about how home users use their computers and the internet.

Oh yea they are hit by adds, Yes they want sexual sites that don't POP their computers, Look at Blaze LOL

My answer is think simple and think about your fellow man-woman.

Understand what is right.

Understand what is human.

Only do good to others even if they are A holes.

Fight for what IS right PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never deter from that thought.

Sit back have a few drinks and say hey, I can do that.


con

[ronjor]

Sunbelt Completes Kerio Firewall Buy-Lowers pricing

-{ Quote: "Sunbelt Software on Tuesday completed its acquisition of Kerio's desktop and server firewall products, a move which will save the popular free Kerio Personal Firewall from its planned retirement. In addition, Sunbelt is lowering the price of the full version to $19.95." }-

Story (http://www.betanews.com/article/Sunbelt_Completes_Kerio_Firewall_Buy/1135112332)

[RobZee]

Until March 31, 2006, the price is further reduces to $14.95.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm

[hollywoodpc]

Anyone who wants an excellent firewall at an UNBELIEVABLE price should get this . Kerio is outstanding . And , at $ 14.95 , it is an incredible deal for this security !~

[Upasaka]

At these prices they can't go wrong...I wanted 2 licences and waited to see what would happen with this sale,what a saving!

Sunbelt have also taken the documents and greatly improved them,see here....

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio-Docs.cfm

[muf]

Wow, now that's a nice offer. Just had to deactivate Sygate and install this. At this price it's got to be worth a try!

Thanks for the heads up. :)

muf

[enduser999]

-{ Quote: "Wow, now that's a nice offer. Just had to deactivate Sygate and install this. At this price it's got to be worth a try!

Thanks for the heads up. :)

muf" }-
Well I did the same thing and so far Sygate is still easier to use. I had to uninstall Kerio/Sunblt's product since it was originally installed in Advanced mode and try as I might I could not get several Internet applications to work. I may try the product again but so far I am batting 0 - 2 with Sunbelt and their products.

:(

[The Hammer]

-{ Quote: "Wow, now that's a nice offer. Just had to deactivate Sygate and install this. At this price it's got to be worth a try!

Thanks for the heads up. :)

muf" }-So how's it going so far?

[enduser999]

I do not think you can simply deactivate Sygate. In order to test Kerio one has to uninstall Sygate completely thereby wiping out any settings that one has defined for it.

I find that Kerio even in simple mode was prompting me numerous times during a windows update to allow the windows update app to perform tasks. I could see a newbie becoming confused/annoyed with this constant prompting to allow or not allow. This is after I indicated to create a rule for the application in question.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "I do not think you can simply deactivate Sygate. In order to test Kerio one has to uninstall Sygate completely thereby wiping out any settings that one has defined for it.

" }-
You can save your Sygate settings by just backing up all the .dat files in the Sygate folder. Works for me..

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "Anyone who wants an excellent firewall at an UNBELIEVABLE price should get this . Kerio is outstanding . And , at $ 14.95 , it is an incredible deal for this security !~" }-
And subscription renewing for $9,95.....;)

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "Well duh?

Money? Yes it is and that is what motivates people. Or human rights or sex, or doing the right thing.

BUT, Think about what is best for home users here not your own agendas, OK?
" }-
Hi controler,

take a fast look at the bright side of life;)

[chaos16]

has there been any new features or bug fixes?

[ronjor]

Some info provided by Sunbelt (http://support.sunbelt-software.com/scripts/rightnow.cfg/php.exe/enduser/std_alp.php?p_sid=RRhFEtXh&p_prod_lvl1=3)

[pikeman1020]

Hi guys, just passing by and saw this thread and needed to ask something. I really felt like buying this product because of the reputation of Kerio firewall but what makes Sunbelt now an expert at the firewall software area?

I don't know who they are and don't want to judge but can we expect the same type of quality from the product now that someone else own's it? How confident are you, the regular user's of Kerio that this product will continue as it has until now?

Thanks for any and all replies.

ps. This is a great introductory price.

[Kerodo]

It can't get any worse than it has been.. Kerio 4.xx's reputation is actually quite bad. Known for it's bugs and problems. It only recently turned out to be a usable product. So I don't see how it could get any worse... Might actually improve quite a bit in the future..

P.S. There appears to be a new version just released. I assume this is 4.2.3 then?

[brjoon1021]

I got this from the site, a FAQ:

Q: I want to update my existing version of KPF to the new Sunbelt Version 4.2.3, how should I do that?
A: Please uninstall your current version. Then reinstall the Sunbelt Version and enter your new sunbelt license key. Keep in mind there is no difference in features, the only difference at the moment is the rebranding.

I don't know if that addresses bugs, but I am inclined to think that they only rebranded at this point.

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "I don't know if that addresses bugs, but I am inclined to think that they only rebranded at this point." }-
Maybe a good idea to give Sunbelt some time and credits to develop Kerio Firewall starting from the point it's now?:D

They just bought it from Kerio Technologies Inc., it's very easy to say that they are only involved in the rebrand business;)

[controler]

Thanks smokey

I always look at the bright side ;D
Merry Christmas to you too and everyone here that is registered at Wilders.

Think about it for at least one min.

What do home users NEED?

don't say well they need to be able to reformat drive, they need to be able to use winhex.
That is your thinking.

They need a suite to be safe PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they got a fast computer they could care less and do not even know about
resources. DUH?

Here is what I always taught, Do not care about yourself but rather the normal home user. They outnuber us geeks 5 billion to 500,000 LOL
I am talking about those of us that have used computers since the late 70's

[hollywoodpc]

Amazingly , someone here trying to bash a good product . Bad reputation ? Hmmm . Interesting . The only thing bad that is talked about most is the resource use . Kerio does not have a bad reputation at all . It is good . Very good in fact . The question is , what will Sunbelt do to it . For those who know and understand firewalls , it will show . For those that think it is bad , it will make no difference .
Great firewall at a great price . This firewall is very secure but , not friendly AT ALL with other firewalls . Even if the firewall you have is OFF , there can be a conflict . No need to take anyones word for it . try it . If you like it , use it . It is very good for a software firewall . If it is not liked by you , move on to something else . As for the inner workings , very few are are better than this . And the price is great . At least , for now . Unless Sunbelt messes it up .

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Amazingly , someone here trying to bash a good product . Bad reputation ? Hmmm . Interesting . " }-
It is common knowledge and way old news that Kerio 4.xx has a terrible reputation, specifically for all it's various and neverending bugs. If you followed it thru all the beta stages from 4.0 onward, you would know this hollywood. Come on.. Kerio refused repeatedly to listen to most of the user feedback on the project, particulary from long time Kerio 2 users. They alienated almost everyone by doing this. And the people (like myself) who kept trying each new beta and then each new release were continually disappointed over and over by the neverending stream of bugs and problems. If you need proof, just browse thru all the threads in the Kerio forum going back this past year while 4.xx was in development. Here: http://forums.kerio.com/

Get real guy..... ;D

Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas too.. :)

[Arup]

If we are to go by fixes in Kerio final releases and betas, actually the final outdoes the beta, compared to the rock steady isue-less Kerio 2x, Kerio 4x ruined all the good faith built up chasing even die hard Kerio users like myself, what a pity, instead of improving, all they did was add un-necessary crap and made it worse day by day.

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "What do home users NEED?

don't say well they need to be able to reformat drive, they need to be able to use winhex.

They need a suite to be safe PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
" }-
Hi controler!

Happy Xmas to you, and hope your sharpening eye stays bright in 2006 as in 2005!;)

Do you really think the home user know what winhex is?
They think it is some kind of food, or the name of a F1-Bolide.:o

Correct is, they need a suite to be safe.

Just a small problem: they don't know how to use the suite, and adjust the suite with the proper settings, that's for a lot of them pure horror!

Look here around on Wilders, when you see how many people are really desperated and don't know how to fix the problems they meet and to solve problems with the securtiy software they have....::)

That's one of the main reasons Wilders is so well visited, and they are desperately hoping for help.

Personally i give them the help they need (and with me many others), even them who are thinking they know everything but know nothing about the stuff.;)

It is the main purpose of Wilders Security Forums to serve and help people, therefore i'm since a very long time Wilders member, just like you.
We do what we can, but sometimes i'm thinking: RTFM!!!!


Best regards,

Smokey

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "Kerio refused repeatedly to listen to most of the user feedback on the project, particulary from long time Kerio 2 users. They alienated almost everyone by doing this." }-
Again: let's wait how Sunbelt is doing the job, please give them some credits;)

[sweater]

-{ Quote: "Until March 31, 2006, the price is further reduces to $14.95.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm" }-

Wow!!! This could be the lowest price Firewall on the market and continuing the traditions of giving it free to home users impressed me again...:o

But, I am wondering then, what "changes" Sunbelt have made into this newer version. Is this more lighter than their previous versions... and also more faster? ???

[Edwin024]

I can't say that this Kerio is slow at all. It does websites better than the latest beta of KIS2006 for instance, or LnS for that matter....

[kalpik]

As of now, the only changes are re-branding... Nothing else..

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "I can't say that this Kerio is slow at all." }-
Because i have a hardware firewall, i use KPF v4 only for outgoing connections and application behaviour, Kerio is doing that job excellent.:)

[joter]

-{ Quote: "Because i have a hardware firewall, i use KPF v4 only for outgoing connections and application behaviour, Kerio is doing that job excellent.:)" }-

... and how you do this? only for outgoing connections and application behaviour? can you disable anything?

Merry Xmas
joter

[dukebluedevil]

-{ Quote: "It is common knowledge and way old news that Kerio 4.xx has a terrible reputation, specifically for all it's various and neverending bugs. If you followed it thru all the beta stages from 4.0 onward, you would know this hollywood. Come on.. Kerio refused repeatedly to listen to most of the user feedback on the project, particulary from long time Kerio 2 users. They alienated almost everyone by doing this. And the people (like myself) who kept trying each new beta and then each new release were continually disappointed over and over by the neverending stream of bugs and problems. If you need proof, just browse thru all the threads in the Kerio forum going back this past year while 4.xx was in development. Here: http://forums.kerio.com/

Get real guy..... ;D

Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas too.. :)" }-


Well said Kerodo, you are 100% correct!

They were great during the Kerio 2.x betas-final releases about listening to there users and fixing things. After that there was the now long forgotten Kerio 3 betas which ended abpruptly after just the 5th or so beta. It never did make its way out of beta testing. It took them a really long time I remeber to even let there beta testers know that they were scrapping it and starting all over. That was the first major disapointment. Then finally after a really long time they finally came out with Kerio 4 betas. Big and bloated with a fancy new gui and web filtering. :( The developers said they would work on the bloat, so I held out some hope. During the beta process you would report bugs to Kerio and they would acknowledge them and tell you that they would fix them but then after a few more beta releases they would still be there. :( The bugs they did fix it seemed like it just created new ones. It was extremely frustrating!

The logging was a complete mess too. You couldn't count on it at all to tell you what was going on since it wouldn't report everything. Kerio 2.x logging years before was by far much better. By the end of beta testing on the initial Kerio 4 beta I could see that they were not listening to there users at all and that things had gone down hill big time. So it was time to move on. I watched hoping for better things to come in the next version that they had but I could tell by looking at the forums nothing changed. So that was that.


Anyways, you'll have a fantastic Christmas!!! :)

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "... and how you do this? only for outgoing connections and application behaviour? can you disable anything?

Merry Xmas
" }-
Merry Xmas too!:)

Go into the configuration, and you can change every setting you want;)

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "Well said Kerodo, you are 100% correct!
" }-
I assume you and Kerodo are right, but that have nothing to do with Sunbelt.

We only can wait what Sunbelt is doing with Kerio Firewall, perhaps they will listen to their customers and take the same customer serious:)

[muf]

-{ Quote: "So how's it going so far?" }-

Pretty well actually. It uses more resources than Sygate Free, and also slows down my browsing slightly more than Sygate. To be expected though as Kerio has a lot more to offer than Sygate. It's still pretty good and the slowdown is only marginal really. Behaviour Blocking, HIPS and NIPS(gotta love that word :) ). Also has the ad blocking, which i like.

As to the question of uninstalling Sygate completely instead of disabling it. Well i disabled the service and the Sygate startup. Nothing to do with Sygate is running, and i'm not experiencing any conflicts as far as i can tell. Once i am sure this firewall is a worthy keeper then i'll uninstall Sygate. I used to use Kerio 2.1.4 and liked that. This is the first time i've used Kerio since that version. So it's probably 3+ years. Looking good so far.

muf

[Jarmo P]

muf, it did not work for me when I did only go to Sygate 'Options' dialog and there disabled the 'Automatically load Sygate Personal firewall service at startup. You must have done something to the firewall service in Win XP settings too. Care to clear out more?

I got all sorts of wierd behaviour and like to keep Sygate too in my PC installed since it is working well and I can only import the 'Advanced rules' to a new install and always make the application rules by hand to be sure everything is working properly.

You disabled the Sygate firewall service from XP services too?
Have you tried disabling Kerio 4.2.2 and run Sygate with both firewalls installed?

I know it is not recommended to have them both installed.
Kerio only on my system. It was working otherwise fine, but a few BSOD's I got.
So I trust SPF more. But like I Kerio too with it's nice user interface and selective logging.
Sygate has better logging, but not able to exclude Skype.

[muf]

Hi,

Yeah, if you click on Start then click Run. Then type in Services.msc and click ok. When the services list box come up, just scroll down to Sygate and right click on it and select Properties. In the middle of the box change the Startup type to disabled. Click ok and close the service list box. If you use a startup monitor or an application that has one(i have serveral), just look for the startup for smc.exe, on my system it was c:\program files\sygate\smc.exe -startgui and once you find it, just disable it.

All systems are different, but i did it this way and Kerio works fine as far as i can tell.

Good luck,
muf

p.s Tried disabling Kerio and running Sygate but it wouldn't run. Expect that if i did the same with Kerio that i did with Sygate. ie disable the service as well then if i undid the disabling in Sysgate and then rebooted, i'm pretty sure it would all work. But tbh, i'm not going to try it as BSOD's are not my favourite thing. ;)

[controler]

Muf

does netstop scm.exe work to stop sygate service?

If so just make two bat file on desktop, one to start and one to stop.

or add the netstop command to the autoexec.bat file. This is the first thing windows will see on bootup.

con

[controler]

It would be like this


open notepad

type net stop scm

then safe file as stopsygate.bat to dekstop

to start service again just make another BAT file with net start scm ...

If you use quotes you will then be asked yes or no to starting or stopping the service

net stop "scm"

[controler]

Let's say for example you want to do some processing or play a game and you don't want some services running.

creat some BAT files.

examples to stop some stuff and you can add or delete as you wish

Below I named Stop.Bat for ease: Copy this to notepad and safe the file as Stop.bat to desktop


NET STOP "Cryptographic Services"

NET STOP "DHCP Client"

NET STOP "DNS Client"

NET STOP "Network Connections"

NET STOP "Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service"

NET STOP "Print Spooler"

NET STOP "Protected Storage"

NET STOP "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager"

NET STOP "Shell Hardware Detection

NET STOP "Symantec Event Manager"

NET STOP "Task Scheduler"

NET STOP "Themes"

NET STOP "Windows Management Instrumentation"

NET STOP "Windows Time"

NET STOP "SMC"

Next you can copy the info below to notepad and save the file as Start.bat


NET START "Cryptographic Services"

NET START "DHCP Client"

NET START "DNS Client"

NET START "Network Connections"

NET START "Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service"

NET START "Print Spooler"

NET START "Protected Storage"

NET START "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager"

NET START "Shell Hardware Detection

NET START "Symantec Event Manager"

NET START "Task Scheduler"

NET START "Themes"

NET START "Windows Management Instrumentation"

NET START "Windows Time"

NET START "SMC"

Have fun

con

[Kerodo]

Although I am not sure, I think it might be possible for conflicting drivers or devices to get loaded by the system even when you disable one of the firewall services. If this is true, then it might very well cause problems. It is most likely safer to just uninstall the firewall you're not using before running the new one.

[Smokey]

-{ Quote: "it might be possible for conflicting drivers or devices to get loaded by the system even when you disable one of the firewall services. If this is true, then it might very well cause problems. It is most likely safer to just uninstall the firewall you're not using before running the new one." }-
I remember me the McAfee firewall, after uninstall it leave some drivers on your system and these *&^#@ nasties can cause a lot of problems.>:(

[controler]

well yea what I wrote was for shutting down services.

Sorry

for drivers you need to go to device drivers.

right click on my computer, properties,device manager,


con

[muf]

Hmmm, I may have spoken too soon. I've had about 3 BSOD's in the last 24 hours. Caused by the same thing. When i get a repeated set of prompt's i.e i recieve a prompt of an incoming connection attempt and i click deny, then the prompt keeps coming up, and after about the 4th or 5th prompt i get a BSOD that says something like system has shut down to protect Windows from getting damaged. This is when i have been testing it at places like Sygate and GRC. It also happened when i went to E-Bay and did a search. But that currently appears to be a one-off.

I'll wait and see what happens over the coming days.

muf

[muf]

Ok, further update(to those interested!). Having suffered a number of further BSOD's, some of which when i was simply browsing the security forums, i've taken the decision to uninstall Kerio. Liked it, protection and logging very good indeed. But not knowing when the next BSOD is going to happen, but knowing it would was what persuaded me. It kept generating a fault log after every crash but it was like 500mb so i don't expect it was very uploadable to Sunbelt's server!!! I'm trying the latest Outpost Pro. And for the last 36 hours since installing it not had one BSOD. I'll see how this one goes.

[enduser999]

Hmm $14.95 pricing was not an incentive to purchase the product. I still do not think I would recommend this product for novice computer users. The high amount of prompting to allow or disallow items access to the Internet, even after telling it to allow it out, does not make it a software firewall for newbies.

[controler]

I think if you leave it in simple mode, you do not get all the popups. At least I don't
In network security click the predefined tab, then tick the top box that says Enable predefined network security
and your popups will go away.

I been messing with the javascript, active x options and they seem to work great. I leave java script enabled in Firefox but have it dissabled in Kerio and it seems to be doing it's job.


Muff? do you have crash dump enabled in overview, preferences?
Also have you tried to disable an option at a time such as the popups mentioned above or say HIPS or NIPS to see which modual is conflicting?
This information would be helpful to developers.

[controler]

If you go to the LOGS folder under Kerio, you should see two files, debug.log and
error.log. If you look at the debug log you should see all the urls you visited. This would be personal information you would be sending to Sunbelt if they requested it.
Or wait, Smokey? does this info automaticly go to Sunbelt if you have create crash dumped ticked?

thanks

con

[controler]

Ok been messing with the logs. I clear the info in the logs and change setting on Kerio then look at the logs files in the LOG folder and info seems to still be added no mater what.

Here is one thing I am looking at. In the GUI under settings and ticking log to syslog. Then looking at advanced I see what is default ticked.Debug & warning are NOT ticked but yet the debug and warning .LOG files in the Kerio,LOG folder still keep adding info to the file.

[muf]

-{ Quote: "Muff? do you have crash dump enabled in overview, preferences?
Also have you tried to disable an option at a time such as the popups mentioned above or say HIPS or NIPS to see which modual is conflicting?
This information would be helpful to developers." }-

It did generate a crash dump log to send to Sunbelt, but when i tried to send it, the sending got stopped. Now when i looked at the log file it was 502mb. Seriously, do you know how long that would take to send! Anyway, i thought it was a one-off, so i deleted the log and carried on using Kerio. Firstly i disabled the application behaviour blocking as i already use Online Armor. Still had crashes. So next i disabled the HIPS as i felt that Online Armor pretty much covered this. Still had crashes. After each crash it generated a crash log of over 500mb. There was never a chance in hell i was sending a log that big over the net, if my ISP would even allow it!!! I don't mind sending info to help a developer but one that's that size is just crazy and unreasonable to presume i would.

Now been using Outpost Pro for two days with no crashes.

muf

[djg05]

I have been following this thread for a while.

4.2.2 has been installed since late October. It is running in the free version since it had previously been installed some months prior.

I have not had any crashes with it - seems quite stable. It is running with PG and BOClean.

Looking at the sizes of the log files I have nothing larger than 1959 KB which is the network.log, followed by khips.log at 1184 KB

Looking at the error log I have this which put in every start

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] +------------------------------------------+
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] | Service start |
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] +------------------------------------------+
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] Kerio Personal Firewall 4.2.2 T.
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] © 1997-2005 Kerio Technologies. Web site http://www.kerio.com/
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] System: Windows 2000.
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] kwsapi: Could not create instance of NetFwMgr: Class not registered (0x80040154) .
[01/Jan/2006 19:20:33] kwsapi: set: WindowsFirewall is not initialized.
[01/Jan/2006 19:21:04] kwsapi: Could not connect to Security Center.
[01/Jan/2006 23:42:00] Gui.cpp: Cannot start gui. Exiting.
[01/Jan/2006 23:42:00] Gui.cpp: starting_thread: could not reconnect to gui 12.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't know the relevance of this or whether I should be concerned about it.

Could someone give me an opinion please.

[controler]

Yes these logs are bugging me. Appears the same URLs appear in both debug and web logs.
I am sure all this has been talked about in another Kerio forum. Maybe I will try to find it.
I don't know about the free version but the debug log seems to fill up fast.
Under logs & alerts you can set log size. DOn't know if this is only for the syslog or what. I DO think an option to clear a log or all logs would be helpful to me.
It seems clearing the .LOG file (not deleting it) does not rid the GUI of the log even after shutting down and restarting the service.

con

[enduser999]

-{ Quote: "I think if you leave it in simple mode, you do not get all the popups. At least I don't
In network security click the predefined tab, then tick the top box that says Enable predefined network security
and your popups will go away.
" }-

It was hard to tell whether this comment was meant for me or not. I assumed it was and my Kerio is already configured in that mode and I notice no difference in the amount of popups. I still stand by my comment that I do not thing that Kerio is a software firewall that a newbie computer user would be comfortable with. I see newbies getting frustrated even with the less frequent prompting that some of the other firewalls out on the market do. I realyy think that with Kerio they would wind up just saying YES to the frequent prompts poping up.

[Kerodo]

Any software firewall will bother the user with popups, whether it's Kerio or something else, so it's just something the user has to deal with and get used to, else what's the point of having the firewall there at all? Inbound protection is easy, but any outbound has to ask questions. There's no other way..

[enduser999]

-{ Quote: "Any software firewall will bother the user with popups, whether it's Kerio or something else, so it's just something the user has to deal with and get used to, else what's the point of having the firewall there at all? Inbound protection is easy, but any outbound has to ask questions. There's no other way.." }-
I have also used ZoneAlarm and Sygate and I still feel that with these two firewalls if a valid application wants access to the Internet and you tell them to allow and remember your decision then there is no more prompting. I find that Kerio if you do the same you are still prompted even in simple mode, to allow other DLLs etc called by this already allowed application.

[Kerodo]

I don't remember Kerio 4 having any component control in the same sense that ZAP and Sygate have, so I don't think that's the problem. Kerio won't ask about dll's like the others will. All I can think of is that it might be the HIPS feature. You might try turning that off and see if it's better. Could be that a few of your apps are triggering HIPS alerts of some kind. Other than that, I have no idea..

[controler]

Maybe it is only my computer but try this, as a test. First in Applications remove
IE or Firefox or other browser. Make sure you got enable predefined network security chacked. Then try opening IE again. On my system I get no Alert to create rule. Now if you do the same thing only this time do not check predefined network security and you open IE , you WILL again the get popup asking to create a rule. I am not sure this is how the developer intended it to be or a bug.
Note: The first time I got the popup I created a rule to allow. Don't know if that means anything but I could try to not allow on the first opoup and see if anything changes. WIll try later with more time.


con

[controler]

I have now tried it both ways. remove ie, FF ect from apps list.
Then when popup came, I allowed for rule, then went back and removed , then dissallowed for rule.

This has to be a bug!!!!!!!

If you leave predefined enabled, you do NOT get a popup to add the app the next time you open your browser. If you remove the app( in my case browser)
and leave the predefined check box clear, you DO get another alert when you open the app you removed from the list. And here I thought it was a feature LOL