Is GeSWall dead?

[omega5475]

I'm having problems with GeSWall "hiding" files from Recycle Bin. Let's say I delete a file from an application which is isolated, it doesn't seem to go into Recycle Bin. After reboot, my Recycle Bin will show there are x items inside but there's actually none.

I emailed their support at least 3 times but never did receive a reply from them. Their last blog post was in July and the forum doesn't seem active as well.

[aigle]

I can,t be sure about their future. My last contact with them was 1 month back and at that time Brian told me that the silence was due to one month vacation there. There forum is quite silent and so is the web site.

I will not be surprized if they disappear. How many people use GW? Software development needs money and without a larage customer base, u can,t get enough money to go on.

Let,s hope that Brian was correct n they will be back on scene soon.

[MaB69]

Hi,

I agree with aigle, i send them 2 mails about the future of GeSWall 3 weeks ago and never received any answer.
Last post made by them in Forum is at least one month old.
Very sad if they have disappeared because GS is a very good product.
Buyed a DefenseWall license to replace GW

MaB

[Franklin]

Your bin may be corrupted.
Crrupted Bin (http://www.setup32.com/tech-tips/windows-nt/disk-and-file-management/fix-recycle-bin.php)
-{ Quote: "Fix that Recycle Bin

The Info file in the Recycler folder sometimes gets corrupted and thus will show an empty Recycle Bin even if there are files in the Recycler folder. Windows will automatically recreate the Info file if it's missing, so the easiest way to repair this is to delete the Info file. Here's how:

1. Start a command prompt or type cmd at the run prompt.
2. Move to the Recycler folder.
3. Enter the following command: attrib -h info*.*
4. Enter this command to delete the file: del info
5. Restart the computer.

If it's actually the Recycler folder that's become corrupted you may need to remove the system and hidden attributes before deleting. To do so, use this command: attrib -h -s c:\recycler." }-

Or you could use an app like Icesword to navigate to the bin and delete the hidden info file within.

Windows will recreate a new one at reboot.

[omega5475]

It's kind of stupid for the entire company to go on a vacation without leaving someone behind for customer support. At least make an announcement about it so people won't keep trying to contact them.

Franklin : My Recycle Bin isn't corrupted. It's just that the files sent to Recycle Bin are somehow "hidden". If I accidentally delete files from an isolated application, I can't recover them since they don't show up in the Recycle Bin. Plus the files are deleted after my computer reboots.

[aigle]

@ omega5475

I just sent an e-mail to Brian. Let,s see if he will reply or not.

BTW I have no such problems with GW. Not sure what,s the reason on ur system.

I will be really unhappy if GW is dead. It,s such a nice software. In that case, I prefer that they sell it to someone rather than just disapearing from the scene. Seems i will have to move on to DW or SBIE.

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "I will be really unhappy if GW is dead. It,s such a nice software. In that case, I prefer that they sell it to someone rather than just disapearing from the scene." }-
Indeed :'( GW is so powerful, light and stable that I will really miss it if it dissapears.

[Kees1958]

Lucas1958, Aigle

I first used GeSWall when it was totally free then I got the Pro version of Brian because I attended him on some bugs. Later on I bought a DefenseWall lisence (and Ilya gave me a four year lisence for tips). I always felt Brain and Ilya were close in repsonse and developing strong programs.

Since a few months it became awfully quiet with GW, while the concept of a policy sandbox is great. I cannot think of a stronger HIPS with so little user configuration as a policy sandbox. When GW goes down I hope that Ilya with his lean and mean one man band operation survives. They both deserve it to earn a decent living for their great programs.

Regards Kees

[aigle]

I started using it about one and a half year back when very few people here were using it. It was the time when zopzop tried it against KillDisk and GW stopped it dead( other sandboxes at that time failed against KilDisk if I remember corectly). I was not expecting GW to be so useful and stable as very few people were using it at that time. There was no pro version and no forums by them at that time. I tried GW with so many security software combinations and did not got any major issues except with few. It happily stayed with most of my combinations. Later I got the free licence for pro verson. I have not tested any software so extensively as GW and Brian accepted many of my suggestions over this time period, some of which are yet to be implemented though. It,s super secure but still light and causes no slow downs. Now if I loose it, it will be really a sad end, atleast for me.

Anyway I know software die now n then. It,s part of game. I will have to move forward in that case. Wait n see until then.

[omega5475]

A product won't sell if the developer don't know how to market it. With poor support like this, customers would think they are being ignored. I didn't buy Pro since I helped out with v2.6's beta testing, so Brian gave me a Pro license that expires in year 2099 : )

I trust GeSWall so much that I've uninstalled my software firewall and only rely on GeSWall and my router's NAT SPI firewall. I'll continue using GeSWall until the time I find it no longer capable of protecting my system.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "I trust GeSWall so much that I've uninstalled my software firewall and only rely on GeSWall and my router's NAT SPI firewall. " }-What,s the relation of GW with Firewall? It,s a totally different category.

[omega5475]

Yea, I know. I don't think there's a need for a software firewall since I've already have a router. All I need is antivirus and sandbox since my router doesn't have filter outbound connections.

A simple but powerful HIPS like GeSWall does the job well by isolating applications and files, so my PC hardly has problems like virus or spyware infections.

[Cerxes]

-{ Quote: "...When GW goes down I hope that Ilya with his lean and mean one man band operation survives. They both deserve it to earn a decent living for their great programs..." }-
Agree, even if I right now have some problems with DW and temporarily uninstalled it waiting for the next build, I never hesitated to buy I license for supporting the work since sandbox HIPS is a very effective way of dealing with most malware problems.

/C.

[zopzop]

man, i hope they don't go out of business. geswall is an excellent program that's light on resource use. if worse comes to worse, i hope comodo or someone buys the geswall source code and does something with it. it's too good a program to let die.

[aigle]

Oh.. nice idea. I think I should suggest this to Comodo people. lol

[zopzop]

-{ Quote: "Oh.. nice idea. I think I should suggest this to Comodo people. lol" }-

i mean it would rock. can you imagine comodo's firewall with geswall in one neat low resource using package? :o :thumb:

[aigle]

Yes, it might be really nice!

I wonder if it,s dying why no one tried to buy it.

[zopzop]

-{ Quote: "Yes, it might be really nice!

I wonder if it,s dying why no one tried to buy it." }-

good question aigle (hopefully it's not dying and they are just taking their time on the new release). if you think about it, comodo purchased boclean for an unknown sum of money (at least i don't know how much they purchased it for) and they can easily do the same to geswall. i don't think geswall is as big as boclean was in terms of userbase so i don't think comodo would have to break the bank in purchasing it.

in an odd sort of way this would be a big plus for comodo. many users find v3 of their firewall confusing (me included). by purchasing geswall comodo could offer 2 versions of their firewall one with HIPS (for advanced users) and one with geswall (for novices like me). it would be win-win for comodo. since geswall requires very little in ways of updates (except to fix serious flaws).

[Pedro]

Hello zopzop, :)
Comodo needs a better GUI i think, maybe that's why you didn't notice it already offers a GeSWall' like functionality ;D . It's a D+ predefined security policy ('isolated application' i think).

Anyway, on topic, i think this is one more of those "is X dead?" occasional events. I bet he's just busy working.

[zopzop]

-{ Quote: "Hello zopzop, :)
Comodo needs a better GUI i think, maybe that's why you didn't notice it already offers a GeSWall' like functionality ;D . It's a D+ predefined security policy ('isolated application' i think)." }-

oh i've tried that function and it does not work right at all. some programs like limewire fail to load while others like windows media player can't even read my mp3 files (WMP gives me some error message). i don't know what the point of the isolated application option is, it's never worked for me. i don't put any stock in it, i just use geswall to run the program isolated.

-{ Quote: "Anyway, on topic, i think this is one more of those "is X dead?" occasional events. I bet he's just busy working." }-

i'm hoping against hope that this is so.

[omega5475]

I tried Comodo's products (BOClean, CPF) but wasn't too happy about them. First CPFv2 crawled my system to a halt and BOClean just completely prevented me from entering Windows (keeps killing svchost which results a BSOD). Maybe that was still in the early testing stage, but I don't have much good impression on Comodo since then.

I would prefer Microsoft to be the one acquire GeSWall. Since it's already using Microsoft Management Console as a core, it shouldn't be hard for Microsoft to add GeSWall's HIPS as addon in the latest service pack. But let's just wait for a while before deciding Gentle Security is dead.

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: "oh i've tried that function and it does not work right at all. some programs like limewire fail to load while others like windows media player can't even read my mp3 files (WMP gives me some error message). i don't know what the point of the isolated application option is, it's never worked for me. i don't put any stock in it, i just use geswall to run the program isolated." }-
I didn't think of that. Of course, GeSWall has predefined policies for individual programs. Perhaps in time Comodo can build those, or folks contribute with their app specific rules/policies.
This doesn't substitute GeSWall of course, GeSWall has value on its own, as a sandbox and nothing else, for those who want just that, a powerful and easy to use sandbox, and stable (DW also).

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Hello zopzop, :)
Comodo needs a better GUI i think, maybe that's why you didn't notice it already offers a GeSWall' like functionality ;D . It's a D+ predefined security policy ('isolated application' i think).
" }-
I have seen it long ago even when it was not working at all but the thing is that GW is install and forget. No config needed n very few popups. Also GW has registry virtualization that gives additional usability without breech of security. I think there is no virtualization in CFP.

[Pedro]

I don't think so either.
You forgot, another GeSWall plus: you shouldn't need to configure anything, but if you want, you can (protect folders, edit rules).
Very cool application.

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "You forgot, another GeSWall plus: you shouldn't need to configure anything, but if you want, you can (protect folders, edit rules).
Very cool application." }-
That's why I love GW so much and I'm not passionate about software.
Let's hope that Brian is busy with 2.7. 2.6 works very well and hasn't been breached.

[aigle]

I am using 2.7 beta, it has some issues that are to be fixed. If they stopped GW development, I will revert back to 2.6 and can use it on XP until i change my OS. GW 2.6 has enough protection in anyway.

[aigle]

Hi, good news. Brian replied my mail I sent to him few days back. They are certainly not dead. They are still working on a stable 2.7 release and there is something more going on as well that he did not disclose. Let,s wait n see.

It,s relieving to know GW is surving.:)

[Davidpr]

-{ Quote: "Hi, good news. Brian replied my mail I sent to him few days back. They are certainly not dead. They are still working on a stable 2.7 release and there is something more going on as well that he did not disclose. Let,s wait n see.

It,s relieving to know GW is surving.:)" }-

Very good news.

[MaB69]

-{ Quote: "Hi, good news. Brian replied my mail I sent to him few days back. They are certainly not dead. They are still working on a stable 2.7 release and there is something more going on as well that he did not disclose. Let,s wait n see.

It,s relieving to know GW is surving.:)" }-

Very good news
Thanks Aigle for sharing

MaB

[omega5475]

If they are not dead, the least they could do is give users a reply or something ::)

[Pedro]

That depends. Are you a paid customer?

[omega5475]

No, I'm not. But I don't believe they mentioned anything about ONLY supporting paid customers.

[Pedro]

They are busy working. They see a need to prioritize. Paying customers are a priority, to provide proper support, the others will get a reply when they can ;)

That' how i'd to it anyway. Otherwise no work would be done.

[zopzop]

-{ Quote: "Hi, good news. Brian replied my mail I sent to him few days back. They are certainly not dead. They are still working on a stable 2.7 release " }-


woot!:thumb: this is the best news i've heard in the last 6 months :D

[LoneWolf]

-{ Quote: "Hi, good news. Brian replied my mail I sent to him few days back. They are certainly not dead. They are still working on a stable 2.7 release and there is something more going on as well that he did not disclose. Let,s wait n see.

It,s relieving to know GW is surving.:)" }-


Great news. :thumb:

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "woot!:thumb: this is the best news i've heard in the last 6 months :D" }-ha, ha,... I am really too happy. Seems I just got a bit of affiliation with GW.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "If they are not dead, the least they could do is give users a reply or something ::)" }-
I am not sure but may be some major cahnge is going on.

Really I suspect they might be going to launch some other product(s)! Not sure. He has not given me a hint but i suspect this as to survive they need more applications rather than just a sandbox. Just my guess. Let,s wait n see!

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "No, I'm not. But I don't believe they mentioned anything about ONLY supporting paid customers." }-
Did u post ur problem in their forums by the way?

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "Seems I just got a bit of affiliation with GW." }-
We all are engaged with this proven and light performer and don't forget the console for the tweaker inside us 8)

[omega5475]

-{ Quote: "They are busy working. They see a need to prioritize. Paying customers are a priority, to provide proper support, the others will get a reply when they can ;)

That' how i'd to it anyway. Otherwise no work would be done." }-
I understand paid customers should be given priority. GentleSecurity however has only one online technical support (gswsupport@gentlesecurity.com), which means they don't differentiate between paid and free users. So your theory doesn't seem to apply here.

-{ Quote: "Did u post ur problem in their forums by the way?" }-
No, since the forum seems dead to me. I also noticed that the thread you created in their forum is now gone, did you remove it?

[aigle]

I did not. I noticed that it has been deleted few hours ago and I really felt bad. I tried to PM the Mod but PMs are disabled.

Very fishy!

[omega5475]

It's just a thread asking whether GeSWall is still in active development, I see no reason to remove it. Maybe they are afraid of the public getting the idea that GeSWall might be discontinued or being sold to another company.

The act of disabling PM is like telling everyone that they don't have time and energy to manage their forums.

[aigle]

Time will make every thing clear. I agree that their behavior is not justified at all. May be they are being taken over.

[omega5475]

Saying that GeSWall is still in development doesn't mean it isn't being sold. Can you post the email you received from Brian here? I'm sure people would be curious about what he wrote.

[aigle]

It,s against forum policy. It was just a few lines e-mail infact.

[omega5475]

nvm, I'll send an email directly to Brian then.

Just hope our fears don't come true.:-\

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "nvm, I'll send an email directly to Brian then.

Just hope our fears don't come true.:-\" }-

Do heed what Aigle said. Posting any part of an E-mail you receive will be pulled.

Thanks, Pete

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: "I understand paid customers should be given priority. GentleSecurity however has only one online technical support (gswsupport@gentlesecurity.com), which means they don't differentiate between paid and free users. So your theory doesn't seem to apply here.
" }-
It means the address is the same.

[Victek123]

Question about GeSWall 2.6; I use a few browsers that store Favorites online and when I used GeSWall to isolate them they could not logon and retrieve Favorites. Is there a way to configure GeSWall to allow this?

[aigle]

I can,t tell you how but I believe there must be a way to add rules for these browsers. You might have to wait for their forums to be re-activated. I don,t use such a feature so can,t tel how!

[MaB69]

-{ Quote: "Question about GeSWall 2.6; I use a few browsers that store Favorites online and when I used GeSWall to isolate them they could not logon and retrieve Favorites. Is there a way to configure GeSWall to allow this?" }-

Hi,

If you use Pro version you can use wizard to generate the right rules to let you use your favorites

MaB

[aigle]

Ya, u can install a trial of Pro version, run the wizard ans see if it is able to create proper rules.

[dja2k]

Just noticed on a friends computer that geswall 2.6 has a license that expires in 12-12-07, a few days from now. Hope 2.7 is released soon.

dja2k

[omega5475]

One week has passed and still no reply from Brian. I'm thinking that aigle might be one of his favorites, which is why he replied the email :P

[aigle]

No, it,s not like this but it,s a fact that i have extensilvely tseted GW since more than a year and sent a lot of bug reports, suggestions etc.

BTW i did get another mail from him.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1132285&postcount=85

[LUSHER]

-{ Quote: "No, it,s not like this but it,s a fact that i have extensilvely tseted GW since more than a year and sent a lot of bug reports, suggestions etc.
" }-

Long winded way of agreeing that you are one of his favourites... lol.

That is why I'm always wary of people who have established relationships with vendors (beta-testers, members of the team, moderators of product boards, people who have in the past proved helpful with comments etc), they always talk about how quick the vendors respond to them and use that as evidence that support will be quick for everyone....

For obvious reasons, vendors tend to be quicker off the mark responding to people like that.......

[omega5475]

It's very bad for their reputation if they keep ignoring users like that. Maybe aigle can pass the word to Brian?

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Long winded way of agreeing that you are one of his favourites... lol.

That is why I'm always wary of people who have established relationships with vendors (beta-testers, members of the team, moderators of product boards, people who have in the past proved helpful with comments etc), they always talk about how quick the vendors respond to them and use that as evidence that support will be quick for everyone....

For obvious reasons, vendors tend to be quicker off the mark responding to people like that......." }-Actuallt I even don,t know him and obviously they don,t know me excpet for e-mail exchange between us.

As far as support is concerned I have never said that support will be very good. It was ofcourse good for me. Responding quickly to persons/ users who have a long time e-mail exchange is very natural.

Infact if I remember well I was also one of them who raised the suspision publically about possible end of GW here on wilders( in some of my posts). I even posted a thread about this on their forums but it aws deleted. I tried to PM the Mod but PMs were disbaled.

Anyway I am still doubtful about their future. Comapnies may not remain so silent even if they are undergoing major changes. Only time will tell the truth.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "It's very bad for their reputation if they keep ignoring users like that. Maybe aigle can pass the word to Brian?" }-
I agree and and will see if I can convey to him but I think they must be knowing it already.

Actually I am also not getting all my mail replied. Some are being replied, some not and the replies are also not detailed like in the past.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Just noticed on a friends computer that geswall 2.6 has a license that expires in 12-12-07, a few days from now. Hope 2.7 is released soon.

dja2k" }-
I brought this to the notice of Brian and he has sent the following link to me.

http://www.gentlesecurity.com/blog/index.php?title=expanded_license

-{ Quote: "It's very bad for their reputation if they keep ignoring users like that. Maybe aigle can pass the word to Brian?" }-
I did post it to Brian but unfortunately no comments by him about this!

[omega5475]

-{ Quote: "I brought this to the notice of Brian and he has sent the following link to me.

http://www.gentlesecurity.com/blog/index.php?title=expanded_license" }-
Great news, aigle! :thumb:

At least this shows that GeSWall is still under development. Can't wait for January to come though ^^

-{ Quote: "I did post it to Brian but unfortunately no comments by him about this!" }-
Probably just me but I feel that they are avoiding this topic on purpose.

[aigle]

At last they responded a bit.

http://gentlesecurity.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=252&highlight=

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "I brought this to the notice of Brian and he has sent the following link to me.

http://www.gentlesecurity.com/blog/index.php?title=expanded_license
" }-

Just a little update:

The installation packages with expanded license are available for
download now:

http://www.gentlesecurity.com/download.html

Normally, upgrade should be sufficient to fix license issue.

[dja2k]

Thanks aigle, I noticed them and already downloaded one that includes the expanded license which I think will expire now until June.

dja2k

[smith2006]

There will be a Release Candidate one week before the official V2.70. ;D

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "There will be a Release Candidate one week before the official V2.70. ;D" }-
When? What,s ur source?

Thanks

[smith2006]

-{ Quote: "When? What,s ur source?

Thanks" }-

Not sure when will it be.

My source - Brian, reply via email.

[aigle]

Thanks!