Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.58 Connection Troubles

[nameless]

I have been running the 1.0.1.58 copy of the Jetico Personal Firewall driver BCFTDI.SYS since before 1.0.1.58 was actually released (I was testing it for Jetico). I've since installed the full copy of JPF 1.0.1.58.

Since running this driver, I've been having occasional socket errors in all sorts of applications. My email client sometimes--randomly--fails to connect; Opera reports "Connection closed by remote server" rather frequently, and so on.

Usually, retrying these connections over and over makes them work. Switching JPF from "Optimal protection" to "Allow all" mode always works, instantly.

I have already written to Jetico about this, but it's one of those issues that is tough to explain, and tough to reproduce on demand. If anyone here is having the same sorts of problems, while running JPF 1.0.1.58+, consider this a heads-up, and a request to notify Jetico (support@jetico.com) as well.

Also, I want to sincerely apologize to Eset, and to Mark in particular, for incorrectly reporting this as a bug in the NOD32 2.5 beta's IMON component. Not my shining moment, to be sure... I'm really sorry.

[shek]

there are some discussion about the loss connection problem in this thread (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=71545&page=1&pp=25&highlight=jetico) . hope this help.

[nameless]

The issues discussed there seem to bear no relevance--totally different issues. But thanks. I did a quick scan for related JPF issues, and didn't see anything; I hope I didn't overlook one.

[Arup]

I have a bit drastic solution, reinstall but before doing so, wipe out every trace of old Jetico drivers in your system by going to device manager>show hidden devices, Jetico drivers are listed as BC_packet etc.

Every install of Jetico has worked on my system and the only reason I am not currently running it is due to its issue with ICS where SPI as to be disabled on the host machine for TCP/UDP.

[zfactor]

had lots of similar issues with jetico found no answers and got little help from them reg these. i finally uninstalled and said forget it. just like netveda not the same problems but too many problems. this is a firewall....maybe on one of my test systems but on my main one i woln't beta test a firewall for anyone. have always had to many issues and jetico is still working bugs out all the time. wish i could help but i got nowhere with similar issues myself. using outpost now just upgraded to 2.6 and i love it. 2.5 did have a few bsod but they were fixed going into safe mode. so far 2.6 very stable.

arup i tried this with no luck. searched high and low for any traces of jetico. finally did a format reinstalled jetico right off the bat worked great for about a week then trouble all over again. sorry i really liked it but too buggy

[nameless]

I have a lifetime Outpost Pro license, but I only bought it because of the limited-time opportunity; the current firewall has too many issues for me.

I know what you mean though... Before settling on JPF, I ran without a firewall for a long time. I got incredibly--and I mean incredibly--sick and tired of dealing with the bugs and problems.

But JPF has been very well-behaved for me, generally speaking, until I started testing this BCFTDI.SYS driver. I think we're talking about totally different issues. So why not switch back to an older driver? I will probably do that. But the whole reason I ran the new driver in the first place was to correct another problem... Which really wasn't that serious, just annoying. But not as annoying as connection problems.

I've shut it down completely now. Maybe I'll worry about it again in a few days or weeks. For the time being, I'm sick of it all over again.

[zfactor]

i would love a lifetime outpost license???????? where was this at i never saw this one. i did recently try again on jetico within the last few weeks. runs great then all of a sudden bam all kinds of trouble. i could usually fix it in safe mode but then would just go nuts all over again. outpost 2.6 has no issues at all so far. i know its new but solid as a rock so far. ive thrown everything i could at it to make it crash out on me and it ran through every test with flying colors. i to feel outpost has a little to much but the nice thing is just disable the plugins you dont want and your good. my outpost now uses only 6-8 mb of ram normally. which i feel is awsome for such a robust program. ill give jetico a try again soon on my test machine and see how it does.

[nameless]

Expired, but still there to see:
http://www.agnitum.com/christmas.html

I wasn't referring to crashes with Outpost Pro, but rather annoyances and shortcomings... I am too tired, and it has been too long since I ran it, to elaborate. ;)

[Arup]

Zfactor,

Fully aggree with you, Jetico needs to do a good weed cleaning before it becomes a legit app, on my main machine, I use Sygate, one of the best, most stable and complete firewalls and it is free, unless one of running proxy, this is truly a good product to consider among others.

[nameless]

I could list issues with Sygate, too. Such as the one that has been a problem for years, and prevents secondary hard drives from entering sleep mode. (I know, "What are you talking about? I don't have that problem!" ... To which the answer is same with me, you, and JPF. Anyway, I was going to point to links in the Sygate forum, but I can't access it right now. Don't care anyway.)

Way OT here...

[Arup]

I am aware of that problem with Sygate but I have two SCSI drives and have never suffered that problem, in fact never had any hibernate problems with either Kerio 2.15 or Sygate, overall in terms of protection, Sygate is very good. Never had a BSOD with it, Kerio 2.15 was pretty stable too till I installed Treewalk DNS, then it became reboot hell with it.

By the way, Sygate forum is down for now.

[nameless]

That was a deal-breaker for me where Sygate was concerned... I wish I could afford a pair of SCSI drives... But I don't need a firewall very badly; I say to hell with them all for now!

[Kerodo]

If you like rules, and can't find any satisfaction with JPF, you might take a look at CHX-I. It's one great firewall, ultra-low on resources. No app control, but you can use ZA just for app filtering if you need it. Or LnS also. I'm using the CHX-I/ZA combination now and liking it. Just a thought... ;)

[Arup]

nameless,

After the introduction of SATA, many offices panicked and sold of their 15K SCSI drivers cheaply, I already have SCSI built into both my motherboards so decided to take advantage of that and bought them real cheap.

[djg05]

Is this firewall just freeware whilst in beta and if so does anyone know the projected price?

[nameless]

JPF is technically out of beta--this according to Jetico's own designation. I've asked about its future freeware status, and never got a truly direct answer about that. However, I'm pretty sure they're going to begin charging at some point. I'm also pretty sure that people who provide consistent, helpful feedback will get a free license.

BTW, this would have made a great new thread. ;)

[djg05]

Thought that it would be worth giving it a go but nada. Nothing can connect under optimal conditions. All the pop ups were allowed. Did work on allow all but no point in that. Wasted a couple of hours on it and gave up.

[nameless]

I reverted to the 1.0.1.57 BCFTDI.SYS driver, yet I am still getting socket errors.

I've had all I can take. I finally uninstalled Jetico Personal Firewall. I say it all the time--security software that causes system issues has failed!

[djg05]

I have read elsewhere that there is a known conflict with Avast which they are working on. This might explain why I had problems with it.

[Arup]

Funny, I have been running Jetico+Avast since version 1.4x and faced no troubles and the only reason I stopped using Jetico is due to the immense amount of pop ups making surfing a royal pain. In case of problems with Avast, the webshield component can be turned off temporarily.

[Diver]

-{ Quote: "Funny, I have been running Jetico+Avast since version 1.4x and faced no troubles and the only reason I stopped using Jetico is due to the immense amount of pop ups making surfing a royal pain. In case of problems with Avast, the webshield component can be turned off temporarily." }-


Same reason why I stopped using Jetico.

[nameless]

After you have it all configured--which is in itself a giant pain in the ass--it's still a pain to keep it configured. Not nearly as bad as the initial configuration, but still pretty ridiculous. The main reason for this is the confounding design by which changed applications present themselves as new alerts, rather than "This application changed, would you like to authorize the change and get on with your damned life?"

[Diver]

Your damned life?

I sincerely hope things are not that bad.

[nameless]

And did you really miss the fact that I meant it merely as a term of emphasis?

[Ren1]

-{ Quote: "Funny, I have been running Jetico+Avast since version 1.4x and faced no troubles and the only reason I stopped using Jetico is due to the immense amount of pop ups making surfing a royal pain. In case of problems with Avast, the webshield component can be turned off temporarily." }-

Same here

Now tying outpost, great firewall but had BSOD a cople of times if it happens again ill give up on that too.

[zfactor]

the pop up issues in jetico are just unreal. i have never been asked by any program for as much as jetico. probably every firewall i have ever tested combined hasn't asked me for as much as jetico. this besides many bugs and problems made me not look back.

[nameless]

-{ Quote: "Now tying outpost, great firewall but had BSOD a cople of times if it happens again ill give up on that too." }-To me, personal firewall software is by far the most problematic software around. I've tried just about every one available, and hated things about them all. Just as a door lock that keeps you from entering your own house has failed, or a safety device that makes your car crash has failed, so has security software that kills your connection, or makes your system crash. It's ludicrous.

I've never suffered at the hands of malware, but I've spent hours and hours and hours dealing with utter, intolerable nonsense and incredible frustration caused by software that was billed as the solver of my problems.

What a joke. And people wonder why I question it.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "After you have it all configured--which is in itself a giant pain in the ass--it's still a pain to keep it configured. Not nearly as bad as the initial configuration, but still pretty ridiculous. The main reason for this is the confounding design by which changed applications present themselves as new alerts, rather than "This application changed, would you like to authorize the change and get on with your damned life?"" }-
The solution to the changed app situation is very simple and Jetico should have incorporated this ages ago like very other firewall. All they need to do is ask if it's ok since it changed, and then update the hash value in the app rule. Why they didn't do it this way is beyond me. I've mentioned it to them a few times and they promise it's on their to-do list, but I have yet to see it appear in a new release. Maybe some day...

[Diver]

-{ Quote: "And did you really miss the fact that I meant it merely as a term of emphasis?" }-

No, but I could not resist the urge...

[nameless]

-{ Quote: "The solution to the changed app situation is very simple and Jetico should have incorporated this ages ago like very other firewall. All they need to do is ask if it's ok since it changed, and then update the hash value in the app rule. Why they didn't do it this way is beyond me. I've mentioned it to them a few times and they promise it's on their to-do list, but I have yet to see it appear in a new release. Maybe some day..." }-Exactly. I wish I had a dollar for every time that wasted my time. I'd either install an update to an application, and then have to remember to go into JPF, find the rule(s) (and very often, there were several applicable rules), double click each one, put the cursor on the path to the EXE, and click OK twice (yes, twice). Or, I'd forget to do that (or miss something), then I'd get an alert, and then I'd have to go in and not only update all the old rules, but clean up the new, useless one(s). What a waste of time.

[Diver]

The way to deal with the changed application problem in Jetico is to set up tables for nearly everything. When the app changes all you have to do is one new rule that calls the table.

A table that allows an app to connect out only to port 80 will do the trick for a lot of apps that update signature files or check cddb.

However, they should fix that, but probably will not until it goes commercial.

[nameless]

I know, I know... And I had as many tables defined in JPF as I could stand to. But the problem remains! Update an EXE, deal with rules. And a lot of the time, when I'd install an update, it would alter multiple EXEs, which exponentially increased my pain-in-the-ass factor.

[Arup]

Funny, Sygate and Kerio handles the changed DLL and exe issue quite well without managing to be obrusive like Jetico. Maybe Jetico needs to look into that angle.

[Kerodo]

As far as I know, Jetico is the only one that doesn't handle a changed program properly. It's a little ridiculous actually.. creating a new rule for a changed program just means more cleanup later. A real hassle... They need to fix it.