Help! 1st rule based firewall, pop-ups and rules killing me!

[brjoon1021]

I just installed filseclab. I read good things here about it. I will eventually try Netveda and Jetico. I thought that Jetico would be hard and that filseclab would be easy so I went with it first.

Anyway, I use 3 browsers: Avant (renamed "iexplore.exe"), Opera and Firefox. I have 11 pages set to load on startup. Same pages on all 3 browsers. I have a fast computer and a fast internet via cable so no problem.

I am posting because there must be 30 pop-ups from filseclab. It took 4 or 5 inputs from me just to enter this post.

I guess I have been baptized by fire into the world of rule-based firewalls. What rule(s) do you guys write for browsers to avoid all of the pop-ups?

There are probably other questions that you might anticipate that I will want to ask soon. Answer those too if you would. I would like the extra security of a rule-based firewall but this is not fun. My mouse is going to wear out from "grant this connection".

Thanks,
B.

[Kerodo]

Sounds very weird to me.. There should basically just be one popup for each browser you run there. Don't know why you would be bombarded by more. Unless you're running some other software that's affecting things, like proxy software or something else? Or could it be that you're not in the General mode and have activated some Advanced mode where it questions you for every remote port you use and IP and so on? (I have forgotten the specifics on the Filseclab options)...

By the way, I would avoid Jetico. Filseclab is a lot easier than Jetico in my opinion...

[CrazyM]

-{ Quote: "I am posting because there must be 30 pop-ups from filseclab. It took 4 or 5 inputs from me just to enter this post." }-
What are the pop-ups for, the browsers themselves or something else like DNS?

Regards,

CrazyM

[Notok]

Did you turn the slider up to "High"?

[Arup]

Set the mode to General and not advanced, make sure your slider is at medium.

[brjoon1021]

thanks guys. I was answering your post when I had my 3rd crash since installing the firewall. I uninstalled it. It was set to medium.

I was going to show you what it was asking for. I recall that it named the application (browser), ip it was going out to and said that it wanted to connect via a port number and I could ok, deny, make rule and all of that. There were way too many of those pop-ups. Moreover, I can not tolerate my computer crashing. ZA6 home crashed my otherwise stable laptop repeatedly a couple of weeks ago, and Filseclab crashed my otherwise stable desktop 3 times today.

What is it with firewalls? Are they that hard to write? My computers are both Memtest 86+ and Prime95 for hours and hours, stable. But load a 3rd party firewall onto them and all hell breaks open and swallows my computer(s).

I plan on trying Jetico and Netveda now (probably stupid move). Anyway, are they going to prompt me for every ip and port like Filseclab? If so, how does one make a rule for a browser so that it is not so damned needy. I had no problem with my A/V software, windows media player, etc... it was the browsers that were driving me nuts.

Thanks, B.

[Kerodo]

I would be careful of Jetico. If you get stuck in the infinite reboot loop, you're hosed. Good idea to have a backup of your HD before installing it.

Jetico will drive you crazy with popups as well, probably more so than Filseclab. Takes a lot of tweaking to configure it. In Jetico, you can use tables to set up ports and rules for your browser(s). Handy..

If you can't find a good working firewall, you might be best off just buying a good cheap router and leave it at that. ;)

[brjoon1021]

Actually, I have a good cheap router, D-Link DI-604 and have been hiding behind it and the XP sp2 firewall.

I use Avant and have antispyware live and on-demand coverage. I just have not had any outbound packet or application control, that is why I decided to try a 3rd party firewall.

B.

[Kerodo]

I recently installed the router myself and have been debating whether I need any firewall for outbound anymore. Finally decided to just install Antihook, figuring it will alert me to anything wrong going on. For me, it's either that, or nothing at all (except for my Avast AV).

[Notok]

Did you remember to turn off the XP firewall before installing any 3rd party firewals? That in itself could potentially cause problems. My next guess would be that you may have a driver left over from another that you previously uninstalled.

[brjoon1021]

Filseclab turns it off automatically, I believe.

I have only ever had the Filseclab firewall on this computer. This was my second install of it. The first install (same day) I could not live with all of the pop-ups: it seemed to be asking me if it was ok to access every picture of every web page. Also, I had selected to install the Filseclab messenger which is a pop-up windows for updates, connection speed and things like that. Because of the pop-ups and not knowing how to uninstall the filseclab messenger, I did a complete uninstall, went through the registry after the uninstall.

I re-installed filseclab without the messenger this time. The crashes started. I can't imagine that the driver from the previous install could be a problem. When I uninstalled the second install, I noticed that the windows native firewall was on, but maybe filseclab turns it back on after uninstallation (it turned it off, or was supposed to, upon install).

Anyway, I am at a loss. I do not know why I was getting crashes. I have not read about anyone else getting crashes with this firewall. I did not even post in the first place about crashing, I just wanted and still want to know how to get a firewall like this one or Jetico to behave. Do you say "accept connection and make rule" every time you are ok with the cryptic pop-up message? I was getting several per page. Of course a web page like Yahoo, MSN, BBC, PBS has new images during the day. It seemed to me that I was being prompted for every picture. Then, there was double-click advertising, that just kept trying with a new port # over and over and over again until it exhaused the ports available.

Any ideas on why my experience sucked so badly from start to finish?

[brjoon1021]

I actually tried it again. I must say that I truly despise this firewall. It has stopped running in the system tray each time that I have installed it.

In other words, I cannot shut it down, can not make a rule or anything. If I try to start it from program list or a shortcut, it tells me that it is running.

Why do people like this thing? I am going to uninstall and delete it if I can get it to shut off on reboot. I am not impressed.

[Kerodo]

When something doesn't work for you to that extent then it's probably best to try something else. It is amazing how something will work for one and not for another. Happens all the time though.

I might suggest (if you like rule based firewalls) the old standard, Kerio 2.1.5.

[----]

-{ Quote: "When something doesn't work for you to that extent then it's probably best to try something else. It is amazing how something will work for one and not for another. Happens all the time though.

I might suggest (if you like rule based firewalls) the old standard, Kerio 2.1.5." }-

Personally, I'm thinking good old ZA should be the choice, given that the poster doesn't like or cannot handle popups. Or as already mentioned, just rely on the router.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "Personally, I'm thinking good old ZA should be the choice, given that the poster doesn't like or cannot handle popups. Or as already mentioned, just rely on the router." }-
After reading this thread, I would have recommended ZA too.

What's the point of having a rule-based firewall, if you can't handle it.
I use ZA too, because I have neither the time, nor the interest to learn how a rule-based firewall works and ZA is a decent application-based firewall, which are always easier to understand.

[brjoon1021]

Oops.

I had a similar crash since uninstalling Filseclab. Maybe my Avast or Avast and filseclab was the problem. I do not know. So I can not blame crashes on it , for the record.

However, it did stop responding routinely and could not be accessed

[Kerodo]

Well, I have used Avast with Filseclab successfully on my machine without any problems, other than the slighly high cpu usage of the current Filseclab release. And I know at least one other person who has done the same without problems. But in the final analysis, you need to find out what combo of products will run successfully on your machine. That's all that matters..

[rawr]

It must be something else because Filseclab's Firewall works greats for me and has been for a couple months now. As to the annoying pop-ups from Filseclab's..yes, it does receive quite a few since I have the firewall set to 'High' .. but I just turned off the notifications since I felt like I don't really need to know when something was blocked..