Comparison: Kerio 2.1.5 & Jetico 1

The new post on the Kerio 2.x + SSM combo prompts me to wonder: how do Kerio 2.x and Jetico 1 compare?? I know, I know -- why I don't I just find out myself !! (I can hear some of you now ! )

But I've been spending a lot of time on firewalls this past month+, and I don't know a thing about Kerio 2 (but have used Sunbelt Kerio 4.3, twice, but ditched it finally because of very high resource usage and other issues). I like Jetico very much, and, although I cannot get Jetico 2 to work on my laptop, I am happy to use Jetico 1: it's simple, it seems thorough, it asks me what to do with just about every execution _before_ it is executed. In short, it's my kind of control. I'm even now using SSM for the first time today, and see some overlap, but they don't seem to fight with each other, so that's fine.

My question for those who know both Kerio 2.x and Jetico 1, are they very similar? Or how do they differ, if they do??

Sam Spade

 

OK, let me start it: my guess is that Kerio 2.1.5 is a lot like Jetico 1, but it doesn't have as much process filitering as Jetico has. Am I right? Otherwise, the blissful state being expressed on the other thread over the sublime combo of KPF 2 and SSM would not be so widely acclaimed.

So, if my guess is at least warm, could someone confirm (or deny) my guess?

Thanks in advance !!

 

I have not tried Jetico, but kerio 2.1.5 does not have any HIPS type of program control like Kerio 4 or SSM or PG.
It is very flexible and nice for making network and application TCP/IP packet filtering rules. Every rule can be made to log or alert you with a popup.
It has also md5 application check.
That is basically it.

As an example for you maybe to get some idea:
Because it has no program starting control, you cannot in practice have IE on 'ask' basis. It is either 'Permit' or 'Deny'. For that kind of asking popup prompt a hips like ssm needs to be added.
Everything unknown (that has not a rule) gets of course asked and is denied by default.

If Jetico allows the ruleset to be saved, you could easy try kerio 2.1.5 since in my opinion it uninstalls cleanly, to get a better idea how it works.
It is no leaktest passer without added hips for sure, just a basic light firewall.

Kerio 2.x is not like Jetico in that it gives a lots of popups. Once your ruleset is made, you can surf for days without any single alert unless something new is installed and needs to have a rule made.

 

Jetico offers a lot more protection than kerio 2.1.5 does. Both are very light on resources. Imo jetico is the better of the two however it is a lot more intrusive.

 

Thanks, Jarmo, thanks, FarmerLee. You've both confirmed what I had suspected: that Kerio 2.x is a simpler version of Jetico, that it does not try to involve itself with anything other than packet stream filtering, i.e, data coming into the computer via (some) connection. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you both, again.

Sam

 

Kerio 2.1.5 have certain bugs(mostly locally) and needs more rules than Jetico. It is heavier than Jetico, although not by much
I am not sure if Kerio flags packets at the same low level of Jetico
Kerio is a classic rule-based firewall. Jetico is a more advanced one and incorporates strong leaktest protection

 

Thanks for your feedback, Lucas.


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