Anyone try Blink® Personal Edition?

I've never seen or heard of this program before but it looks promising. The freeware version (Blink Neighborhood Watch), offers the following : application/system firewall, identity theft protection, protocol based intrusion prevention, and application/execution/registry protection.

It can be found here :
http://www.eeye.com/html/products/blink/neighborhoodwatch/index.html

Any opinions?

edit : fixed my link

 

I had it on my computer, and still have it saved on another drive. I liked it but didn't really put in the time I should have to learn it. Lazy is my middle name.

I noticed no slowdown with a Gig of RAM, but it does suck some resources.

No problem with reliability here. It ran well, and I guess did the job it was supposed to. I'm a very safe surfer, so never really tested it in the time I had it on my machine.

The company making it is pretty well known. I know MS is (was) mad at them for releasing info on security holes in both XP and Vista, which tells me they can't be too bad.

 

Hi

I tried a couple of downloads a couple of months ago but each time I tried to install it seemed the d/load was corrupted.

As Chuck57 says, their reputation seems solid.

I'm hoping to get more of a 'test/play' machine in due course and will certainly give it a whirl at that time.

 

I tried it, but gave up configurating when it did not came good out of this review. http://www.techsupportalert.com/security_HIPS.htm

I should put my effort in CoreForce, when I were you

 

Ah, Coreforce. Really appealling no? But it seems to take a lot of work configuring... Other than that, mmmm what a toy to play with

 

@Kees1958

hmm those tests are not encouraging, but then again the same guy ran some tests on geswall and indicated that it failed when in reality it passed (he didn't understand how geswall works). but since blink isn't a sandbox/virtualization app like geswall, those tests may indeed be valid. i would hope eEye would look into it.

as much as i love coreforce, it hasn't been updated in months no?

 

Without taking this thread too much (sorry), Coreforce doesn't seem to need that much updating. It's one of those programs where it's up to you to set it.

 

Norman antivirus engine to be used by eEye Digital Security

http://www.norman.com/News/Press_releases/42302/en

 

no slowdowns here. i only have 512mb ram.

but i have a problem. it can't restart the service after install. maybe a conflict in my other security software because i created another snapshot by fd-isr, install blink, and it works.

i like the concept of blink, like prevx, a behaviour based HIPS.

 

I installed Neighborhood Watch the other night and checked it out. I liked it, but hopefully someone else can give a more detailed description of it here, and more about what all it covers ect... I will comment on a few things though. It installed, and uninstalled without needing to reboot, and with no problems. The installation takes a little bit longer than other programs to run itself and complete, but nothing too lengthy. After install it asks for some personal info like name, phone number, city , state, and even address. I put "none" in a few of them and it worked. It also had some pop ups early on to allow or deny a few programs for internet access, and if you didn't make a decision it would go to default. It was easy to read these alerts and what they were, and I hit allowed for all of them. I had to use ADD/REMOVE Programs to uninstall it as it has no uninstall of it's own. And after I did it took me to their website to complete a survey if I wanted too, but didn't. It left a program folder and a couple of registry items behind, but they all deleted with no problem. As far as the short time it was installed, it seemed fine. It did use a lot of memory though with I think 4 processes running at over 50MB total. The Interface was clean looking with different sections you had to click on to get to a particular feature. Firewall, HIPS, ect... Once there, it listed things that had to do with that particular feature, and again you had to click on one to get to it. For example with the Firewall it was to see what programs had been allowed, or the Logs and so on. It just seemed a little cut up for my tastes, but understanding it wasn't too hard. I just don't knowhow good it's detection really is. This version excludes the AV.

 

Blink is more an end point IDS system used in companies which is made available to home users through a scaled down version. The free version does not include the Norman AV.

It filters network packets in more or less the same way like some antivirus programs (Norman) use sniplets (parts of programmaing code) to recognise malware. When a packet looks like malware it is dropped, so it will never enter your system. So it is a firewall/application wall with IDS.

CoreForce is a sandbox + datawall + firewall + application wall and is in my opinion a more promising product. I am coloured by own preferences (currently having a sandbox=DefenseWall, applicationwall=SSM-free, datawall=SensiveGuard and FireWall=SensiveGuard + Router).

Comodo is also making a move to this direction from Firewall to processmonitor to HIPS. When Comodo starts to prevent processes from being changed (in stead of denying outbound traffic after the change) it will have HIPS capacities in its application wall. ProSecurity, SSM, DSA are processmonitors which also provide basic(outbound) traffic protection, because you have to allow a program to initiate outbound traffic.

Regards

 

I wonder how good Blink truly is for protection against malware? Excluding the Gizmo's test as it has been criticized, this is still unsure. Is Blink better than Cyberhawk in real life circumstances? Is it better than any of the Third Party Firewalls? The Neighborhood Watch version without the AV that I tried seemed like a nice free software to use for protection, unfortunately it seems no one knows how good it truly is. The norman AV it uses has been rated however, so we know that much.

 

Well I did it. I installed Blink Neighbor Watch, and although it's only been a short time I like it. I am however hoping that someone here in the forum with more knowledge than I have will install it and let me know what they think about it. No slow downs at least not yet, and after initial allow deny pop ups running well. Thanks to anyone who tries it. If I can just find out how good it is, I may keep it for awhile.

 

That was partly my trouble, too. Besides being lazy, I didn't know what I was doing, and don't recall whether Blink came with preconfigured rules.

I liked it, but didn't take the time and don't have the knowledge to really secure it, so couldn't be sure the few things I did really set it up right. I still have it, and if someone who knows what they're doing can play with it and see if it really works, I'd probably reinstall it.

 

Hey Chuck57. First let me say I'm starting to like the GUI more. It reminds you of how the Control Panel looks in Windows XP. There are pre-configured rules for the System Firewall, but the Application Firewall is done like every Firewall I've ever used. Allow and Deny pop ups for what ever programs use the internet. The Intrusion Prevention Rules are also already in place with Analyzer Rules and Signature Rules. You can click on each one to tell you what it is. I think this is neat, and everything I mentioned so far is fairly easy. When you get to the Registry and Execution Protection however, is when it could get very hairy for a novice, and I'm not attempting this. There's also an Identity Theft section, and an Options Section where you can make some changes. Plus a Logs section to view any logs made by the various protection I mentioned. There's also a little round green eye with a black pupil that sits in the System Tray that you can click on to view the GUI, and of course to let you know it's running. So far this is a really neat program, but I get the feeling on my 512MB of RAM PC it could eventually slow it down. I'll know when I use Word Perfect and Media Player together tomorrow if this is true. It is currently running in Task Manager at a total of 54MB with 4 processes. My AVG ISS ran around the same with the FW and AS Component installed, but I doubt it's protection would be as good as this. Of course that's the kicker here. Even with no slowdowns and this being a pretty cool program I have know way of knowing for sure if that's even true, and that it's worth keeping. Oh well, there's always Cyberhawk and Arovax Shield to use again. LOL. See ya.

 

Well, I bit the bullet, took out cyberhawk and reinstalled Blink.

You're right, Duke. I knew that GUI looked familiar but never paid any more attention. I have Super Antispyware, Snoopfree, and my antivirus running along with Blink. Nothing else. Had to remove BufferZone 1.90. I was having some sort of conflict, maybe the firewall think BZ has.

It's running well and my computer actually seems a bit faster with BZ gone. I might go back to Sandboxie, or just leave things as they are. I *think* Blink has some kind of sandboxing though, so might be better off just leaving things alone until somebody else chimes in.

I liked Blink when I had it on this machine before. I like it now.

 

I was just going over their list of clients. There are some heavy duty companies, universities, govt agencies, etc that seem to trust them. Don't know if that means anything.

 

Duke, Chuck

Could you get in some more details on the registry, execution and data theft protection?

What registry entries does it watch? What is protected in the execution control?

Thx K

 

Does is send the usual "anonymous data" back to the mother site ,like PrevX for example?

Thank you

 

Hi,folks: Yes, it does. I remember reading its press release by its president, it says to this effect; it collects info from freeware's users to perfect its paid version. Very loud and clear. But to what extent or do users have an option to opted out is another question.

 

Kees1958. You have to set up the Registry and Execution rules yourself under System Protection. There are 3 rules already though under Registry Protection, but none under Execution Protection. Two of the three rules in Registry Protection have to do with Internet Explorer and some type of possible service attack. There are 2 keys mentioned both being HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT that are protected. Sorry for my lack of description here. As far as Identity Theft goes, only Phishing is listed there with 6 Rules. Some of those ar, Hidden URL, Protocol Mismatch, and Link to Invalid URL. hope this helps. I like this program, and need to explore more, but would most likely need some help for Registry and execution Protection. Take care.

 

So is this better than Comodo Firewall? and kaspersky antivirus?

 

Hey chaos16, that's close to the question of the day which is how good is it's protection? I'm referring personally to the free version called Neighborhood Watch in my posts though, which has no AV or AS protection. Blink Personal does, and I believe uses Norman Antivirus for the AV. I still haven't decided to keep it for sure, but it seems to be running fine with my AVG 7.5 Pro AV. I think there may be a very very slight slowdown to my PC, but I'm not sure yet. I know this sounds strange, but I think my PC seemed a slight bit snappier with Arovax Shield, Cyberhawk, and an old version of Zone Alarm free installed. Time will tell as I use my PC more, but a good review of Blink's protection would most likely help make me decide if i should keep it or not.

 

Chaos16,

It depends on your other security aps.

Comodo offers more functionality against malware piggybacking on other processes. Comodo checks the CRC hash and when it is changed it does not allow such an infected program to initiate outbound traffic. Problem with Comodo it does not stop Zapass (for instance) against injecting dll into another process. So Comodo allows a robber to break into your store, but hinders it to escape. You are still left with a ruined window store.

When you have SSM, Prosecurity, Antihook installed these programs offer better process modification protection. Together with SSM-free, Blink offers additional protection (because SSM and Comodo overlap and SSM is better in this job).

Blink free does not have the Norman Antivirus included.

Regards

 

Ask STEM! (firewall moderator on this forum)