Firewall UI is still a train wreck

[mauricev]

When the firewall UI is first opened, it's totally blank. One must click the default button to show the default rules. What's displayed shows truncated columns for name and protocol and remote port. The entire window is truncated for that matter.

The ordering of rules looks random almost as if the rules were just thrown in as someone thought them up. For example, there are two rules regarding RPC halfway down and a third rule at the end.

Rules often conflict with one another. For example, the first default rule is to block all unknown outbound traffic, but the second rule is to allow outbound traffic in the policy-based mode. Did separate programmers come up with these rules?

There are rules to block incoming NETBIOS requests, but other rules to allow them for the trusted zone. This makes no sense at all. These ought to be consolidated to a single rule and the specifics of where they are allowed contained within that single rule!

In addition, some rules for whatever odd reason don't count as rules but are in the advanced setup instead. For example, allow file and printer sharing in the trusted zone.

The entire thing is atrocious. It should be scrapped and rewritten.

Please take a cue from W2K8, which is well-designed:
1) All the rules are in one place.
2) There is logic to their ordering (i.e., they're alphabetical).
3) The details of what's allowed where are completely self-contained in each rule, so there are no conflicts.

[agoretsky]

Hello,

Are you referring to the firewall module in ESET Smart Security v4.0 or the v4.2 beta test version?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[mauricev]

This is actually the beta of remote administrator 4. That's why I posted it in this forum although I guess it might better in the beta forum.