Is peerguardian effectve and safe?

I've heard that peerguardian offers an extra protection (malwares and spywares) in order to protect the p2p conections. do you recommend to use peerguardian or i'm beeing paranoid, if already use comodo personal firewall comodo memory firewall, superantispyware pro and avast home? i'd appreciate your hints. you can have more information about peerguardian at the
http://phoenixlabs.org/

best regards.

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

First thing is first, Peerguardian will NOT run with Comodo, I got that straight from Comodo's forums. Now that that is out of the way, Peerguardian CAN protect you from malware-serving websites, but it isn't the most effective. Where it IS effective is blocking KNOWN IP addresses of anti-P2P organizations and other snoopers. It cannot wave a magic and 100% protect from them all, but it does a damn good job. Keep in mind though it only blocks those that are known, and the anti-P2P guys change IPs frequently, so it is imperative that you keep it updated, check once per day.

The other programs you mention will NOT keep the anti-P2P people from connecting to you. They aren't meant for that. If you do use Peerguardian, don't go crazy with adding lists. Too many will not only overlap the protection, it can also cause your connection to slow horribly or become useless.

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

@ dw426


good post on peerguardian


i was surprised to read about pg & comodo not playing nice, as i actually run comodo with peerguardian, and it seems to work ok for the most part. the only complication i encounter is where pg2 will still flash in systray (blocking), but can't be restored to the screen by clicking. to actually raise it, the recovery tool needs to be used (kills the process, needs to be re-opened).

is that anything like what's being mentioned on the comodo forum? or am i looking at something different there.

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

Thought I'd dig up this old thread as it was the only one I could find that was about what I was asking.

Downloaded a portable version of PeerGuardian 2 (used univeral extractor and followed instructions at: http://www.portablefreeware.com/?q=peerguardian&m=Search )

Anyway, from what I can tell, it's pretty cool software. Whether intended or not, blocks a lot of the ads while browsing the web, and obviously, blocks IP addresses to prevent being served a 'letter' down the track if you're into a lot of downloads.

Any websites that are blocked, you can right-click and allow permanently or for say 'only 15 minutes'. No noticeable slowdown. Been testing it while using frostwire and previewing a few tunes.

Anyone else still using this program?

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

Most of the newer P2P software has a built in IP filter which you can update, what P2P software are you using?

The good one I know of that has this feature is VUZE, for torrents.

eMule also supports this, but emule has turned into trash,

Other than that P2P like Limewire/Frostwire, ares, Kazaa and shareaza is like walking into a room full of contagious sick people! Especially Limewire/Frostwire, I did a test to see how fast I would get infected with limewire, Bam I got infected with Vundo, perfect keylogger and some other trojan like right after I installed it?

That's odd, I used to use every list in PG without a problem, the reason your connection is slow in P2P is your not connected to that many peers/theirs not enough people sharing the file you want, + theirs a share ratio setting in most P2P software, you have to share to get higher speeds, unless you find some kind of Hacked mod that has Fake rank, No Ratio ECT.

You cant overlap the protection either, you can block as many IP addresses as you wish! the only thing that will be effected is your CPU. this is why using the built in IP Filter in P2P software is recomended!

Go here and learn more about blocklist's, then you will be educated on the subject.

http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php

Anybody Using LIMEWIRE or FROSTWIRE Stop what you are doing and run a full scan with Malwarebytes and some kind of antispyware software like Spybot search and destroy, But I would recommend one of the following over Spybot though, CounterSpy, Spycop, Webroot Spysweeper or Spyware Doctor! one of these is sure to find something after using "Virus/SpywareWire"

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

Just to make a clarification.

I have been using Peerguardian with Comodo for years now.

If I knew where on Comodo forums you found it won't work, I'd go
there and sort it out.

Later

 

Thanks for the info Warlockz. I agree with what you said about using Limewire/Frostwire.

I run Frostwire sandboxed (sandboxie - paid version), and have set up Frostwire to save downloads, and incomplete downloads to a sandboxed folder on the desktop (called test area/downloads and test area/incomplete).

Once I've downloaded a few mp3s, I right-click on sandboxie and ask it to do a 'quick recovery', and recover the mp3 files back to test area/downloads. Remember, these are being recovered straight into the sandboxed folder 'test area/downloads'.

Either way, once I clear the sandboxed contents, all is gone. Also, the files I recover can't do much either as they are still sandboxed even when they are recovered. Once I run each file sandboxed, see it does no harm, then scan them with prevx edge, then with the on-demand a-squared free, I move these files out of 'prison' back to 'general population'.

The alternative to using sandboxie, would be say turning on Returnil or Shadow Defender, doing all your downloads, keeping what is needed, scanning these files, then perform a reboot.

 

I'll looking into the program you recommended VUZE. Any thoughts on say the following program, Halite?
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1380#comments

 

I read, at uTorrent forum, that using blocking lists are useless since it only protect us about ~10% and block a lot of good IP's...

I don't know if I should continue to use it or not...

 

PG2 is as effective as the block lists you use.

 

I use PG2, but the main problem is the effectiveness of it and lists that we use on it...

 

Get a Rapidshare account. I can find any CD I want. I don't search for songs. I search for the entire CD and download it in less than 60 seconds. I have never had a problem finding any movie. I have found many obscure ones in fact. I download them in 10 minutes or so. And I never have to think about filters or if there are enough people sharing. It's just there and it's fast.

 

I usually download most of my files that way, but its hard to find allot of music , If I cant find what I'm looking for I use Torrent Finder Toolbar for Firefox and usually find what I'm looking for, VUZE is the best torrent downloader I have used, but mine is a hacked version with no upload,fake upload, fake report to tracker ECT, so it looks like I'm sharing but I'm really not, then I get download speeds up to 400kbs LOL

 

It's effectiveness and lists are interconnected.

I do believe it is of great use, and I'm not just talking about PG2 here, but also, talking about alike tools or tools that also allow to use block lists, such as Outpost Firewall Pro, for example.

I'll give an example, but not strictly going to the P2P case. I'll mention malicious domains.

As you may know, one way to block access to malicious domains, in a more global way, is to make use of a HOSTS file, for example. But, the use of such, is only as good as the time those domains are up.
Otherwise, let's imagine the following. There's a new malicious domain, that goes by www(dot)maliciousdomain(dot)com. You place it in the HOSTS file. For the moment the access to that malicious domain and to what it does, will be blocked. But, let's imagine that 5 min later, that domain no longer exists, and is goes now by www(dot)again-maliciousdomain(dot)com. But, you don't know that the other domain no longer exists and that a new one exists, unless you check it. I'm just talking about one domain. Let's imagine hundreds.

A good way of having, to some extent, a better protection, is to also block the respective IP of the first domain, when it first appears. That way, even changing the domain name, you're still blocking the IP address, which could still be the same.

So, by blocking, also, IPs, you have more basis covered.

Of course, it's something that needs a constant maintainence.

 

I understand you, but should we use it if it only protect us ~10% and block a lot of good IP's that slow down the downloads and uploads?

 

My opinion is that it is better to have an extra ~10% of security (Whoever said that and to what purpose. Couldn't that comment, over uTorrent, come from some anti-P2P organization, infiltrated? We never known. And how exactly would the person/people who claimed that, know it for sure? Were tests done and are they publicaly available for everyone to see?), than not having it at all. And FPs, we also get them with antimalware tools, and that doesn't stop us from using them, now does it?

I've been using PG2 for a very long time, and, personally, I haven't come across with that many FPs. From time to time this or that FP does appear, but it is very rare. Mostly, because my lists are maintained on a daily basis.

You also have an option, in PG2, to exclude IPs from being blocked. That will prevent you from not being able to access known safe sites, etc. This will lower the FPs.

I follow one thing - Better safe than sorry. Even if having only those ~10% of extra security. Better than 0% extra security, in my way of seeing it.

Regards

Edit: I also never experienced any slowdowns. But, that's me. Each case is a case.

 

I agree with you

I already use PG2 for a long time and will continue to use it...

 

It's a compromise between apparent security and the inconvenience of false positives. Some people are prepared to put up with the inconvenience but many people are not.

Can any of these blocklists really be that effective when the "bad guys" [whether copyright enforcement or so-called-hackers] can change IPs quicker than you can eat a pizza? I know the blocklists are updated but there would be a pretty decent lag period between IP change and blocklist updates during which you're "vulnerable". This isn't misinformation spread by the bad guys. This is just plain fact.

The blocklists do have some good side effects, as some people have mentioned, like ad blocking and malicious/phishing sites but there are much "friendlier" ways of doing this than implementing lists from someone like BlueTack. Again, your mileage will vary depending on what lists you choose to import.

Is there any actual proof [rather than someone just saying so] that the P2P programs above [eg. Limewire, Frostwire, etc] actually install keyloggers and trojans? I know that P2P programs often come bundled with adware/spyware but this is a long shot from installing keyloggers and trojans. Many of these aren't installed if you remember to say so during the install.

Sure, there are lots of malicious P2P programs out there that really do have keyloggers/trojans embedded, but they aren't in the same boat.

edit: I should add that there are hacked versions of well-known applications like Frostwire that have had malicious code embedded. This doesn't count either

 

I'm not worried about installing malware from P2P, but to block traffic monitoring of anti-p2p companies...

 

The first part of my post still stands in regards to that

I'm sure that there are known IPs for copyright enforcement agencies, but these are most likely just their regular headquarters IPs for workstations that are used for regular office work. The IPs used for detection would change far too often, and the correlation to the company obfuscated enough, for blocklists to be properly effective.

Some people are happy having reduced the possibility of being caught in any way. It's just my opinion that it's not worth running blocklists to do so.

 

If you are truly wanting to protect yourself you need either a openvpn or a seedbox but seriously the chances of you getting sued are next to none in unless your downloading and uploading like 30thousand songs

 

there might be 1 or 2 posts at Comodo forums about Peergaurdian and Comodo 3 not working together but there are a lot more saying they do including this one from one of their global mods
https://forums.comodo.com/help_for_v3/peerguardian_2_and_comodo_3-t22747.0.html;msg159471#msg159471

I've had no issues with them over the time I've used them.

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

Utorrent, does it have one?

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

yes it does,
download an the ip filter list you want from Blocklist Pro, drop it into the uTorrent folder in your Application Data folder in XP or AppData/Roaming/uTorrent in Vista. Then open uTorrent go to Preferences > Advanced look for ipfilter.enable and set it to "true".

 

Re: s peerguardian effectve and safe?

Please keep in mind this is an IP filter within a program bought out by Bittorrent, who is closely tied with the MPAA, RIAA, and other "piracy-hating" organizations. Peerguardian has no such affiliations. I'm not making accusations, it's just food for thought.