p2p and game friendly firewall

and it must also stealth your ports and i would like application control. is there such thing?

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im currently using KIS 6 but on one of my computers, it still affects gaming. if i switch to maximum speed mode then my game connects faster but i also have to disable stealth mode.

whizard (from teh kaspersky forums) told me this:

since i do both p2p and games i get stuck in a catch 22.

 

I have not tried KIS, but all of the firewalls I have tried have been able to play and P2P with while in stealth mode (of course the ports that games and P2P uses are open) and with no ill effect on ping or up and download. Some are easier to setup than others.

LooknStop
Zone Alarm (free)
Outpost Pro
Tiny PF 2005
Netveda (dont know if this is developed anymore though)
Comodo
Kerio

*edit* Forgot Kerio Personal Firewall

 

thanx for the suggestions. ill keep comodo for future consideration.

 

Well if you want a simple firewall with app control then kerio 2.1.5 excellent. Its free, easy to use and light so it won't affect your gaming.
Some other options are filseclab, zonealarm free, outpost free, sygate or comodo.

Theres plenty of free choices, it all depends on your personal preferences.

 

as for kerio v2, im reluctant to use an old firewall and im also unsure about the ease of creating rules. it is likely i will need rules for my games and p2p.

free or paid doesnt matter, i was just wondering about alternatives.

just recently i decided to switch games. Counter-Strike isnt affected by KIS as is Unreal Tournament so i returned Anti-Hacker back to compatibility mode with stealth on.

 

Well personally look'n'stop is my favourite, its very light and very secure but can be a little difficult to use. Otherwise Zonealarm or Outpost are my top picks.

 

WFSuser, why did you stop using Look'n'Stop? I use it for p2p and gaming and is far better than some out there. I have had BSOD problems with other firewalls using utorrent and general web browsing, but never with Look'n'Stop. Hopefully the development of Look'n'Stop continues and competes with the likes of Comodo, Outpost and Kaspersky's Anti-Hacker.

dja2k

 

I find look n stop bad for p2p.Zone alarm etc,easy i just grant server rights,but look n stop, all the rules dont work that are on web site dontwork because they are outdated,wrong ports etc,why are they not they updated.Outpost rules are allso updated and work.

 

I would suggest Ghostwall or CHX-I for gaming and p2p. I know they are only incoming, but with KAV's proactive defense, then I dought you will need to worry too much about outbound. Also, there is always GSS which offers outbound, or Prevx1.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

 

@dja2k - i like looknstop but i was having some BSOD problems when playing UT2004 so i decided to switch. and just because im playing CS:S doesnt mean ill switch back, unless a new version comes out...

@Alphalutra1 - i prefer my firewall have application control because i want to control their network access; its not just about malware.



but like i said, im now playing Counter-Strike. it isnt affected by KIS and the graphics look nice despite my budget comp.

 

Well if you ever go back to UT or another game where your network performance is still awful, I would recommend using a packet filter, then disabling the filtering inbound for you other firewall(like look'n'stop which you can disable thenetwork filtering portion).

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

 

im now trying comodo and its behaves much simpler when u disable Application Behavior Analysis and when u set Alert frequency to very low.

in addition, i now think my "firewall issues" with UT2004 may just be because the (main?) server is far far away, maybe my connection, or both.

 

Currently both Zone Alarm PRO firewall and Outpost Firewall PRO do provide so called "game-mode" features. However in Outpost it is called "Entertainment Mode".

Anyway, these features allow both firewalls to turn off all firewall prompts and pop-ups while you are playing games or watching movies in full screen mode. You can also set up which policy should firewall use while you are in a game mode.

And surely both ZA and Outpost PRO provide full stealth mode.

 

I had tried playing dota allstars using jetico v1.0 its pretty smooth,except for the many security like those antimalware and antivirus and process management monitors that causes the little slowness for like 1 to 2 seconds in the game every 30 to 45 mins of play.

The bad thing is you must set the rules, jetico have process attack table, application controlable settings, rules settings and many more can be done in jetico. Well and the popups which someone get annoy by it when they first use, after sometimes of usage I found it pretty good and been expanding my rules greater.

just some suggestions...... jetico is friendly if you can grab its concepts.

 

does outpost let u ignore if an application changes?

 

My vote would be for CHX-1 or Windows ICF, two of the most unobtrusive inboudn protections available which handle multiple connections with ease, most important aspect for P2P or gaming.

Zone Alarm Pro also comes with gaming mode which stops all the popups.

 

Hi,

I think you meant when application components (i.e. DLLs) change?

Well, there are some updates with Outpost's component control feature allowing you to minimize the prompts.

Plus in the Entertainment Mode Outpost will not show any prompts meaning you will be playing your game without being stopped by the firewall.

However I do not play games myself moreover I did not specially test how Outpost acted while in the Entertainment mode.

 

I play Team Fortress Classic which is pretty much the same(but better than cs imho ) and i use Zonealarm Free version. Just enable game mode and choose the option to deny all and off i go. No probs whatsoever.

muf

 

no i mean when the program changes. for example, when u update Firefox the firefox.exe executable will change and some firewalls will ask if u want to allow it again.

 

This will show as changed components. In your example, when firefox changes, here is the alert from OP4:-

 

so does Outpost let u ignore changes for someprogram.exe only?

 

Yes,... you can place within the application rule "Ignore component control"

Example: to ignore changes in firefox:-

 

(to continue the example), since Firefox may have multiple rules does it matter to which one i add ""Ignore component control"?

 

I have just checked,...You would need to add this to each/every rule used by the application.

EDIT:
I have just been checking the "Entertainment mode", If an application is allowed to run in this mode then changes can be allowed without prompt, and changes to the application rules would not be needed.