PC Tools Firewall 3.0.0.60

FWIW, PC Tools released a new build yesterday 3.0.0.60. I realize this particular FW has not drawn a tremendous amount of interest around here, but perhaps a few of the bugs have been squashed this time around. Any takers?

 

PC Tools cannot make anything that doesnt slow your pc down. Been there tried that except for reg mech.

 

How does it do on p2p?

 

For those of you doubters, I have been testing it on Bitcomet today. Download speeds are as good as I have ever seen. The machine is experiencing no loss of snap or other buggy behavior. What really impresses me is the low CPU utilization. Other than Look 'N' Stop, this is the best that I have seen. It makes a big difference when running on batteries.

I did read some of the threads about slow downs and a new version was promised that fixed the problem. If you want to see forums full of problems, hop over to Comodo or Zone Labs.

It amazes me that this post has drawn disparaging remarks so fast, considering it was simply a news item. After all, I did not make a fan boy statement, just that a new build is out. Of the two of you above one says he has not tried it, and the other admitted he had not tried it in a thread in the AV section yesterday. I guess that makes you both experts.

 

Tried it previously and am just retrying it now as a matter of interest.
My impression always has been that its a good solid wall,very easy to use,light on resources and fast,but just a bit uninteresting.
No doubt faults could be found if you tried hard enough
From memory there was a suggestion that it was somehow linked to LookNStop,but this was never confirmed.
You will notice its recommended you also use Threatfire in conjunction,which makes me think it doesnt have HIPS.

Agree about the Zone Alarm Fan Club,they tend to hijack a thread and their constant repetition doesnt add to their credibility.
Give us a break,boys.

 

Yes, it was

EDIT

Version 3.0.0.36 actually has a score of 5825 with Matousec, so it does have some sort of HIPS.

cheers,

 

Thanks-looking good!!

 

@ H C

It does not have any sort of comprehensive HIPS, but it has some HIPS like features and behavior. By default protection against code injection is not enabled. If you look at Matousec's result chart you will see there are 33 blue marks which means this FW would have scored 825 points higher had that been enabled. It would be enough to take it from poor to good in the ratings.

The code is reputed to come from LnS, but it is very different in user experience. There are a bunch of problems with using LnS in a LUA that are not present in PC Tools. However, the granularity that makes networking freaks like LnS is gone.

I could go on for about ten pages on why I think that Matousec's tests are becoming meaningless and why I think traditional HIPS does not work the way it should. But I won't, at least right now.

As for Threatfire they just want to build their user base, and would be happy if you install everything they make.

 

Informative,Diver and especially agree about the leaktests.

 

I found something disturbing during my tests with PCTools firewall. You can disable the PCTools Firewall Driver from Properties in My Network Places (as Admin), but the GUI application goes on like nothing happened! It doesn't display a warning that firewall is no longer active or some kind of visual feedback...

As for the network slowdown, I made a test by installing PCTools Firewall 3.0.0.60 on a virtual machine, and I ran a TCP throughput test between host and guest. Without firewall driver active I reached 18000KBytes/s, with firewall it rarely reached 15000KBytes/s. So if you have a really fast connection or you are using your LAN to transfer data, there is a slowdown in raw data transfer rate.

 

I've been using PC Tools Firewall Plus steadily since build 3.0.0.52 on both XP and Vista (both 32 bit) and it has worked fine. I had some problems with earlier builds, but it's been reliable since .52. Note there are some advanced features which can be turned ON to make it more effective. These are:

Enable protection against code injection
Enable stealth mode
Enable Stateful Packet Inspection

I can't remember if any of these are ON by default so definitely have a look. These options can be found on the Settings/Filtering tab.

 

Seems a valid point worth further checking-surely something so basic cant be an overlooked flaw?
Also achieved the same result by just using task manager.
The icon did disappear,so you would at least know it had been disabled
The service was also easily disabled.

Tried the same in another wall-of course,couldnt do it.

 

Pc tools firewall has protected my pc for 17 months, except a week or two when i tried online armor and webroot firewall's. I like it, and my pc runs smooth.

 

I believe this is a nice firewall and offers good protection with its program control and the features mentioned above. However, I would think self protection would be a very important and needed feature for a firewall right?

 

Can you give me a little bit of a time line on this...and I take it you are back with PC Tools Firewall now...right? Just want to make sure I understand you...17 months there may have been several versions gone by on each of these firewalls you spoke of. Thanks.

 

Well, as admin there are all sorts of things you can do to mess up your machine. I recall there is one legacy driver that can be deleted as admin, KSECDD, and the machine will not boot. That is why I run LUA. Performance tests in a VM are not the most accurate way to do things. If I try to move a file from host to guest with VMware I get about 100 mb per minute despite the fact that the file is moving from one spindle to another and the transfer should be more than 10 times faster. However, your observation is worth further investigation.

Heck, I don't think this the best thing since beer, and I don't get a commission for every one that gets installed. It does one thing that I like which is low CPU usage when running Bitcomet in in the NAT traversal mode. I happen to like Comodo 2.4 a lot, but its CPU usage in that circumstance is excessive for battery power. ZA Pro is slightly better. I tried a few other firewalls lately, but ran into one or another problem. Some are unlikely to be fixed any time soon, and some are likely to improve quickly.

Actually, after reading several negative posts about this product I was wondering if I should try it, It sure does not seem to have the problems others had in their post. Perhaps the developers are squashing the bugs, one by one. After all, these are the same guys that do Threatfire, a popular program around here.

What would anyone around here do if they never changed their security set up?

 

yes i am using it, and installed each new version. There was just a 2 week period out of 17 months I didnt have PC Tools installed.

 

What would anyone around here do if they never changed their security set up?

Talk about their current ones. LOL.

 

I like this firewall, esp for beginners and if you are behind a router. Much less prompts compared to Comodo or Online Armor, therefore I have it install on my parents PC.

 

I agree about being behind a router. I am currently using Comodo and it runs fine, but PC Tools Firewall with Threatfire behind a router would be fine with PC Tools AV. You can see where this is heading for me can't you? New FW, TF and PCTAV. LOL.

 

I put it on my parents pc too. Now they never call.

 

I have used this firewall in the past & will again I think it is a fine firewall. Its a free product & for a free product it offers a lot especially for the money. It does run very lite for me & I do like it but ZA Pro has antispyware & HIPS then again it costs some hard cash & slows down your boot times a whole lot.

 

Mr. Martin - we seem to be agreeing on a lot of items tonight. LOL

 

Doesn't slow my boot times if you defrag your boot files and clean out your prefetch folder.