Private Firewall Updated (again)

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Scoobs72, Dec 9, 2010.

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  1. JoeBlack40

    JoeBlack40 Registered Member

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    What settings do i have to use to control outbound traffic connections?Thanks.
     
  2. Blues7

    Blues7 Registered Member

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    A couple of things...

    In "File", "Settings", "Basic" make sure you have the box ticked to be alerted of all new outgoing connections.

    You can also go into the "Applications" list and double click on any of the applications listed to check certain inbound/outbound rules.

    There are more advanced settings options available in Privatefirewall as well.

    If you go to Privacyware's Privatefirewall website you can download a pretty comprehensive "user manual" (.pdf) which gives detailed info on the various options and settings.
    It's listed in the "Support" area for Privatefirewall down toward the bottom of the page.
     
  3. JoeBlack40

    JoeBlack40 Registered Member

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    :thumb: Thank you.
     
  4. Blues7

    Blues7 Registered Member

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    Cu plãcere :cool:
     
  5. JoeBlack40

    JoeBlack40 Registered Member

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    Multumesc din nou.:) :)
    Although i switched back to Comodo Firewall.I'm use to it,and it has more options than PFW.Just to give an example.I can kill a stubborn enough process, if i have to.
    But PFW felt very light and powerful.Maybe i will get back to it if i have to,you never know.I'm looking carefully it's development.:thumb:
     
  6. johnmw1

    johnmw1 Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Anyone know how PF compares to Outpost Security Suite 7 free. I'm using Outpost basically just for the firewall rather than anything else in the program but would prefer just a dedicated firewall.

    I have been using OA++ for a long time but renewal time came and I thought I would try Outpost for a change.

    I have nothing against Outpost and the firewall is very responsive but I'm scared with all my other security that I also have running that eventually there will be conflict, these include Immunet Protect, Returnil System Safe Pro, MSE, Zemana Antlogger, and Key Scrambler.

    Cheers
    John
     
  7. zip

    zip Registered Member

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    Two antivirus' will conflict, drop MSE or Outpost Security Suite 7 Free. You should be ok with Immunet Protect along side MSE or OSS Free.

    One antivirus is enough & you don't to waste resources, so drop Immunet Protect also.
     
  8. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    I have a lifetime license for Outpost Pro & ran it for a while. I also have a license for OnlineArmor Premium. I have tried both (as well as several other FW+HIPS combos).

    Both OP & OA provide excellent FW+HIPS protection. However, for the past several months, PFW has been my preferred FW+HIPS. Reason: PFW's protection is equal to that of OP & OA but PFW is much lighter. On my aging computer, low use of CPU and I/O are very important to me, & PFW is very frugal in both areas.

    OP's HIPS component is the equal of PFW's & OA's, but it is much less granular. That is, OP does not offer quite as much flexibility as PFW or OA when it comes to "fine-tuning" HIPS rules on an application by application basis.

    Of the 3, OA has much more granular control of parent-child settings. Also, another thing that OA has, that neither PFW nor OP provide, is RunSafer -- the ability to automatically reduce the "rights" of any given app. That capability provides an extra measure of safety IF you choose always to run as Administrator. RunSafer will quickly & easily reduce the rights of any app that you choose. This is especially useful when running internet-facing apps such as browsers, email, FTP clients, etc.

    If you choose NOT to run with Administrator rights, then RunSafer has no value to you.

    Myself, I always run as Administrator (shame on me). Therefore, when running PFW, I use an equivalent to RunSafer for my internet-facing apps. Its name is DropMyRights (DMR). You can learn more about DMR & get it at . . .

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972827.aspx
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    None of these 3 (OA,OP, PFW) provide the full control/protection of registry items and individual files as does a FULL-scope classical HIPS.

    Ergo, if you are an extremely high-risk user, or your job security depends on your computer's security, you might want to consider running a full-scope HIPS such as . . .

    + Comodo IS (which includes a full-scope HIPS called Defense Plus, often abbreviated "D+.)

    + Malware Defender -- MD is equally as powerful as CIS but it is a bit easier to learn & configure. However, MD will not run under 64-bit and is a bit dicey when running under Win7.

    + Defense Wall -- a policy-based/sandbox-type HIPS. However, DW will not run under 64-bit. DW is the user-friendliest HIPS ever created, and it has superb support (seldom needed).

    FREE- CIS, MD
    NON-free- DW
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    NOTE: If you choose to run a full scope HIPS alongside PFW, then I suggest you turn-off PFW's own HIPS component. Do so by clicking "Process Monitor" on PFW's GUI, then move the monitor's slider to "Off". Poof! The HIPS is inactivated & PFW has now become a pure firewall, but with anomaly detection.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2011
  9. johnmw1

    johnmw1 Registered Member

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    Hi Zip,

    Thanks for the reply, and yes I will have to thin the herd a bit I think. I also forgot to mention ThreatFire and WinPatrol.

    MSE I'm a bit undecided on although people say how good it is, I haven't seen a peep out of it which some may say is a good thing. I was running MSE and Immunet Protect hand in hand but since also installing OutPost as well as Returnil yes the conflicts are starting to begin.

    As Returnil is a Pro licence I will get rid of MSE I reckon and probably OutPost also to give PF a spin.

    Cheers
    John
     
  10. johnmw1

    johnmw1 Registered Member

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    Hi Bellgamin,

    Thanks for the very comprehensive reply.

    I have just gone through a reformat of my aging (like me) Win XP P4 2.6 PC simply because of the amount of conflicts and errors which had all but crippled this pc in recent months.

    I could not reformat earlier because I became a full-time student again (world's oldest student) and it had two years worth of study on it which I was scared of loosing if I backed up incorrectly.

    Anyways I have a fresh install now but become very bedazzled with all the different programs and freebies that one can download and install. It seems I just can't be satisfied with just one program and if the opportunity arises I will download something else, all the time running more and more together.

    I have promised myself this time around to try to run a much more mean and lean machine but old habits die-hard as you can already see.

    Returnil Pro is bugging me a bit as its averaging about 40% cpu all the time, plus you can't just scan individual drives. I got to 5 1/2 Hrs the other night and it had still only reached 30% scanned because it was scanning all my old drives as well which I didn't really want.

    I can say though that whatever I have had running in the past I have never had an infection or anything. But I don't need all this extra stuff because I'm just your average user.

    Getting back on topic I figure I will get rid of OutPost because I only wanted it for its firewall anyway and would much prefer a standalone such as PF, so here goes..........

    Cheers
    John
     
  11. ruinebabine

    ruinebabine Registered Member

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    Thanks for your thorough and comprehensive post bellgamin, as usual.

    About full-scope HIPS, did you also consider AppGuard? Or maybe did you put it aside because it's best version is in beta stage right now? It works on 64-bit too.

    I tried it for a week on 7x64 and found it mostly good, even if a bit too time consuming and chatty, but I am sure it all depends on program's configuration and system setup. I should reinstall it shortly because I think that it's probably the best option available for this PC as now and it's development is very active...
     
  12. AdamL

    AdamL Registered Member

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    I setup Privatefirewall on my folks PC, decided to remove CIS as it was slowing down the system (older XP machine)
    Privatefirewall is a great little firewall, tempted to use it on my Windows 7 laptop.....

    If I remember correctly it failed the GRC.com Leaktest, does anyone have any advice regarding this?

    Thanks :)
     
  13. bigc73542

    bigc73542 Retired Moderator

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    Private firewall just passed the GRC leak test on my XP machine.
     

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  14. AdamL

    AdamL Registered Member

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    Thanks for the quick reply and screen shot :D

    Hmmm, that is strange - it is obviously something at my end. I will look into it, it is maybe worth doing a re-install of Privatefirewall.
     
  15. Blues7

    Blues7 Registered Member

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    I just tested the GRC Leak Test as well and PF passes the test on my system. (XP Pro SP3)
     
  16. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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    It passes here on Win 7 64bit.
     
  17. MacQibble

    MacQibble Registered Member

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    Passes all GRC tests for me too. But here's the thing...

    Know this quote was a bit earlier in the thread but I stick in standard user a/c, so just found when logged off as standard and in as Admin that PFW has very few processes in Process Monitor (over 200 show in standard user) and only a handful of applications (nearly 100 in standard user). As I understand it, if they ain't there they ain't being controlled?

    And the deny/allow rules are all different too. Makes logging on as Admin a scary experience unless I hit the red block button.

    Windows 7 is foxy enough for ancient like self. But I like PFW. Ignorance is bliss. Masochistic I guess. (BTW, can't seem to work these here smilies so sorry if post seems a tad formal!)
     
  18. AdamL

    AdamL Registered Member

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    Can someone clarify that for me please, admin = no privatefirewall? o_O
     
  19. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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    All I know is PF don't work with standard or limited user accounts. I emailed them about this and they said they were working on it.

    Unless they snuck it in on last update but I don't remember reading anything about it in the change log. Maybe some others can verify this.
     
  20. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    To the contrary, PFW works best when you run as admin -- AFAIK (I'm running WinXP so all I know about Win7 is what I read in the posts here.)
     
  21. MacQibble

    MacQibble Registered Member

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    I'm using PFW in standard user. Just caught out finding things were different when logged in as Admin.

    PFW's a learning curve...don't like firewalls that treat users like idiots (even if fair comment for self). Also new convert to this standard user malarchy. Endlessly typing Admin password. And programs never seem to be where I thought I'd set them up. Guess that's progress. Still use my old Win98SE system and have none of this. After all these years me and it have an understanding...

    From what I see in Win 7 x64, like many programmes PFW is a different beast in different accounts.

    Not logging in as Admin means PFW can't 'tab' all the processes and apps used day-to-day as Standard user. PFW still works in Admin, it's just way out of synch from where you think it should be. Just rechecked the numbers ... in standard a/c PFW lists 154 processes in process monitor, in Admin it has 61. In standard it lists 28 applications, in Admin it lists 13. In advanced application settings in standard, the processes tab lists 192 exes. In Admin it lists 79. In standard the tab for 'parents' lists 62, in Admin it lists 25.

    Apart from that, any filters you set in standard user account are different in Admin.

    I guess the motto is don't switch accounts? Least not while connected to the internet. Makes you wonder what would happen with multi-users all setting the firewall different in their accounts? Maybe turning it off? Now there's a question.
     
  22. AdamL

    AdamL Registered Member

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    Thanks for clarifying that for me :D
    I am also pleased to report my privatefirewall installation now passes the grc.com leaktest. I had to resort to a reinstall!
     
  23. johnmw1

    johnmw1 Registered Member

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    Now I'm worried because I didnt pass the grc leak test either, what am I doing wrong? I have set everything back to default and am still not passing?

    Cheers
    John
     
  24. johncage

    johncage Registered Member

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    http://www.privacyware.com/PF_support.html

    RELEASE NOTES - 7.0.23.3, posted 2/9/2011

    - added Unicode support.
    - added fast user switch (multi-user) support for Windows Workstations
    - added support for Windows 7 SPI RC
    - fixed limited account issue in XP
    - disabled access to WMI when system anomaly detection feature is disabled
    - updated drivers reviewed/signed by Microsoft Winqual.

    INSTALLATION NOTE: Please uninstall the existing version of Privatefirewall and reboot system before installing the 23.3 update. Process Monitor and Firewall settings can be preserved by exporting (File -> Export Settings) before uninstalling, and importing (File -> Import Settings) after installing this update.
     
  25. Boyfriend

    Boyfriend Registered Member

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    Thanks johncage for update :)
     
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