PrivateFirewall Profiles question

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Zekeblue, Sep 21, 2010.

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  1. Zekeblue

    Zekeblue Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
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    Location:
    Anchorage Alaska - USA
    I'm giving PFW a trial and generally like it. One aspect confuses me however and I can't find clear explanation in help file....

    I move laptop between home and office. I want home network to be more trusted so as to use network printers and file sharing. At the office, I only want internet connection and no printer/filesharing.

    So I set up home and office profiles accordingly. But I can't find a way to have PFW switch between profiles automatically when I change locations.

    I also see there is ability to make networks trusted or untrusted but I don't see how that interacts with the profile feature.

    Can someone clarify this for me? Bottom line, I want to move between networks and have PFW automatically detect the change and apply appropriate settings for each network.

    Thanks!
     
  2. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Hi Zeke,
    I am a PFW user but NOT an expert. I have passed your questions to Greg at PFW's support link. He may post a response here or he might answer me by email. In the meantime, you might want to submit a ticket on your own. The PFW support folks are SUPER friendly & helpful.

    I am interested in your questions & looking forward to reading well-informed answers. I hope they are forthcoming soon.
     
  3. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Zeke- PFW's (Greg's) answers to your questions are paraphrased as follows . . .

    Q- I can't find a way to have PFW switch between profiles automatically when I change locations.

    A- The user must switch profiles manually (PF does not automatically associate one set of IPs/networks with a specific profile). When at home, click the Home profile icon; when at the office, click the Office profile icon; when on the road, click the Remote profile icon.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Q- I also see there is ability to make networks trusted or untrusted but I don't see how that interacts with the profile feature.

    A- Privatefirewall defaults to the Home profile, so once this customer connects at the office, he should manually switch profiles and he will likely see a dialog displayed prompting him to identify any detected IPs as Trusted or Untrusted for that Profile).
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Q- Bottom line, I want to move between networks and have PFW automatically detect the change and apply appropriate settings for each network.

    A- Again, switching from profile to profile is a manual process. One must tell Privatefirewall what profile should be active.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Bellgamin sez: It seems evident that what you are asking for is not now available in PFW as an *automatic function*. As to whether or not any other FW offers such a capability -- automatic switching, that is -- I have never run across one, but perhaps someone else has done so. If so, PLEASE share this info with us.
     
  4. timcan

    timcan Registered Member

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    :) Yeah I agree too.
    [off topic] same goes for Nick @ Macrium
     
  5. Zekeblue

    Zekeblue Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
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    Location:
    Anchorage Alaska - USA
    Bellgamin - thanks for the leg work. No wonder I couldn't figure that out! This is a deal breaker for me. In my experience, most security programs that control network access will do that kind of automatic switching. So I'm likely to go back towards either OA or PCTools. Another downside to PFW is the lack of a dedicated user forum (though I appreciate Wilders as a resource).
     
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