privatefirewall - quite nice ;)

im trying private firewall and i will say im impressed, what a nice light but tough firewall - i checked with shields up and all my ports were stealthed. not bloated, a good meat and potatoes firewall. i have the hips features disbaled for the time being, as im firstly more concerned with the performance of the firewall, which seems to work great and has granular control if you need it. all in all seems great

 

I totally agree!

 

If we disable the hips are we less protected ?

 

Errrr...yes....because you have no HIPS protection anymore! However, if you don't understand the popups anyway then it probably makes no difference disabling it because you'd probably end up just clicking 'Allow' to everything.

 

Well yes that was my point...average user will click allow only ...

 

Although average users tend not to frequent Wilders

 

Yes dats true to...il be back to pwf soon too

 

Yeah me too. Will install Privatefirewall end of the month for another spin!

 

I instaled PFW last night and I am really impressed. It is almost as quick as windows firewall. Shields up gave me a big thumbs up so I'm stealthy and when I tried Comodo's leak tests PFW stopped the download form installing. Flippin Marvelous!

 

It's starting to get a very good reputation here on Wilders. Very light, good HIPS, good compatibility.

 

Sorry if this is an odd first post... hello everyone.

I tried PFW a while back and really liked it. It was missing one important feature for me that I have not found a "free" personal firewall that I like that has this feature.

I would like the ability to block or allow specific ip's to specific applications.

If PFW had that option I would stick with it.

It seems to have a black and white trust/distrust that will allow anyone from the trusted list to connect to any application that you allow a connection to. Did I miss something in the application?

 

Wow - - - a conditional agreement to graciously consider using a free application!

But seriously, the PFW folks might consider adding this capability. Why not suggest it by submitting a ticket to HERE?

In point of fact, I wonder if there are even any PAID firewalls that offer this degree of granularity? IF there are, I hope someone will elucidate.

 

Outpost and OA prem has that IP capacity, KIS also has it but was not reliable in the last v I used (rules made blanked out), maybe fixed now.

 

Absolutely! Online Armor has this and it works very well.

I still use a very old version of Kerio firewall which was free and has this ability but none of the modern protections of todays personal firewalls.

Dont get me wrong, I was not complaining but require this type of control whether the firewall be paid or free, so "a conditional agreement to graciously consider using a free application!" as you put it is not flexible for me . I Just wondered if I had missed something in the firewall and that maybe it was possibly capable of this but I had missed it. I like PFW's ease of use and its light weight over OA and if it had this ability, even if in a paid version, would lean toward it rather than OA.

Since I require this type of firewall control I will probably be purchasing Online Armor at some point to replace Kerio unless I can find something else that has this type of control.

 

Per osip, Outpost (OP) also has that control. OP often runs specials for lifetime licenses at reasonable prices. Watch for them.

Online Armor offers very deep discounts at times. Watch for those, too.

Or use PFW -- it has protected my computer's chastity quite effectively for, LO, these many moons. Of course I never visit black hat forums & flame the moderators. Maybe that makes a difference.

 

Not clear if ThreatFire's behavioral analysis is conflicting with PF's? Can you have too much paranoia?

Using Privatefirewall a few days based on Bellgamin's enthusiasm. And it's free. Lovin sense (hopefully not delusional) of being in full control with a firewall at last. Settings all on manual as recommended. Better than Kapersky and ZoneAlarm Pro, seems to me. Can't stay free, can it?

One qibble ( has to be one ) already posted to Greg. Far too easy to hit the big green button when reducing other open windows, even PF's. Should be a "Do you REALLY want to turn me off, stupid?" prompt on that button.

 

If PrivateFirewall is properly designed (as it seems) then the HIPS will be responsable for part of the leak protection.
If you don't fell comfortable with this kind of product then just don't use it; go for something simpler.

 

I agree. PFW's HIPS component is a valuable & powerful aspect of PFW's broad-spectrum protection.

A good comment as far as it goes. But why sacrifice the valuable protection provided by PFW's HIPS component? If PFW's pop-ups leave you mystified, here are my suggestions:

1- If PFW confronts you with a pop-up about a process, & you are puzzled as to what to answer, then scan the process with Hitman. (However, see Note 1)

2- Once you are reasonably certain the process is okay (whether by doing Hitman or by your own judgment) then simply click "Trust" or "Allow" for that process (see Note 2).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE 1: (research method for use instead of, or in addition to, using Hitman):
When confronted by a PFW pop-up that leaves you puzzled, you can LEARN about the *validity* of that process by researching it at one or more of the following links . . .
http://www.processlibrary.com/
http://www.greatis.com/appdata/
http://bugbopper.com/FileLookup.asp
http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/ProcessInfoCentral.aspx
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE 2:
+ Clicking "Trust" for a process will henceforth allow that process to undertake pretty much any & all actions that might trigger the HIPS. ( If you want the "Trust" option but PFW's pop-up isn't showing it, then click "More Details" & the Trust option will appear.)

+ On the other hand, clicking "Allow" will only allow that process to do that ONE SPECIFIC action which is covered by that one specific PFW pop-up.

+ "Trust" is a bit more hassle-free.

+ "Allow" is a bit more paranoid.

 

Thank you for that useful info even though I was not the intended target

 

You are very welcome.

 

many PFW positive reviews here I'll give a try this but how to deactivate / disable HIPS component ?

Guru bellgamin ? whats difference between PFW HIPS and WinPatrol HIPS ?

thank

 

+10 ! super useful post - Mahalo, mate

 

To disable PFW's HIPS. . .

1- Right click Casey the Cop icon in your system tray

2- Click Main Menu

3- On PFW's Main Menu (GUI) click Process Monitor

4- Move Process Monitor's slide to "Off" -- poof! The HIPS is off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Difference between WinPat & PFW's HIPS: WinPat basically protects autoruns & other startups from being modified without user's knowledge. It can also display "hidden" processes. A full-on HIPS will protect all sensitive areas of a computer's OS, especially its kernel. To somewhat over simplify it:

+ A firewall is a security-gate between the OS and the internet.
+ A HIPS is a security-gate between the OS and its kernel.

To give you an idea, on a scale of 0 (none) to 10 (highest), here are my *opinions* as to relative power of some HIPS:

Malware Defender: 9.99 (but it doesn't work on 64-bit)
Comodo's D+: 9.8 (it DOES work on 64-bit)
Online Armor: 6.7 (rated a tad higher than other FW+HIPS combos because it is more granular for managing parent-child configs)
PFW: 6.4
Outpost: 6.0 (Equal in scope to OA & PFW, but it's a tad less configurable)
WinPat: 2

The fact that I rate WinPat as only 2 does NOT mean it is a useless app. It has several other areas that it helps the user manage, even though those areas are not directly within the HIPS purview.

 

This would force you to get up to speed fast, quickly show your weaknesses and you would get all of the latest malware before the general public.

@ bellgamin

I like the order you placed the HIPS, although I have no personal experience with Malware Defender so don't know about its strengths.

How would you order the FW components?

I'd be interested in seeing support for IPv6 protection also.

 

bellgamin

Where would you rank Defensewall / Geswall in this list ?
Thanks
SKA