PrivateFirewall warning

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by samsonite, Oct 20, 2013.

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  1. samsonite

    samsonite Registered Member

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    Just a warning to those who use PrivateFirewall.

    Since the GUI is confusing, I accidently blocked explorer.exe, since I thought it was blocking Internet access (apparently not), and it almost destroyed my entire desktop.

    All desktop icons and taskbar icons stopped working, and I couldn't even access the PrivateFirewall settings, since itself ran as a taskbar icon.

    I was able to uninstalll PrivateFirewall, but all of its previous settings remained. I had to search and delete every remaining bit it left behind to get it back to normal again.

    What a mess.
     
  2. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    It was not privatefirewall that was at fault.
    It was YOU that was to blame.
     
  3. guest

    guest Guest

    It's true that it's the OP's fault. But it's also true that PFW's GUI needs some work.
     
  4. aztony

    aztony Registered Member

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    I hope you're blaming the firewall for doing as you told it to do. o_O
     
  5. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    you could probably have started Task Manager with the usual hotkeys (most people use Ctrl+Alt+Del, but you can also use Ctrl+Shift+Esc or Win+R and type taskmgr), then launch launch PrivateFirewall settings from there (File -> New task (Run...) and browse to the appropriate exe).
     
  6. Feandur

    Feandur Registered Member

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    we are all afraid of failure.

    but when it happens, and we face the deamon, we can look back and see that it was an angle in disguise.

    such was the engraving above the entrance to the mystery schools.

    -cheers,
    feandur
     
  7. Brandonn2010

    Brandonn2010 Registered Member

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    Whoa, that's pretty deep!

    But it's GUI could use an update. Doesn't seem like it's been changed in a few years at least.
     
  8. ginzon

    ginzon Registered Member

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    First if you are not aware of what you do its your fault not the softwares....

    Any Pro Active aka HIPS will block whatever you say explicitly of their own rules... So if you block a system file even though that file is in the Software's trusted list it will be blocked and your system will get screwed.. Novice users and hence warned before playin with such settings...

    NOTE: Do not spread false alarm on stuffs created by your own mistake....
     
  9. samsonite

    samsonite Registered Member

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    I don't think so. I've used firewalls before, and I have never locked myself out from my own computer like that.
    If it happened to me, it could happen to anybody.

    I couldn't even shut down my computer. The program needs better distinction between blocking Internet traffic
    and other kinds of blocks. By blocking explorer.exe, the firewall effectively blocked itself.

    Someone with less experience may be forced to re-install their entire operating system, without knowing how to fix it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2013
  10. aztony

    aztony Registered Member

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    It did exactly what you told it. It blocked explorer.exe, which would have affected every program on the system.

    Bear in mind that before Privatefirewall was offered as freeware it was a pay for commercial grade firewall.
     
  11. samsonite

    samsonite Registered Member

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    Of course I blocked it, under the assumption, that explorer.exe was trying to access the Internet, not my desktop.
    Those are two separate things.
     
  12. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    Why are you blocking explorer.exe.?
     
  13. jnthn

    jnthn Registered Member

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    It's probably one of those parallax things while reading the pop up which led to blocking explorer.exe in lieu of iexplorer.exe. One caveat of using hips, the user really needs to read/re-read the prompts.

    Granted, PrivateFirewall's main window needs quite a bit of a facelift, but the prompts are direct to the point about what the user is about to block or allow.
     
  14. Seven64

    Seven64 Guest

    If you read, he wanted to block internet connection :rolleyes: .

    I block explorer.exe with Outpost for connections, as I don't want or need the crap connecting. :)
     
  15. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    Thats absurd.
    explorer needs to connect to authenticate files etc.

    This paranoia is beyond limits.
     
  16. jnthn

    jnthn Registered Member

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    But can't svchost handle this by itself to check for certificates?
     
  17. Jarmo P

    Jarmo P Registered Member

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    Stupid replies for the OP's post. He was telling advice of not to do, and all some could tell was. "It is your own fault."

    I am not a privatefirewall user but I know what a classical hips can do. So his post was not to be ridiculed.

    Most of us all know that looking something like Process Explorer or Process Hacker can tell us of what not to block from running. Same time I think it was a good warning from the original poster.

    No it does not. It needs to be allowed to run and that is all.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2013
  18. guest

    guest Guest

    Then it's just the matter of how do we assume the purpose of the OP's posts. Still though, I don't see the point of making a thread specifically about PFW. Any CHIPS and AE programs can do the same thing. Just don't understand why should we give warnings to everyone and mentioning certain products when we are messing around with our computers and get ourselves into troubles because of our own actions. :doubt:

    P.S.: Still agree that PFW needs a better GUI.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 22, 2013
  19. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

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    I know what the OP went through. I've done the same thing a couple of time. The first was with a version of the old Tiny firewall many years ago, a newer version than the original that wasn't tiny any longer. I went through blocking various programs and ended up locking myself out of my own computer. This was during the Win 95 or 98 days. I had to re-install the OS and lost many programs that I didn't have floppy discs for.
     
  20. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    legitimate instances of explorer.exe need to run (although if you kill them from task manager, for example, it's not like windows crashes and you are SOL - you can restart them or run another file manager or start the program blocking them and change the settings), but you could also have malware calling itself explorer.exe or svchost.exe so an effective HIPS needs to be able to block processes with those names - if i wrote a virus or spyware script, I'd compile it into svchost.exe with the same icon as the legitimate svchost.exe.
     
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