Webroot (spysweeper) firewall now free

Sadly it does happen OA Free and Comodo 2.4 always handled it like a champ, save for OA's habit of choking under what I assume to be the tons of connections at once (which I assume to be happening, even after Mike has tried his best to help out). I had been toying with the idea of not even having a soft firewall as I'm behind an SPI capable router, but I always tended to say to myself "what if?"

Perhaps it's time to just sit behind Window XP's FW and install Threatfire and leave it with the default config. I'm really not sure yet, I of course want to stay safe, but am sick of dealing with configuring this and that I do still use Sandboxie as that little app has proved invaluable, and I may throw SafeSpace on there again, other than that, I'm finally through, lol.

 

Did you try to add verclsid.exe to the excluded list in DEP?

 

Is this a constant connection or just a phoning home every now and then? If it phones home does it do it at certain times (Like when you reboot your computer) or randomly?

Also, if this is for some auto update check is there some way to disable that and make update checks manual? If so, do the phone homes to webroot continue?

Thanks

 

Unique to P2P setups.-cant you just "set all rules to allow traffic" for eMule?

WDF certainly isnt so noisy normally, once its settled down.

Agree with your sentiments about just using the XP firewall and Threatfire,as you are behind a router in any case-nice and hassle free.

And Safe Space to finish it off while you're on P2P.

There seems to be a sensible backlash happening at the moment, about being uneccessarily paranoid regarding security.

 

I probably can set it to allow all traffic, but then I wonder if I open myself up too much Such is life when you use P2P I guess, eh? Well, I've pretty much determined that XP's FW, Threatfire default and SafeSpace along with Sandboxie will be my arsenal. I certainly see the reasons for having a more advanced setup, but perhaps it's better to stay away from the more complicated things until I've learned more about what they exactly do, why they do it, and how they will react to other software.

I believe with the setup I'm going for along with Firefox with addons, not to mention the computer between my ears, that I have a decent chance of staying fairly safe. It sure is fun playing with these apps though

 

And use a decent backup system in case something goes wrong.

Actually,I never had any problems with P2P,but was never a power user.

Dont forget the AV!

Also you could try another HIPS like Prosecurity or Micropoint,to see if it would suit you better.

 

Don't worry, I've got Avast Home watching over me I haven't used a real backup system as honestly this is a surfing machine for the most part. I don't even online bank, lol. I think my biggest issues with HIPS so far has been trying to decipher the messages they pop up. If it would treat me like an idiot and say "Hey, this app you installed wants to make connections outside, I see no reason for it, but you decide", I'd be somewhat ok.

But, and especially with Webroot (really not trying to knock products here, just discussing my own experiences with them), I get these cryptic messages with next to no basic information, or even a guesstimate at what the app or specific file or whatever is trying to do so I can make at least a decent guess as to what I should do. Instead, "xyz.exe is attempting to make an outgoing connection to IP this and that, or it's asking for an inbound connection, and if I've been using the app for a few minutes or so and now all of a sudden the HIPS lights up with popups, I start scratching my head, hoping to god I didn't screw up by allowing or denying the popup.

I don't consider myself to be a stupid user, I've learned from way too many past mistakes and I try very very hard to watch what I'm doing, but HIPS I'm afraid is beyond my level of understanding, at least it sure seems like that.

 

All makes sense

 

Anyone know anything about the bug in the firewall where you can't delete firewall logs? I posted a question a while back...no response.

 

I have it set up to allow all with bittorrent and all is perfect.I was just asking if someone had some rules.This is the best firewall i have used,and for some reason the lightest.

 

Lol, ok, I'm beginning to hate myself for going back and forth on things, BUT, I also set Emule to Allow All and so far not a peep out of Webroot. I just don't know anymore, lol.

 

Cant see reference anywhere to rules specifically for this wall-so can only give the usual suggestion -contact support at Privacyware or Webroot.

Of course this wall is in fact ,a rebadged Private Firewall 5.5.

I get the distinct impression that PW would be more helpful than Webroot,if you approached them nicely,but who knows.

 

Well, so far so good, Emule has been running for quite some time with no issues. The firewall itself is perfectly alright, I guess in just some situations rules have to be relaxed a bit more than just "default", especially P2P it seems. I guess the good thing is I've pretty much used all the apps I have under Webroot, and, once Webroot knew they were there, it shut up and let me work, lol. So I guess I'm saying all is well for the moment