Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

I don't get that message...

 

I am not able to check for updates

 

What IP pops up in blocked connections log when you try to check for updates? The app fires off a request to 50.87.146.202. Sometimes Windows takes over and sends it to an Akamai IP.

 

I have the maximum setting - Always notify

UAC works by adjusting the permission level of your user account. If you’re doing tasks that can be done as a standard user, such as reading e‑mail, listening to music, or creating documents, you have the permissions of a standard user—even if you’re logged on as an administrator. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-user-account-control
For never notify you always run as administrator

Although the elevation prompt is the most visible part of UAC, UAC also provides the underlying components that allow for increased security with a minimal amount of disruption, especially for standard users. Two of these benefits include:

• Protected Mode in Internet Explorer
• File and registry virtualization

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee679793(v=ws.10).aspx

 

These are the ip's that were logged the last time I tried to check for updates

 

Yo can create such a rule from WFC too. Create a new rule or duplicate an existing one and then double click on it in Manage Rules window to edit the properties of it. Set the Program combo box to All Programs and add the remote addresses and/or ranges into the corresponding field. That's all.

1) This is not required.
2) Duplicate step, from both places you will export the same file.
3) Uninstall is not required. The default rules can be restored directly from the Rules tab in WFC.
4) Not required, not even once.
5) The support will be to update to the latest version.
6) This step is the same from WFC or WFwAS.
7) Having WFC running has nothing to do with this. You can create new rules from both places, as the same Microsoft API is used. However, if WFC is running and it has the "Disable the ability...." enabled, any new rule which is not added through WFC, will be deleted by WFC.

Do you have the rule named "WFC - Windows Firewall Control Updater" in your rules list ? It should allow connections to 50.87.146.202 on TCP protocol. Without this rule this is the blocked connection that appears on my computer and a corresponding notification for it.

 

@alexandrud

Have you news about this ...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/windows-firewall-control-4.347370/page-39#post-2392388

especially about the notification problem?

Greeting and nice weekend!

Alpengreis

 

hahaha got pwned by the developer... that just made my weekend!

 

Yes
These are all the rules I have for wfc

 

My WFC interface window is not showing.
I am new to WFC, so maybe I am not understanding something.

Yesterday I installed a registered WFC 4.1.0.2 on Windows 7.
It was running nicely during testing.
Today I checked "Display notifications on top of other windows" and rebooted Windows.
Then I clicked on the "C:\Program Files\Windows Firewall Control\wfc.exe" link on my desktop.
Resource Monitor shows Processes wfc.exe and wfcs.exe are both running, but the WFC interface window never appeared.
WFC pop-up alerts appear as usual.
How can I open the main WFC interface?

Thank you.

 

With Left Mouse Key on the WFC Tray Icon.

You can also define a Global Hotkey in the Options.

Alpengreis

 

One of the "WFC - Windows Firewall Control Updater" rules should be enough (you don't need both).

If you have WFC blockrule(s) related to this outbound traffic, the blockrule(s) has higher priority than the allow rules ...

Of course, if another (security) program forbid this traffic, then the allow rule(s) is/are ineffectiv too.

Alpengreis

 

Thanks Alpengreis.

 

Windows Firewall Control v.4.1.1.0

What's new:
- Fixed: Rules created for digitally signed programs when using Low notification level are created as block rules instead of allow rules.
- Fixed: Due to the fix for Edge Traversal included in the previous version, the program does not work anymore on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
- Fixed: Connections Log does not display any allowed or blocked connections in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
- Fixed: Ctrl + Alt + 3 does the same as Ctrl + 3, preventing users with different keyboard layout to insert special characters in the search field in Manage Rules.
- Updated: The recommended block rules were removed. Too many questions regarding them.
- Updated: The recommended rule for explorer.exe was modified to allow all connections on remote ports 80 and 443.

Installation notes: Just use the updater to update to this new version.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: b87309cce9f4078ff0fc8af14e9c255e3ffcdf51

Thank you for your support and your feedback.

The following tasks are still set in the backlog and are planned for the next releases:

Code:

- IP addresses converter to CIDR when retrieving them from the API
- New blank rule in Manage Rules.
- Custom URL providers selectable from combo boxes instead of text boxes. Not many users know the alternatives.
- Find duplicates.
- Automatically set High Filtering profile at shutdown and restore the previous at program start-up.
- Fix any remaining bugs.

Feel free to suggest more items or comment on the existing ones. This is a fast update after the summer holiday. The above items require more work.

Have a nice day,
Alexandru

 

Thanks.

 

@alexandrud

Thank you for the great update!

The following is NOT related especially to the new version.

Sometimes, the WFC GUI was unexpectedly closed. I have analyzed this behaviour a bit, but I'm still unsure (it's not reproducable). Also it's not every day the case. However, the reason could be the sleep-mode of my computer.

Here is ONE of the related WFC-Events:

---
Event-ID = 112

The communication channel with the service was unexpectedly closed. Trying to reconnect...

Dieser an net.pipe://localhost/binisoft/[snipped] gesendete Anforderungsvorgang hat innerhalb des konfigurierten Zeitlimits (00:01:00) keine Antwort empfangen. Der für diesen Vorgang zugewiesene Zeitraum war möglicherweise ein Teil eines längeren Timeouts. Mögliche Ursachen: Der Dienst verarbeitet den Vorgang noch, oder der Dienst konnte keine Antwortnachricht senden. Erwägen Sie, das Zeitlimit für den Vorgang zu erhöhen (indem Sie den Kanal/Proxy in IContextChannel umwandeln und die OperationTimeout-Eigenschaft festlegen), und stellen Sie sicher, dass der Dienst eine Verbindung mit dem Client herstellen kann.


Server stack trace:
bei System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DuplexChannelBinder.SyncDuplexRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)
bei System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DuplexChannelBinder.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
bei System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
bei System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
bei System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)

Exception rethrown at [0]:
bei System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
bei System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
bei WindowsFirewallControl.Proxy.IProxy.RemoveExpiredRules()
bei WindowsFirewallControl.Proxy.ProxyClient.RemoveExpiredRules()
---

It's not a big deal for me, but you should know this behaviour.

Have a nice week!

Alpengreis

 

I finally had to un-install and re-install plus delete all the rules and start over and everything is fine now.

 

Well done...

 

Thanks for the update Are you still considering the High Filtering (External Only), Option in Main Panel for Backing-up the WFC Settings, and Ability to Copy Specific Details from Connection Log Entries suggestions?

 

In this order: not yet, yes, see below. I am working on them.

LATER EDIT:
If you select some rules from Manage Rules data grid or some connections from Connections Log, if you press Ctrl+C you will copy the details in clipboard and you can paste them anywhere. If you want only certain column, hide the columns you don't want to be copied.

 

Hello
Each time I start my PC, I got a message from aUAC asking if I allow WFC to make change bla bla bla
Is there a way to avoid this ??
Thanks in advance

 

Make sure you didn't set the wfc.exe to run as Administrator. This file requires normal privileges. If you still receive that UAC message you are probably in the following scenario: wfc.exe tries to connect to the service wfcs.exe but the last one is not yet available. Usually is not yet available if there is a delay in the Windows Firewall start-up. So, if Windows Firewall service is not yet ready, then Windows Firewall Control service is not ready, and then, when wfc.exe tries to connect to the service, if it can't subscribe to the service, it tries to restarts itself with Administrator privileges in order to be able to start Windows Firewall and WFC services. This is where the UAC is popping up.

Is wfc.exe executed from the shortcut that is created from the WFC Main Panel ?
What other security programs do you use ?

 

Windows Firewall Control v.4.1.2.0

What's new:
- New: Added a new button for creating a blank new rule in Manage Rules window.
- New: The URL text boxes from Options tab in Main Panel were changed with combo boxes. Where available, multiple providers were included.
- New: Action category with radio buttons was added to the Properties dialog of a rule.
- New: "Customize and allow..." and "Customize and block..." from Connections Log and New Rules Wizard were merged to a new "Customize and create" function.
- New: Added a new check box in Options tab to automatically set High Filtering profile on system shut down.
- Fixed: When coming from sleep mode, duplicate notifications are displayed for System and svchost.exe, even if there are allow rules that allow all connections for these two programs.
- Fixed: Result dialog after creating a rule from Connections Log is missing if the Connections Log is launched directly from the system tray context menu.
- Fixed: "Jump to rules" does not work from the toolbox button.

Installation notes: Just use the updater to update to this new version.

The following translation strings were changed:
757 = Customize and allow... -> Blank rule
758 = Customize and block... -> Customize and create
314 = Define below the URLs used for various tasks. Use {0} as a substitute for the variable that will be automatically replaced. -> Specify below the URL services used for various verifications

The following translation strings are new:
319 = Automatically set High Filtering profile on system shut down
320 = Network connectivity is allowed only when a profile that allows connections to the network is manually set again.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: 15c7d3ad94a550176c85cabd111125734df49258

Thank you for your support and your feedback.

Have a nice day,
Alexandru

 

I have been using WFC for a week now.
WFC is very nice, easy to use, works as expected.
The user interface is exceptionally logical and easy to use, firewall interfaces aren't going to get any better than this.
Thank you for writing such nice software.