Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by alexandrud, May 20, 2013.

  1. turion

    turion Registered Member

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    Agreed, alexandrud has been honest addressing the questions related to the telemetry issue. I don't see any reason to doubt him if he says he's the only one working on this latest release, it's not like MB is sneakily inserting some code collecting as much as possible about us. Should MB discontinue WFC development somewhere in the future, we can still choose to block those telemetry by then.

    Lets look forward to the next release with bug fixes and new or improved features.
     
  2. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    I also don't doubt him, but I don't know whether he will keep us updated to potential expansion of telemetry.
     
  3. guest

    guest Guest

    As i said, WFC is no more property of @alexandrud; if some privacy paranoids can't stand some telemetry, they should look for another product; instead of pointlessly forcing their opinion (anyway, Malwarebytes won't care of an handful of paranoids)
     
  4. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    :argh:
     
  5. Deletedmessiah

    Deletedmessiah Registered Member

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    I dislike how Malwarebytes is going from great companion product to mediocre suite. But as far as the company goes, I feel they do better than most other companies keeping products they acquired alive. Most other vendors wouldn't continue WFC at all.
     
  6. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    I don't think I am forcing my opinion. I am just sharing my opinion. Maybe it will be considered as worthwhile feedback, maybe not.
     
  7. Freki123

    Freki123 Registered Member

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    @alexandrud Thanks for the nice program and your time and effort you spend on this forum :)

    The rights for the program are sold so it's either live with the telemetry(or use older version) or move on.
     
  8. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Echo this same sentiment. Very nice program and one of those that over the years still stand the test of time and metal. For a front-end it is really interesting and helpful to keep track what's running in and out for the most part etc. network wise.
     
  9. mocca

    mocca Registered Member

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    Hi
    I recently installed Windows Firewall Control on Win 10 Home, replacing whatever there was as default.

    I have noticed that some of my pre-existing security programs (e.g. Tor, Emsisoft Emergency Kit, Epic Privacy browser) are not able to function under 'medium filtering' (recommended) but need to be under the 'low filtering' option.

    No matter what I've tried so far, I have been unable to give these programs access to the web under the medium filtering setting. Is there a trick I'm missing, or do I have to rember the exception cases and always manually lower the filter if I am to use them?

    Thanks for any pointers
     
  10. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    You need to open the WFC window and click on notifications on the left hand side and check the radio button to display notifications or put it in learning mode.
     
  11. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

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    "Display notifications", then look in the "Connections Log" for blocked outbound connections to your Tor etc. and create the correct enabling rule.
    11.png
    When using the Learning mode, you will automatically create a lot of rules, necessary and unnecessary, and you can not figure them out.
     
  12. mocca

    mocca Registered Member

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    Thanks aldist (and whitedragon551) for the answers and for moving my post to this more relevant topic.
     
  13. TerryWood

    TerryWood Registered Member

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    Hi @ Wilders

    Win 10 Latest version x64 bit.

    I am using WFC over the last week and like it. I have it set on medium filtering with Display Notifications set.

    The notifications have now reduced, but I have noticed with Opera Browser and Google Chrome that I am periodically having to "approve" pop up notifications that have previously been approved.

    In Operas case this is related to the auto update function which operates from the Windows Temp folder and changes location on or after each update.

    Similarly, Chrome on googleupdate.exe causes a popup through WFC and requires approval for a new rule.

    I know you cannot use wild cards on the Windows Filtering platform, but I would be very interested if other Wilders members are experiencing popups with Chrome and Opera, and whether there is a permanent solution?

    Thanks Terry
     
  14. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

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    If I used Opera or Chrome, I would turn off their automatic update, and update them occasionally and only manually.
    Previously, at the forum there was such a recommendation, try to interpret it to your situation, but I do not know if it will help you.
     
  15. TerryWood

    TerryWood Registered Member

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    Hi Aldist

    Thanks very much - Really helpful. Going to give it a whirl.

    Terry
     
  16. AmigaBoy

    AmigaBoy Registered Member

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    Not 100% sure, but I think something changed recently and the WFC Spooler rule is no longer enough for the "Microsoft Print To PDF" virtual printer in Windows 10 (17134.191) to work properly with most programs (3rd-party browsers, Office etc.). It is throwing errors. I added an extra rule which seems to work (UDP Out, Private, Remote port 8613, Remote address 255.255.255.255, Local address=my local IP).
     
  17. alexandrud

    alexandrud Developer

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    Yes, Microsoft does this kind of things.
     
  18. Poppeye

    Poppeye Registered Member

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    Exactly the same thing happened to me. Same error message, I also opted to retain rules. Installing 5.4 fails, re-installing 5.3.1 works without a problem.
     
  19. DavidXanatos

    DavidXanatos Developer

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    Since this tool have now been made freeware, how about to go all in and make it Open Source?

    Cheers
    David X.
     
  20. guest

    guest Guest

    yes sure, Malwarebytes paid for it to give it away...:rolleyes:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2018
  21. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    It was sold. Some company paid for that. I doubt MB is going to release it's source code.
     
  22. DavidXanatos

    DavidXanatos Developer

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    I thought they "bought" (that is hired) the developer with the tool.
    First it seamed as they would stop the development of the tool, and now they switched to giving it away for free.

    So it seams to me they were mostly interested in getting the developer with his nice skill set to work for them and the tool was just a condition of getting him on board.
    Like: sure I'll work for you for $$$$/month but only of you also buy my great tool for $$$$$$ now they have him on board for their projects, he got his $'s

    The company wanted him not the tool, so why not do something good for the world and make this tool open source.

    I mean this would be great free publicity to help selling their more advanced products.
     
  23. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    They probably fear some other company would copy paste code and integrate into competing product. I know viral licenses can prevent that, but it wouldn't prevent fork of WFC being maintaned by community.
    Windows and 3rd party security tools are being developed by companies with closed-source mentality. You need to switch to Gnu/Linux or BSD-family OSes if you want FOSS tools. But ****posting asking about open-sourcing WFC maybe at least would ease them to be more transparent about telemetry.
    Even with this closed-source mentality they are security company after all. They should have higher standards than Facebook. If you value privacy you don' use FB or limit using it to minimum and share minimum amount of information to keep in touch with your friends. Does MB want to tell users that they should not use or limit use of MB products by not being transparent about telemetry?
     
  24. guest

    guest Guest

    Free in short term. WFC is supposed to be integrated in Malwarebytes Premium, then they decided to check if keeping a standalone version is beneficial for them, hence making it for free but integrating telemetry to see if the customer base of WFC is large enough to maintain its development. If not, they will abandon it and just integrate it on MB.

    They wanted the tool but integrated in MB.
     
  25. Circuit

    Circuit Registered Member

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    Big no for me.:thumbd:
    Malwarebytes are telemetry specialist.
     
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