I guess new employment and further post-grad educational commitment takes its' toll on ones spare time and from what I have read in this large thread Tinywall is a spare time hobby project! Eventually ultim should catch up and get back to us...fingers crossed!
I downloaded and installed TinyWall onto my Windows 7 64 machine yesterday. I saw the rule changes it put in place, but could not get the UI console to open from the Start Menu. It did open through right clicking on the task bar icon though. My user profile in Windows 7 is customized and not in the default position and I have a feeling that TinyWall is not flexible enough to learn and accommodate that. With so many applications using the user profile directory to store their data, my OS drive was getting bloated, so I set up another partition to hold my profile directory. I now have a few teething problems!
I can't believe i had missed this. I installed it yesterday and it's such a relief! I uninstalled my (paid) Sphinx Win7 Firewall control, which had a small bug and a nasty activation scheme that wouldn't show you if it activated correctly or not and installed this. It's sooooo good! Default deny! So simple, i love it! It's like being back to Kerio 2 or Ghostwall days, where everything was light and bloatless. Thanks a lot to the dev!
This is a gem of a firewall, after using "pay for firewalls" I come back to this. Lighting fast. I also like the block everything until I give permission.
Just finished building a new win7 computer and installed this. Very nice and light. I have a question. I allowed firefox to access the internet obviously but how do I prevent another application from using firefox to access it's homepage via a typical link in the "help" menu of the program?? I've tried 2 different programs and they both can access their home pages. I also set up under Manage/Add Application/Always block all traffic, they both can still access their home page. What am I doing wrong?
You mean there is a help menu containing a weblink, that if you click it, they launch Firefox and Firefox goes to a specific website? There's nothing you can do... It's not the firewall's job to do anything about that. You 'd need something to stop interaction between the 2 processes, something a HIPS could do (like Comodo).
I really like this Firewall, although I'm concerned that it has been abandoned by the developer. No updates to the site or app since July, and no posts on here either. I emailed him last week just to see if its still being developed, but not reply. Its working great at the moment, but when it comes to security software it feels bad to be using something that appears to have been abandoned...
Who cares as long as it works? The firewall engine used is Win7 Firewall, the program itself is just an addon-rule management. So you should be concerned only if MS stops updating your Windows.
I am not familiar with how that list updates, but could be that you are missing something in the rules. I mean, i made Utorrent and EMule work with specific port rules, chances are, anything else can work after that.
I also love TinyWall, except for one recurring issue. Documenting my experience here in the hope to developer gets back to this sometime & it is of some use. My PC (Windows 7) is set up with limited accounts for all of the users. Only the admin account has full access permissions. When logging into a limited account, sometimes (but not all) TinyWall will popup requesting login as Admin (I believe it is trying to Elevate permissions) If I cancel, TinyWall doesn't work, and the exception at the end of this post gets logged. If I enter Admin password, TinyWall works, but I think it loses any previous learning. It just did this to me, so I cancelled then restarted and TinyWall decided to work correctly. As the exception below includes Threading & ThreadPoolWaitOrTimerCallback and I have TinyWall set to automatically start on login, I'd be looking at timing-related issues - perhaps attempting to start too early or not waiting long enough. System.OperationCanceledException: The operation was canceled. at System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogException.Throw(Int32 errorCode) at System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.NativeWrapper.EvtNext(EventLogHandle queryHandle, Int32 eventSize, IntPtr[] events, Int32 timeout, Int32 flags, Int32& returned) at System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogWatcher.RequestEvents() at System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogWatcher.SubscribedEventsAvailableCallback(Object state, Boolean timedOut) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean ignoreSyncCtx) at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitOrTimerCallback.PerformWaitOrTimerCallback(Object state, Boolean timedOut)
I also found out that you can't update automatically Avast... Seems that Avast needs a process called avast.setup.exe, which is probably temporarily spawned when needed. There is no way to find it in Avast's folder so to allow it manually. Tinywall does detect Avast and tries to make "autorules", but misses this exe that is needed for the updates. The only workaround is to manually change Tinywall to "allow all outbound", manuall then update avast and set Tinywall back to "normal mode". But it's too much hassle to this several times a day.
Hey, check this link: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2118985#post2118985 Hope it helps Btw turn your tinywall mode to learning mode and press detect in tinywall settings where u add individual programs to allow net access. So only press detect when you start the avast av update check, then the tinywall will find it ''avast.setup'' fast accept it and the auto-update works Im not much of a explainer
Wow thanks! I tried that once, but didn't work. It must be a timing issue. Now i will install Avast and try again and keep trying until i catch it at the right moment. Great info!
Ok, the detect method, doesn't work for me. I only got it once to work, but it was pure luck. My computer, i think connects too fast and closes the connection before the detection is over. BUT, here's what i did. Avast.setup, appears for 1 second on my PC in C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\Setup\avast.setup In Normal mode, open Manage, Add Application, Browse for a File and go to the "Setup" folder inside Avast's main directory.Keep that open. Open Avast and click for updates. Avast.setup, will appear for 1 second and disappear again. It's doable, to click on it while it appears, hit quickly "open" and apply and you 're done. Anyway, now i am exporting the rules, cause i don't want to have to do that again. Thanks for the idea.
Yea, that's probably it. Your computer connects much faster to avast update servers than myne does Il have to keep your solution in mind if il install avast again and would have the same problem Thanks. Luckily my computer is slow xD and im happy with Roboscan + Tinywall combo You mean exporting tinywall rules?
Yes, i have already exported and imported successfuly tinywall rules in the past, so i just re-exported them, with avast.setup already there and allowed, so hopefully, if i restore a Macrium image, i can import them and Avast rule will be there without having to do the same procedure again. Anyway, if it wasn't you, i would have abbandoned hope to make Avast work with Tinywall, so thanks again!
Aa okay Haven't tried the export/inport option, glad it's working and yes wise choice. No problem at all glad i was able to
Just noticed that if I uninstall AnyDVD, the tinywall exception rules (programs that are allowed) goes blank and I have to tell tinywall what they are again. I forgot to export first!
Hi, Does anyone know what are the entries in connections list with process (id) = Idle (0)? How can I allow if these are getting blocked?
Also just noticed that it appears to be related to how fast you login to the computer. If on startup immediately login to a limited account, I get the TinyWall login as Admin behaviour. If I let the PC sit at the login screen (duration unknown) then TInyWall works correctly. Which further supports my timing-related issue theory, and that it is attempting to do something before the system is ready. Shame the source code isn't available, otherwise I'd go on a bug hunt!
I have been away from Windows for quite sometime now and i was looking for a firewall that was light and not full of bells and whistles and bloat that so many vendors seem to add these days. What a little gem Tinywall is, i really hope ultim is both ok and that he has not abandoned his project.
Hello Everybody, this is me, ultim. It is way overdue that I give some sign of being alive. After so many months of lack of updates, it is no wonder if some of you started wondering whether TinyWall was abandoned. First, I absolutely owe translators an apology, for I have received multiple new translations yet I have still not integrated them. Rest assured, I *will* include them in the next update. There is nothing wrong with the translations, I just simply didn't bring out any updates since the summer of 2012. But this will change soon(ish). There are a couple of reasons why updates have been lacking. I've been working on my master's thesis a lot, and when not, I was occupied by countless other projects. For about three months I even paused my master's thesis to get a prototype of a to-be commercial product for photographers done, on which I worked almost day and night. I also used to take a major role in a large organization for student exchange programs that lasted 'till mid-december, and I have been asked to take another one on an international level (and I'm taking it). I also have several hobby projects running in security, multimedia and electronics, though most of these are halted/progressing slowly because of all the other higher priority items. Due to my studies, sometimes I also need to travel abroad, which does not happen as often as it used to half a year ago, but when it does, it usually occupies multiple days at once. And as a last item, I'm also participating in the online anime-community. I'm not saying that all these fill out every single wake-hour of each day since last summer, but when working on so many things, sometimes it does feel nice not do programming when I get a few hours of free time. And TinyWall is nothing but programming. Add to that, that TinyWall has already developed past the point that I originally envisaged (remember, I was originally making it for myself and I shared it with you). Of course it is way beyond that now. This means that now I am developing TinyWall for others instead of for me, which, truth to be told, is a bit less of a driving force. On the other hand, it does motivate me a lot that in general people like TinyWall. The number of translations I've received is enough proof that many people value TinyWall. I've read countless positive reviews from all over the world, some official ones on news sites, some personal. I've got very nice e-mails too. Even if I just read back here on Wilders, I see many thankful posts. I've been contacted by various persons, from professional artists to security analysts, even adnetwork providers and toolbar maintainers. But do not worry, I will not bundle TinyWall with such software. I have always rejected bundling TinyWall with adware and will continue to do so. So, I am well and kicking (thanks for asking ) and after I get some higher priority things done I will hurry to pick up on my hobbies, TinyWall amongst others. One of the most requested features is the ability to turn off the keyboard shortcuts. Also, it seems people often get confused by the automatic network zone switching and now I have a feeling it does more damage than it helps mobile users, so I'd like to remove that feature. There is also a (single!) crash report. To be honest, I've never found the root cause of it, but at least I can stop it from crashing the service coz I know where it happens. And of course, all the new translations (5!) are to be integrated and two databases (hosts list + recognized programs list) are to be updated significantly. I will also do some in-depth testing on Windows 8. I've already got several reports that TinyWall works perfectly with Win8, but I somehow doubt that users tried all the edge cases and looked at all the technicalities, so I'm gonna go for those personally. My goal to put a “Windows 8 compatible” mark on TinyWall, with a bit of luck I won't have to change anything, but I still need to verify everything. Anyway, these are what you should expect for the first update early-mid summer and as you can see, it should address most (if not all) remaining issues. After that, I'm thinking about developing two entirely new features, though I am not sure yet how to technically go about them. One is to automatically generate updated databases on the server, so that I don't have to do it manually every single time. The program already tries to update them regularly, but it isn't worth much if I don't actually release new database versions. So I want to automate that. There is also a second feature that I'd love to see and use myself (that means even more motivation, remember?), but I'd rather leave it as a surprise because I'm not sure yet if it is possible at all, so I don't want to get your hopes up. Though if I manage to pull it off, you will absolutely love it! It has to do with blocklists, but I'm not saying anything else. Anyway, I will only look at these new features after the first update is out. Wow, that's a... long post. To sum it up: 1) I'm not dead 2) TinyWall's not dead 3) Update will come, please be patient 4) Thank you! Cheers, ultim
