Looking for Kerio 2.1.5 alternative

Hello,

I've been using Kerio 2.1.5 for multiple years, because of its lightweight and ability to restrict program AND restrict programs only to selected IP's & Ports.

Since a few months, I get a lot of BSOD's (Driver_IRQ_LESS_OR_EQUAL) point to fwdrv.sys as the source of it.

Can someone please recommend an equal lightweight firewall that also offers program and program IP & port restrictions just like Kerio 2.1.5 can please ?

 

Just an idea. If the problems started just since a few month, it is reasonable to assume that it is because another software is in conflict with Kerio driver. If you want to keep using Kerio, you might try to pinpoint which software caused the conflict...

 

Yes, you are correct I spent a lot of time chasing down this fwdrv.sys matter.

It is not a "certified" driver anymore and one of your other SW tools is in conflict with it I'm 99.9999% sure of this. So you have a choice to make
keep 2.1.5 and rid yourself of the conflicting software OR replace Kerio.

I hate the idea of replacing Kerio but I did it so I could use Perfect Disk for defragging etc. So if you went that route print / store ALL your Kerio rules first so you can "replicate" your rules into a "new" FW tool. I used print screen paste to paint to do that.

Then download some alternatives that are free since Kerio is free I'm assuming you want to stay free. If I assume that you are able to create and modify rules as with Kerio then the 2 way freebies you could consider are:

1) Online Armor but not as much rule control there as I would want but it works okay
2) Outpost Pro free version. Lacks the spy-ware and web control but you can cover that other ways
3) PC Tools Personal FW+ don't know latest version number off hand it has the advantage of an update service but 1 and 2 don't.

I realize that others will have other ideas BUT I only mention products I have actually used myself.

Good luck with this I have been down this road myself. I still miss Kerio! Sort of like my first car!

 

Comodo Firewall Enterprise Strength (Free) just the first choice in the CIS just disable the AV and install the Firewall Only thus it runs light on the system then running everything in the entire suite. If you do BT stuff then use Rising PF below.

Rising Personal Firewall 2009 International (Free) this one is good but you need to change the rules set as it allows which it should deny instead. Minor glitch but all you have to do is change the rule.

 

Thanks a lot and thanks for the tips about first storing my rules with a printscreen, I have to get another FW now, since it makes my pc BSOD like every week now, and it happens completely unexpected, ie, when no programs running, only the background apps, sometimes in the morning i see my computer BSOD'ed. The minidump doesn't reveal much to me, only the fwdrv.sys is always pointed at as the one that triggered it.

Seems like I have to tell it farewell hope to find another lightweight that have the same powerful and easy configuration method.

 

Hi,

let me quote Fuzzfas from this thread:

I tested many firewalls eg. Kerio 2.1.5 (on XP machine I got the same error which you get now), Rising Personal Firewall 2009 Free, PC Tools Firewall, Comodo, Look'n'Stop Firewall, Windows Vista/7 Firewall Control, DefenseWall Personal Firewall (closed beta), Online Armor (paid) and this is my order list from the lightest to the heaviest firewall (summary CPU and RAM usage) which I had on my computer configuration (XP/7):


Kerio 2.1.5 = Windows Vista/7 Firewall Control -> Look'n'Stop = DefenseWall Personal Firewall (beta) -> Rising Personal Firewall 2009 Free -> PC Tools Firewall -> Comodo -> Online Armor (paid)


Please note: I could say that DefenseWall Personal Firewall is light like Kerio 2.1.5 because DefenseWall Personal Firewall is a combo: well known DefenseWall HIPS + implemented Firewall module.
DefenseWall Personal Firewall v3 works almost the same - if we are talking about CPU and memory usage (maybe a little bit lighter than DefenseWall HIPS v.2.56) as DefenseWall HIPS v.2.56.
So in my case implemented Firewall in DefenseWall weighs almost nothing!

HTH,
Creer

 

Everything I use in the test rigs is 100% freeware for defense: I use Comodo FW only and Rising AV 2009 Free on 11 year old Toshiba Tecra 8000 system (wireless N laptop) if rebuilt and that has only PII 266MHz L2 512KB, 256MB of SDRAM, 40GB 7200RPM HDD. Still I got XP Pro SP3 and SunMicro OpenOffice on it and runs like very well for it's age!

 

DOSawaits & Creer,

Different brands of firewalls have various amounts of computer resources "flying below the radar". Task manager may show PC Tools fw using less RAM than OA, but OA is really much lighter than PC Tools fw. On my XP sp3 running PCTFW, I get "Windows is increasing my paging file" a lot. Where as with OA on my system I don't get that.

I think OA Free is your best choice to replace Kerio 2.1.5. HIPS can be turned off in OA Free/Premium.

 

Just use the Comodo Firewall Only very light on the system. Doesn't cause issues. Don't bother with Rising Firewall somehow after a period of time it will block the current LAN. I watch it happen with Network Drive Manager warns me when a network drive is not responding anymore.

 

Given a choice, I'd track down just what it is that Kerio isn't getting along with, whether it's a new or updated application or a windows update and restore my system to the point before the problem appeared. As a matter of policy, I make full system backups before installing or updating anything, all of which is done manually. This makes it easy to resolve this kind of problem. Fortunately, I haven't had any problems with Kerio conflicting or crashing on any of the systems I maintain.

I don't see it mentioned what OS you're using, so I'm assuming it's XP. By any chance, did you install SP3 shortly before the problem started? I've had to remove SP3 from a couple of XP units because of conflicts with other security apps.

 

Try the suggestion at https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1137874&postcount=3

 

I remember doing that since some months because it was popping up tray balloon about highering the buffer when I was streaming wireless to PS3, that could actually be the reason of the crashes lately.

Anyway thanks everyone for the tips, I'm currently running 2Virtual XPSP3's, 1 with Comodo Firewall, and 1 with Online Armor Free, and it seems the latter is much heavier on system responsiveness, so my current choice would be Comodo FW, although I had once sweared to NEVER use anything Comodo related.

So far it's running quite light, hope it will stay that way when rules are starting to build up.

 

Have you considered trying Jetico? Version 1 is freeware. That's what I migrated to from Kerio. I liked Jetico so much that I dropped some cash on version 2 after it was released. Just a suggestion.

 

Thanks Derelict, I'll give this one a try too.
Does it have the same app/dest ip/dest port per application options like Kerio ?

 

Yes, it is highly configurable; you'll be able to make any rule in Jetico that you could make in Kerio. You can even set rules for specific TCP flags which is something that Kerio can't do. It uses tables which is different from Kerio, but easy to get used to. Version 2 introduced some HIPS capabilities which is redundant for me with Malware Defender. It also introduced application and IP groups which adds some convenience to rule creation. I have tried the other firewalls suggested and always end up back to Jetico within short order for one reason or other.