Private Firewall Updated (again)

I think not, but The Port Tracking report Tab monitors all system ports and protects them against any unauthorized entry.


Rules

 

Thanks for that. It is good to know it is at least monitoring those. It just would have been nice to have a little bit more control over it.

 

"Enable Process detection" is disabled by default.

Should I enable this? What does it do exactly?

And there seems to be stuff missing from the firewall listing, e.g Punkbuster doesn't display anywhere but it should.

 

This feature records all processes that are launched during the 'Training Period', which can be set to 1, 3, or 7 days (please refer to Advanced Settings section). Training is enabled by default and commences for a ten minute period immediately upon installation. Extended training periods of 1, 3, 7 or 14 days can be specified as needed. Listed processes can be viewed at any time by selecting the 'Processes' Tab within the Advanced Applications Settings window.

If no others security product monitors your process, you should enable process detection.

Rules.

 

My game-playing friend says. . .

1- Punkbuster has certain activities similar to spyware. Therefore, your antivirus or antispyware might have eaten it. Did you check to see if PnkBstrB.exe and PnkBstrA.exe are actually installed? Both of these files are normally located in the "C:\Windows\system32" folder. If not there, & if you’re running Windows Vista/7, then you must run your browser as admin, otherwise some Punkbuster installation steps may fail.

2- Some firewalls must be manually configured so as to allow PnkBstrB.exe and PnkBstrA.exe permission to access the internet. To do this with PFW --
A- open PFW's GUI

B- In the left-side column, click Applications.

C- Right click any app on the applications list & you will see "Add new application." Use that action in order to add PB's apps to the list.

D- Once PB's apps are added, right click them and click on "Set all rules to allow traffic." By so doing, you have just dropped your trousers, then bent over and grabbed both your ankles. The best of British luck to you.
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I have no idea what PB is or does. I'm just reporting what a friend said. I am not responsible for any problems that may result from following his advice. This includes, but is not limited to, computer failure, erectile disfunction, PMS, the heartbreak of psoriasis, or your daughter running off with a biker gang. Follow these suggestions at your own risk.

 

Aloha pajenn,

Private Firewall's Tech Support requests you to PLEASE try PFW again. If it again triggers a BSOD, they ardently seek your crash-dump files so that they can pin-point what needs to be fixed.

Thus far they have received NO other reports of BSODs. That doesn't necessarily mean that BSODs haven't possibly happened to some other folks. It could simply mean that other folks quickly gave up & sought a firewall elsewhere.
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For ANYONE having any issue with PFW - - -

PFW's Tech Support is very happy whenever anyone reports an issue directly to them by inputting a ticket at:

http://www.privacyware.com/support_ticket.html.

Optionally you can email Tech Support directly at following address:

gsalvato at pwicorp dot com
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Many folks here at Wilders will attest to the fact that PFW's Tech Support is fast to respond, and very helpful, & quite friendly.

 

It's a program that is supposed to prevent cheating in online games. I personally don't like it.

 

Are there any issues when running Private Firewall under standard user account?

 

I'm still using PFW on my 32-bit Windows XP system, and it has worked fine since the BSOD. The BSOD named one of the PFW files as the culprit (probably pwipf6.sys or maybe pfsvc.exe), but I didn't take a photo of the screen and there are no dmp or mdmp files on my computer. If it happens again I'll at least snap a pic of the BSOD with my phone to send to PFW's tech support.

 

AFAIK, PFW runs okay under standard user account.

Also, a prior update to PFW added fast user switch (multi-user) support for Windows workstations. See Post 74 in this thread.
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NOTE: I always run as Admin so I plan to verify the above info with PFW Tech Support.

 

PFW's Tech Support has verified that PFW does support limited user/non-admin accounts. This support was added by a update that was issued in January 2011.

 

thanks. I will try it later today.

 

I've used the latest PFW in a SUA/LUA without any issues. It should work fine for you.

 

I see three entries in PFW's " Trusted Network". The first two with net masks 8 and 64 and the last one with internal I.P. 192.168.1.0 and net mask 255.255.255.0. Could anyone please tell me what are the first two? Also today when I clicked on the edit button of the first two entries, PFW crashed. Has anyone encountered a similar problem?

 

The first two are IPv6. I have the same thing and emailed support with a screen shot and Greg said do not remove them.

 

Thanks a lot Rilla927.

 

You are welcome

 

RELEASE NOTES - 7.0.24.7, posted 6/6/2011
- Fixed GUI crash issue.
- Fixed external application lockup issue.
- Fixed invalid PID issue.


http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html

 

Thank you, installed on top of previous build without hassle.

 

Would this be the fix for the fullscreen app lock-up issue?

 

Oh my gosh! These installs have been the installs from hell! The first time was the version prior to this last one. I followed the instructions and exported my settings and then un-installed the old version. Complete PC freeze, eventually restoring to a CTM snapshot. Then I tried the install over the old version and the same thing happened. So last night I figured I'd try this version and installed over the old version first. After the reboot PW was still in the start menu but the GUI or the task bar icon would not even appear. It was like it removed the old version but never replaced it. CTM to the rescue again. Today I exported the settings and for probably 15 or more minutes I fought with another frozen PC and a GUI that did not want to open. Miraculously I somehow eventually was able to import the old settings and it seems to be working fine. I'd thought the problems a few weeks ago were Zemana related but I'm not so sure now. This episode occurred on an XP SP3 desktop but last time it happened on this machine and my Vista laptop. Will be interesting to see what happens on it when I try the update.

 

Ratchet, I've installed PF both over the top and clean installs on XP Pro SP3 machines several times (through this mornings latest version) all without issue.
(These machines run Sandboxie as well.)

However, as I have mentioned in the past, something in Zemana does not seem to play nicely with PF even with the HIPS module of one or the other "disabled". At least that was my finding when I tested the protection with both installed simultaneously.

If I were a betting man that would be where I'd look for the source of the conflict.

 

Thanks fro the reply! I never did get the previous version installed so I figured I'd try this version. Last night I exited Z (I realize not the same as removing!) but today I thought maybe I should leave it running and answer any prompts which brings me to your point ("when I tested the protection"). Z never seems to miss a trick, yet it never once prompted that there was a new version (or changed files) of PFW. So are you implying I have less protection now? If so, I'll just restore to the PFW version prior to these last two. Thank you!

 

I'm no expert so I can only report my experience with some of the keylogger tests available from Zemana, SpyShelter and the like.

I found that when Zemana and Privatefirewall were both installed at the same time (using only one of the two programs as an active HIPS, PF's firewall and the keylogger module of Zemana), that Zemana failed to catch even its own logging tests.

This led me to believe that even with one of the HIPS modules disabled, that there was a conflict somewhere resulting probably from too many low level drivers, hooks, kernel issues...whatever.
(As I say, I'm not expert.)

So, in my case I decided to opt for PrivateFirewall alone and uninstalled Zemana which I had gotten the free one year license for via the forums. (I really didn't intend to stay with a subscription service in any case.)

My reasoning was this...PrivateFirewall has a good rep. Has performed well on the Matousec site's tests (fully realizing that folks have issues with Matousec) AND, by utilizing Sandboxie to restrict "internet" and "start/run" privileges to only the programs I want in each sandbox, the chance of a "logger" getting through is greatly reduced.

Plus you have the added protection of your A/V and on-demand scanners.

So, that's what we found in a nutshell.

Currently, I have PrivateFirewall with Sandboxie and MSE running on my wife's XP Pro SP3 computer without issue.

I use Online Armor on mine (in place of PF) because I get the same firewall, anti-logger and HIPS protection but there are some additional features I find of use.

I hope you find this helpful and feel free to ask for further detail if you need it. I'll do my best to answer.

 

Installed the updated PFW version on 3 machines. All of them worked perfectly.

I ran SpyShelter's group of POC tests. PFW snagged them all!

Whenever PFW popped an alert, I clicked on the option for "More details" -- very informative! It's a good way to learn about some of the changes that a keylogger trojan will make to one's computer if the trojan is not blocked.