another Windows Firewall Control?

Yes. Give it a try.

 

So I tried the beta. Everything seemed to run fine until I started a program that needs java.exe and javaw.exe (from JRE 7 Update 5) to access the Internet.
WFC does not pop up and Java is blocked.
I had to manually create a rule for each one.

No big thing of course, but you should know about that

 

Thank you for reporting this. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem. I have tested JDownloader which requires Java. It requires an outbound rule to allow connections for javaw.exe. At installation of JDownloader, Windows Firewall asked me if I want to allow inbound connections for "javaw.exe". Then, after the installation was completed, WFC notified me through Learning Mode, that "javaw.exe" tries to connect to internet. I choosed to allow. JDownloader was working fine. Then I deleted all Java related rules from Manage Rules. Learning Mode notified me instantly again about "javaw.exe". Anyone else had problems with Java ?

By the way, which program did you use when Learning Mode did not send you a notification for javaw.exe ?

 

Hello,

I have been running beta 2 for 24 hours and have encountered no problems here. In fact, so far it seems to be the smoothest version yet.

 

Version 3.3.0.4 is out

What's new:
- New: "Learning Mode" was redesigned from scratch and the latency between a blocked connection and the user notification was reduced by 90%.
- New: Multiple simultaneously notifications are supported.
- New: Properties window was redesigned. Now, the user can create a rule for all programs or he can choose only a specific executable file. Also, the direction of the rule can be switched from inbound to outbound and viceversa.
- New: Added the time generated in the Notification window.
- Updated: The validation rules and templates were reworked.
- Fixed: Learning Mode works now in Windows 8 Release Preview and again in Windows Vista.

Download link: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc.exe

Just check for updates and install the new version.

And, off course, share your feedback. Based on your feedback, the current version is where it is now. The problems that you may find in this version, will be fixed in the next version. As puff-m-d said, so far, this it the smoothest version.

Thank you all for your support,
Alexandru

 

I might have said this before, but WFC has extremely frequent fix and update.
I'm amazed, if I ever have new PC , I'll surely donate this one

 

Well, it is updated often because the users participate in the development process. They find bugs, I fix them, they propose new features, I add them, if it is possible. It is an active project.

 

As for java.exe :
With my opera browser I went to
http://www.java.com/de/download/testjava.jsp
to tets the java version.
When doing the test no popup of WFC occurs and the result is that there is an update of Java available (although I of course have the latest version installed).
Having created the rule for java.exe manually and done the test again, the result is that the installation of the latest version is confirmed.

As for javaw.exe I experience the problem with TripleA, a boardgames software to be found here:
http://triplea.sourceforge.net
This software needs javaw.exe for example to connect to dice servers.
Until wfc 3.3.0.3 notification worked, with 3.3.0.4 I have to create the javaw.exe-rule manually.
I reproduced this again this morning using 3.3.0.4 final.

Thank you

 

Strange. I just installed TripleA from the URL that you provided. I executed the application and I pressed on Play Online button. The first thing that happened, I received a message "Could not connect to the server". In the same time, I also received a new notification from WFC regarding javaw.exe. See the screenshot below.

Do you have this problem only with Java ? For other programs, do you receive notifications normally ?

 

Really strange. Yes it's only with Java. Other programs work as expected.
Maybe it is because I use 32bit JRE on a 64bit Windows 7?
But as I said - until 3.3.0.3 there were no problems.

 

Here are the details from the event viewer, if it helps:

Protokollname: Security
Quelle: Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing
Datum: 23.06.2012 18:19:34
Ereignis-ID: 5157
Aufgabenkategorie:Filterplattformverbindung
Ebene: Informationen
Schlüsselwörter:Überwachung gescheitert
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer:
Beschreibung:
Die Windows-Filterplattform hat eine Verbindung blockiert.

Anwendungsinformationen:
Prozess-ID: 2212
Anwendungsname: \device\harddiskvolume2\program files (x86)\java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe

Netzwerkinformationen:
Richtung: Ausgehend
Quelladresse: q1w2:xyz:498b:f04c:abcd:e606:uiop:ggg
Quellanschluss: 50429
Zieladresse: d822:b560::
Zielanschluss: 80
Protokoll: 6

Filterinformationen:
Laufzeit-ID des Filters: 87193
Ebenename: Verbinden
Laufzeit-ID der Ebene: 50
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-A5BA-3E3B0328C30D}" />
<EventID>5157</EventID>
<Version>1</Version>
<Level>0</Level>
<Task>12810</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8010000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-23T16:19:34.642617600Z" />
<EventRecordID>50815</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="52" />
<Channel>Security</Channel>
<Computer> </Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="ProcessID">2212</Data>
<Data Name="Application">\device\harddiskvolume2\program files (x86)\java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe</Data>
<Data Name="Direction">%%14593</Data>
<Data Name="SourceAddress">q1w2:xyz:498b:f04c:abcd:e606:uiop:ggg</Data>
<Data Name="SourcePort">50429</Data>
<Data Name="DestAddress">d822:b560::</Data>
<Data Name="DestPort">80</Data>
<Data Name="Protocol">6</Data>
<Data Name="FilterRTID">87193</Data>
<Data Name="LayerName">%%14611</Data>
<Data Name="LayerRTID">50</Data>
<Data Name="RemoteUserID">S-1-0-0</Data>
<Data Name="RemoteMachineID">S-1-0-0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

I tried "Minecraft" too. It is blocked without notification.

But I've got an idea. Is javaw.exe considered to be a system process now?
Because I don't have "Enable notifications for system applications" checked.

I will try what happens when this is checked.

Edit - result added: No, it has no correlation to system alerts. Even when this box is checked WFC does not notify me about javaw.exe.

 

javaw.exe is not considered a system process. Only "svchost.exe" and "System" are system ones. I will try also on other computers to see if I can reproduce this error. On my development system, I can't reproduce it, as you already have seen.

Anyone else, do you have problems with Java ?

 

Hi Alexander..
Is there any chance when you have time (and if its not too much trouble coding wise) that you could maybe have a close to tray in options so that when the close icon is clicked in gui it will close to tray rather than asking if you really want to exit?.I actually exited the whole thing today (i was doing multiple things at the time)and didnt realize for quite a while that id exited the whole program.I know ..i know... that it does ask do you want to exit yes/no but i still managed(im a dummy) to do it without noticing.Most of my programs have exit to tray options so i guess im used to it that way
tia

 

The purpose of that button is to quit the program. WFC is a tray application. To avoid closing by accident the program I added that message about "Are you sure you want to exit ?"

To close the main window, you have to click again on WFC tray icon, or on any other place outside of the window.

This behaviour is a standard behaviour for Windows tray applications, like Network Connections, Volume, etc.

 

Yes i know what you are saying ,however its not very intuitive (imo) to click the tray icon again or somewhere outside the window to close to tray.An option to close to tray is a lot easier.If someone who has never used WFC before were to try to close to tray i have a feeling they would be clicking everywhere except where they are currently supposed to ,which is what i did at first.I consider WFC a little more advanced than the windows volume/network icon and most security programs ,like appguard.spyshelter,sandboxie and probaly 99.9 of every av ,and other firewalls have a close to tray option,by just clicking the X or close icon.

 

For testing purposes I uninstalled 3.3.0.4 and went back to 3.3.0.3.
Then javaw.exe-notification worked as expected.
Returning to 3.3.0.4 WFC failed to notify again.

 

I can confirm the java problem. Noticed it with Minecraft. I didn't get any notification for javaw.exe, nor Minecraft. Could it be a problem with 64bit java? Can't remember having the issue with 32bit. It started when I installed 64bit additionally. Would have to do more tests to be sure.

 

Hi,

I'm new to this, but not computers/firewalls.

I paid earlier today for a license.

I'm using Medium Filtering, Learning Mode, and Enable notifications for system applications. I just upgraded to Windows 7 and want to get it dialed in as tightly as possible - including the system processes.

I've got this dialog a few times today. It's missing the information on where the EXE is connecting to, what port, etc. That would be good to know

http://realityisreality.com/wfc.png

I also had a few random crashes today but not sure what info you might need to help track them down.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Hm... I'm using 32bit JRE 7 update 5 on 64bit Windows 7 HP...

 

Please go to Event Viewer. In the "Applications and services logs" category you will find a subcategory named "WFC". Please check if there are any errors logged for WFC. If, so, please choose to "Save All Events As..." to export a file with those events. Please send this file to: support@binisoft.org and a short description.

About the random crashes, please be more specific. When did the crash occurred ? What Windows version do you use ? x86 or x64 ? Version (Ultimate, Home), Language (English, Spanish, etc).?

 

Well, I was using that too, and I installed the 64bit version additionally.

 

Right, what I wanted to say was that it happened to me even without aditionally installing 64bit JRE.

 

Another thing I noticed is, that very often it takes quite a long time for the "manage rules" window to open, up to 15 seconds. During this time the client is unresponsive.

Additionally sometimes the client crashes without a message when trying to open the "manage rules" window. The client simply stops running, when I hover with the mouse over the tray icon, it vanishes.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate 64/English. The crashes seems to occur when I had the rules window open. I'll pay more attention and try to get more specific info on the crashes.

On the missing port/IPs on the dialog issue.. I don't see anything in the WFC log. Do I need to turn something on to get it logging?

Thanks
Mark