I used to use PeerBlock years ago due to paranoia and solely paranoia. I never did torrenting or anything of that sort. I stopped using PeerBlock when I moved to a strict LUA set up, since it became a conflictive security layer for me (for reasons MoonBlood mentioned). I don't do blocking anymore outside of firewalls. I do use AdBlock Plus for Firefox, though. I use the Anti-Ad list and Privacy list.
Something kind of unexpected happened with Comodo Dragon installed Peer Block kept blinking and this while i was in Firefox so i clicked on the icon to see why it was blinking there was a long line of Comodo entries being blocked.. fist thought was the auto updater but i have that turned off.. *edit* can't find a way to white list applications either.. *edit* discovered the way to get the IP white listed.. a right click to allow it..
I still using peerblock, but notice that I don't see allot block http posting in the log file.. while surfing the web. Thanks Rick
That is how I use it. I have a personal black list and a white list. The lists from bluetack are routinely updated. I have: P2P Spyware Advertising which are 3 of the 4 standard lists and I have added bogon and dshield I personally don't need a new version with a fancy intereface. Blocking logs are active daily here is a public typical block log entry I translated for the thread. Order 1 IP Address 64.18.21.1 Country USA - Massachusetts Network Name CYBERTRUSTCIDR Owner Name Baltimore Technologies From IP 64.18.16.0 To IP 64.18.31.255 Contact Name Baltimore Technologies Address 77 A Street Needham Email steve.booth@verizonbusiness.com Abuse Email steve.booth@verizonbusiness.com Phone +1-410-487-0314 Whois Source ARIN Host Name Resolved Name
Well here we are into Tuesday and so far no word.. maybe he's wading through all of the emails before he gets to mine..
I'm using Peerblock 1.1 and it's worked great (Never had any issues) I very rarely have to make exceptions any more as I have already made lists in the past. The fact that there is no new release yet doesn't concern me 1.1 came after a very long downtime as well and it works wonderfully. As far as I'm concerned as long as support is added for IPv6 when it becomes common (I have not only BLOCKED IPv6 on my PCs and Router but removed or disabled the components allowing for it as well) I will continue using it.
I have always wondered about the use of this program. I don't torrent or use any Peer to Peer software/services. Would peer block still be useful/helpful to install? If so why?
Thats correct, the tool is good as much as the list attached to it. Unfortunately the life cycle of bad domains/IPs is so rapid (bad sites dieing in few hours) that unless the list is updated very very frequently it is useless against 0hour/0day malware. Same as for signature based AVs or even worst as no heuristic analysis is applicable.
Some firewalls or security tools already comes with options to blacklist or load blacklist databases into them (e.g. OA, if I remember well), so... not sure the added value to have also peerblock on top.
It depends how much control those firewall IP blocking functionality offers to the user. I remember I only could add one list to Outpost. Adding a new one would override the first one loaded, I think. Not to mention that it didn't have an option to automatically update the lists. Not sure if most recent versions do? Not to mention that, maybe not all of those firewalls, but some, don't allow the user to temporarily allow connection to a given IP address? Or, even to allow it always? In the end it comes down to what the tool allows you to do.
Samme happened with Peerblocks predecessor, Peerguardian anyone remember that ? i used to use these programs long time ago,now i just use Outpost Firewall Pro Blocklists.
The site is down for me: www.peerblock.com Perhaps PeerBlock is finally dead? I still use v1.1, r518 when torrenting, but I have doubts about its effectiveness. I've gotten half a dozen Copyright Infringement emails from Comcast while PeerBlock was in use.
doesn't matter... http://sourceforge.net/projects/peerblock/ i just wonder how much money the devs took to abandon this project.
In my opinion, it is not very hard to build an application that takes a blocklist and selectively blocks some connections. The problem is the quality of the blocklists themselves; as long as they don't offer too much protection, it is less relevant if PeerBlock is dead or not...
For now is irrelevant, until IPv6 becomes widespread. PeerBlock will be 100% useless then. I'm hoping some skilled developer(s) keep it alive. This is one of the times that make me mad at open source software - source code is available, but those with skills don't keep the projects alive. I'd fork it, had I enough programming knowledge.
