DefenseWall's inbound/outbound firewall any good?

Can it replace all standard firewalls like ZoneAlarm, Outpost Pro, Jetico, Comodo and provide equal inbound/outbound protection for my computer?

Does it close and stealth all ports?
What about GesWall, can it do it?

 

stealthing ports is just a marketing gimmick...as long as they are closed.
I always thought defensewall was a HIPS and not a firewall although i maybe wrong.

 

http://www.softsphere.com/

There are two editions: first one comes with a firewall and the second one is "traditional" DW as we know it.

 

Geswall cannot. It's not a firewall.
Here is a quote from Defensewall site.
"Inbound Firewall protection of DefenseWall works as follows: it considers a listening port of a trusted process as a potential source of attack and therefore blocks it. Only "untrusted" processes are allowed to be connected outside. In case of an inbound attack, an attacker is routed to the sandbox. In the corporate environment, DefenseWall automatically opens ports 445, 136, 137, 138, and 139. However, the untrusted processes can't connect to these ports. All of this minimizes potential harm from the malicous code being spread by exploits. If you have a HTTP/FTP/SMTP/proxy server, they should be added to the untrusted applications list as a potential source for vulnerability exploitation and thus a source of infection."
So I don't believe it "stealth" ports but does block and route Inbound and Outbound traffic.
As we talked about this before, I would consider DefenseWall since it is actively supported and updated.

 

Well, tell that to Kees, he just doesn't think DefenseWall is more secure even though, GesWall is outdated. However, I have to mention that DefenseWall does provide more complete protection than GesWall, but also I'd dare to say it does provide even more complete protection that Sandboxie as well, although I used SBIE for a very long time.
Kees says that GesWall is specialized for Windows-NT systems (XP).
I don't know if SBIE has any "firewall" functions and can it rival standard firewall functions...

 

I'm not saying that kees is wrong, he knows infinitely more than I do. All I'm saying is that If I was choosing one over the other I would choose DefenseWall. Looking back at some of MRG's testing, DefenseWall passed everytime. I hate to quote tests but DefenseWall is very strong and still being developed.
SBIE doesn't have any firewall functions. It's a sandboxing program. It isolates programs from the main system. You can start internet facing programs and restrict their access.
All I can say at this point is try Geswall and see how you like it. You can ask 20 different experts questions and get 20 different answers. The last person that decides how it runs is you.

 

You're right, no hard feelings, ok? But one thing bothers me, can GesWall protect computer from infected removable drives or not, or I should use outbound firewall protection?
My main problem is I'm looking for the needle in the haystack, this is I'm very annoying person, I admit this.

 

You're not annoying and no reason to apologize. Your just determined to find the right match for you needs. If anyone can sympathize its me. I'm not 100% sure but I think you can untrust drives, whichever your USB might be.
Do you have the paid version of sandboxie? If you do then you can sandbox all your drives from E: down to drive Z:, isolating any USB devices.
If you need outbound protection and just want to keep things light, take a look at the windows firewall control thread in Other Firewalls.

 

Yes, it can. With minimum number of popup windows.

DefenseWall do not stealth ports, it's a marketing crap. And it do no close all the ports. It open ones that belongs to untrusted processes as an attacker, in case of successful penetration trough open port just puts into untrusted zone restrictions (in Adaptive Automatic protection mode).

 

Big thanks for your answer, Ilya. It's good to see you here.

 

Ilya, I need your help about something, it's always impossible for me to see the distinction between DefenseWall HIPS and DefenseWall Firewall, I tried both, and I couldn't see the difference I mean in both versions you have inbound/outbound firewall and HIPS shown.

So if I want to surf the internet without any other inbound protection, would I make a mistake if I install DefenseWall HIPS? I mean it seems to me whenever I use either of these products I can't tell the difference between firewall and HIPS?
Would I make a mistake if I install and use both?

 

Just for the record, that reason why I'm so persistent is because I have 3 computers, 2 are old one is fresh new with windows 8, on this new I have DefenseWall installed to protect me, the second computer has a router firewall plus windows xp firewall (the one that I try to find a solution for it) is for my family, no pop ups needed, and the third is just for testing, that computer is used only once in a week, even less.

The main problem is with the family's computer, they hate pop ups, but I think I'm very close to solution, I'd use only Sandboxie and disabling auto-runs for all removable drives is the solution for protection from infected removable drives, of course I did disable auto-runs before this.

I'd use DefenseWall for my family, but inbound protection is totally unnecessary since it has router's firewall, so Sandboxie is the solution for infected removable drives.

The only thing that really tortures me if I want to install Malware Defender (not the Strong Malware Defender which is rogue antispyware program, I almost had a heart attack when I found about this), but since Malware Defender has a firewall should I need to turn off Windows XP firewall, so that I can avoid conflicts between 2 firewalls?

And how much resources does it consume?

 

Hi

The first step for security before thinking of any av/hips/firewall is SYSTEM HARDENING (registry, TCP/IP stack, system files, services etc.).
For instance, Teredo tunneling has been eneabled by default on most Windows versions
http://technet.microsoft.com/fr-fr/library/cc722030(v=ws.10).aspx
This is just an example of default settings...
Less career opportunities for threats (mostly malwares) begins by mitigating potential security risks.

DefenseWall with or without firewall provides a high level of security with a minimum of user interaction...and is always an excellent choice.
It would be more interesting to use a protocol analyser/sniffer, instead of looking for the Graal of firewalls.
It has been demonstrated by some malwares that they can use their own TCP/IP stack, and communicate via covert/encrypted channels that bypass most modern firewalls.
Prevention by system hardening or /and HIPS is more important than detection by the firewall or the sniffer.

Rgds

 

That's strange, there should be no network connections control support for HIPS edition.

What do you mean with "any other inbound protection"? Other of built-in into OS one?

You can't install both, It's one product with different editions.

 

I forgot to mention that on this old computer I'm behind router that's what I meant by "any other inbound protection", but I use DefenseWall Firewall for my new computer where there is no router protection just Windows inbound firewall, I'll take your word that DefenseWall Firewall is equally good as other firewalls-I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be.
I'll stick with DefenseWall personal firewall, just in case.

I presume that Windows 8 firewall works well with DefenseWall firewall?

P.S.: Regarding the distinction between Defense HIPS and firewall, I might be overlooking something, but every time I uninstall and reinstall new version of DefenseWall HIPS, I disable its HIPS, including both inbound and outbound firewall before I uninstall it. so how come DefenseWall HIPS is also a firewall?

I don't know why is that? I thought DefenseWall HIPS should not have built-in firewall?
Well, if you don't believe me you can try it (I did this last week, and I was a bit confused I have to admit), but most likely I'm missing something, it hard for me to say exactly what it is.
But that's nothing to worry about, at least for me, on webpage it's says you can either download DefenseWall HIPS or DefenseWall Firewall, I decided the second choice.
It really isn't issue if you ask me (but like I said I am most likely overlooking something).
Cheers.

 

It's no need to take my word. Just download any reliable test kit (from Matousec for 32 bit apps, for instance) and see the results by your own eyes.

Yes, that's correct.

Yes, it should has their network connections control functionality switched off, but the way it's working (with or without network connections control) depends on type of license also. If you have a license key for PF edition, even if you install HIPS one, DW will be working with network control on, as PF edition.

 

@Ilya

Did DefenseWall filtering packets? Is it fully configurable packet filtering firewall?

 

No, DefenseWall controls network connections only.

 

Ok, Is packet filtering planned for a future version on the firewall edition then ?

 

Nope. I see no reasons in this functionality. This won't save people from getting infected with malware. Currently, only migrating to x64 is in the plans.

 

I for one am liking this news!

 

Any progress?

 

I have a clear plan on what should be done there. Resources are in need...

 

Don't you have some cousin in one of many oil companies there?

 

Best of luck with your plans.Hope it all works out,