Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.7 BETA testers needed!

Sunbelt's freebie in beta!

Here's the link with the full info:
http://beta.sunbeltsoftware.com/messageview.aspx?catid=281&threadid=6384&enterthread=y

You need to login in order to have access to the beta forum.

 

Still no 64-bit support? Seriously? I don't understand these companies that continue to make software that do not support 64-bit. Stop living in the past, kgo.

 

Because they abandoned it a long time ago. All they are doing now is converting it to freeware...and don't even want to put any of their own resource into testing that their repackaging works, instead dressing it up as a beta program. Pathetic. When this was Kerio Personal Firewall it was a good product with regular updates. It died when Sunbelt bought it.

 

It's GFI Software now. Also no Win 7 support.

 

Yep... Pretty much a waste of time since then. Shame.

 

I agree. The lack of 64bit and Win 7 support makes it unappealing for a bunch of people. But on the other hand it's a freebie. So I personally have no right to complain since I don't use it.

 

Doesn't make any sense as to why their BETA would not be tested in the 64-bit (Win 7) environment. What's more baffling is the fact that the Firewall in their "VIPRE Antivirus Premium" suite, is designed to run in Windows 7 64-bit. What were they thinking

 

SPF is not designed to run on Windows 7 or 64 bit systems which is why we wouldn't have tested it in those environments. We are no longer developing SPF and have decided to release a completely free version with all the features usable that were previously only usable in the paid version.

We instead have a newer version of the firewall integrated into VIPRE Premium which does support Windows 7 and 64 bit environments and which we are continuing to develop. We will be adding in several new features (as well as some that were already present in SPF) in the next few software updates for VIPRE Premium. We are also hoping to release a "Firewall Only" version in the near future for those users who would rather just run our firewall as a standalone product.

 

Thanks Nick

 

Installed it here on an XP SP3 setup just for fun, and it seems pretty clean. This is fine for anyone running XP 32 bit. Nice that it's going to be freeware now. I'm playing with it for a while to see if there are any obvious issues.

 

Kerodo,
I know you were very negative on Sunbelt, so is good to see you at least try
There are many posts in this forum about how bad Sunbelt FW is. Sad. It's likely due to their buggy and big initial v4.

My quick look at this new version on a very small (392meg XP-sp3, Pentium3 which normally runs Kerio) looks fine, so I might try this version on my main box as well. Although you can't beat Kerio's 5-6meg use vs 18-23meg (peak private) here.

What I do is make it into a better Kerio 2.1.5.
I turn off the Network defaults section where DNS, ICMP, etc is.
I make all applications "?", most important is Any other application which logs and alerts (they just fixed the alerts so they can be dismissed, albeit with a bit of delay.

I make packet rules based on Kerio and answering prompts which permit to add the external IP, protocol and ports - not as quickly as in Kerio but it's all there.

I make groups for various IP sections such as local host, DNS servers, routers, time servers, my LAN, and few bad sites to block, and I use groups exclusively in all the rules. That is the part that really shines in this GUI. Big improvement over Kerio's one and only Custom addresses group.
When all done with few services and LAN, I shut off trusted on every adapter except LocalHost, tweak rules some more. Ergo - pure firewall.

I do use HIPS sometimes, I even used HIPS with SSM - no issues. The Sunbelt's HIPS log stinks.
I use Behavior - the logs of parent-child relations are good. In the application behavior rules they still in the 4.7 version haven't fixed a heading of "modifying" to Modified, but, oh, well, that's just cosmetic.

Everybody's experience is different. Mine is that it is a totally stable firewall, no issues with Avast or Avira or NOD local host proxies. Watches local host like a hawk, just like Kerio. No issues with going into or coming out of standby. No issues with a LAN printer or filesharing with two other boxes. It just works. Over 2 years. Maybe 3.

On and off I use IDS rules. Always when out in the wild. At home, less need due to 2 routers.

I don't use Web browsing section much, it's a bit of a tedious pain to setup cleanly, and Opera does the job well for me.

Please, do report your observations. Almost everything I learned, I learned here, so I'm no expert like you or Stem or Rmus. Still, I think I got it mostly right and I do like this firewall.

Edit: the HIPS section can be totally disabled. If you need to know how, post, I'll dig out the command. It'll make it somewhat smaller.

 

I never used this firewall before. In the past I have used Comodo, PC Tools, Online Armor, Outpost and currently was using Private firewall. So out of curiosity I installed SPF 4.7 and decided to see if it can pass the PC Flank leak test "http://www.pcflank.com/pcflankleaktest.htm" of which it FAILED. All of the above mentioned firewalls all passed this test. Is there anyway I can configure SPF 4.7 to pass the PC flank leak test ? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Check your NIPS (network intrusion prevention system) settings.

 

I doubt that IDS rules (like Snort) are relevant. If passing a leak test is so important, turn on behavior blocking with a requirement, on first behavior tab, to ASK you if any odd, normal or malware, application can actually run Internet Explorer.

Then when pcfank wants to do its thing, DENY. If it's something you trust, PERMIT, and you may have to try again after permitting since the rule has to be made. Also read the Behavior logs. They might help a lot to see what starts what and if you permitted or denied.

In case the Setting is not clear, under Intrusions > Settings turn on each second option (ASK) in the three categories. Instead of the first option which allows automatically every application to start every other application.

PCFlank is funny in that it can fail even if you're totally disconnected from the internet. Think about it

Edited:I just tried to confirm something I said above. It's really too much trouble, sorry. Can't even download it.
Do you have antivirus? A decent antivirus should stop it in its tracks, as you even try to download. For instance, this is from Avira's Antivir which I just tried again
"Contains recognition pattern of the SPR/Tool.Demo.Leaktest.L program"
and no way to even download it.
Hard for this leaktest to do any damage if you can't even download it.

 

I liked this firewall in the past ,4.6 (i think) version in freeware was excellent for me ,in 2006 i think.
At that time i didn t even knew what a firewall was and i was always asking myself why BitDefender was finding worms in my PC when hosting a gaming server for my friends.
Researching i ve found what a firewall was ,unnoobed myself and due to a IT magazine from my country i ve started trying firewalls that were reviewed there.
I ve stopped at Sunbelt`s ,it was practically the most easy to use opposed to Jetico 1 for example ,which was giving me headakes seeing all those popups puring in .If you install Jetico 1 on a PC directly connected to ISP you wont love it .
Now SFP came with less popups ,robustness (no BSOD-s or some other incidents) .
It was so easy to use by a beginer like me.

So i say to any firewall beginer that if they want minimum pops this is the firewall they should try.It may not pass all leaktests ,but no network inbound should penetrate in .Excellent packet filtering in my opinion and the default settings can be tightened even more.

Don t know how this version 4.7 free is exactly compared to the one i liked but i ll try it out for my XP again.The previous subversion that i ve tryed one year ago or two (don t remember exactly when they released the previous beta) had some issues.

To bad there is no link towards the beta file so everyone reading this forums to be able and try it fast and easy.There are still a lot of 32bit OS -s users and this can be a free alternative to Comodo popupness ,Online Armors heaviness and Outpost free outdatedness.

Very easy to use ,like Zone Alarm free ,but without the huge boot times and the other issues Zone brings compatibility wise.
4.7 may have some incompatibilities still with some BitDefender versions (2008 and 2009) at least the previous subversion had them- ,Deep scan may stall/hang/never ever finish with SFP installed (turning it off may not help) - when searching for rootkits ,but it may have been fixed untill now (or not).

Installing it tomorrow on the test machine ,i hate making new forum accounts but ...

 

Any news on this ?! Will this ever be released ?!
In the state it is now the Aplication Behaviour Blocking sucks big time.Some aplications dont even start the first time you click them .

 

Unless you found something other than the initial two-step behavior process, my comment is that it doesn't stink that badly, just a bit.
It's one of those safe behavior annoyances I've learned to live with.
It asks if you permit Windows Explorer to run Outlook, just as an example.
You say Permit and tell it to make a rule.
Well, the rule hasn't yet been made, so Permit doesn't happen.
So you run Outlook again, now it works. A two step process initially. They chose not to change it in 4.6, and so 4.7 is the same.