Jetico Personal Firewall

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Kerodo, Sep 2, 2004.

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  1. Kerodo

    Kerodo Guest

    Has anyone else tried Jetico Personal Firewall?

    http://www.jetico.com/

    It's a new rule based firewall with stateful inspection. I've been playing with it for several weeks now and it's quite powerful.

    It's fairly complicated and takes some getting used to, and I would say it's not for anyone who just wants an easy to use firewall. But I do find it very nice and probably more powerful than Kerio 2.1.5.

    Jetico has been VERY responsive to bug reports and comments, usually returning emails within several days, and frequently fixing problems and issuing updates as a result of bug reports. Very nice change of pace. Something the folks at Kerio could learn from.

    It's still beta, however it's been quite stable here. It's free so far, and hopefully they'll keep it that way in the future.

    Give it a try if you're interested in trying new firewalls and experimenting...
     
  2. BlitzenZeus

    BlitzenZeus Security Expert

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    Well its been over two years since Kerio 2x has been updated, and 4x is just a bloated forever-beta POS... Somebody else has to make something better eventually.

    I'm not sure if they are the ones that are actually going to do it, but it looks promising. Programs that are beginner oriented has never had the full control of a real rule based firewall in my expierence, and giving a rule based based firewall to beginners, even with templates is not the best of ideas.

    I don't have a second operating system at the moment, otherwise I might actually play with it. I don't like to depend on software that I don't trust, and its a bad idea to mix two third party firewalls on the same system.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2004
  3. ferdi

    ferdi Registered Member

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    Just tried it for a while, and I must say it seems pretty nice... It stopped ALL the leaktests I threw at it, passed all tests with stealth and the latest beta seems quite stable (on my system that is, v1.0.1.21).

    The GUI confused me a little bit at first, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty workable and the rules are very customizable. The learning curve is a little steep, but compared to that of Tiny's it's a piece of cake ;), I'd say it's in between Kerio and Tiny.

    Memory usage wasn't very high either, it spawned 1 process using aprox. 10 MB of RAM. One thing that could be improved though is the startup method, it's loading through a HKLM RUN registry key while a service (running XP) would be better.

    Overall: well worth a try!

    Cheers.

    PS. There's an old thread about it here.
     
  4. BlitzenZeus

    BlitzenZeus Security Expert

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    Be careful with this one

    I hope you have good backup software... I just had to image my os partition back to a couple days ago to remove the program, it would not uninstall!

    I had installed the program, rebooted, and then I had to reboot again because it didn't set something up properly. When I was finally able to use the program I looked around a bit, and setting up the rules is abstract at best, the settings are all over the place... So I get on the internet, it freezes... I reboot, get on the internet, it freezes... So I try to uninstall the POS, the uninstall just sits there....
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2004
  5. ferdi

    ferdi Registered Member

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    Unticking 'Flat mode' helped for me, though I don't think you'll be installing it again any time soon ;) Haven't tried uninstalling it yet and I don't have any backups but I was planning on a clean install anyway :)
     
  6. gkweb

    gkweb Expert Firewall Tester

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    Hi,

    Jetico has both firewall/sandbox features but is indeed easier to use than Tiny (it is more a firewall than a complete sandbox).
    However as it is mentioned on their web page, Jetico is still a BETA software, and while I did not have any trouble to use it and to uninstall it, the things happened to you are things that happens with beta softwares.

    In any beta testing of any beta software, _backup_ is a must.

    Regards,

    gkweb.
     
  7. Kerodo

    Kerodo Guest

    BZ, sorry you had such trouble with it. If I had known it would do that to you, I wouldn't have recommended it so highly..

    I recently removed it due to some problems that I'm seeing here. It appears that they don't have their stateful inspection quite debugged yet. TCP packets are getting thru the firewall in cases where programs are listening to ports via localhost. I've talked to them about it and they say they are going to try to fix the problem. That, plus a few other bugs made me go back to another firewall.

    Otherwise, it's never given me any problems uninstalling. Don't know why you had trouble. I'm running Win2K here.

    The interface is a little difficult to get used to at first, but once you figure things out, it's not bad. I found it pretty powerful. You can do quite a few things that you can't do in other firewalls.

    At any rate, yes, it is wise to have a backup handy with any beta software.
     
  8. BlitzenZeus

    BlitzenZeus Security Expert

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    My favorite software firewalls that I have used for the most part are AtGuard, Tiny 2x, and Kerio 2x. Their interfaces were simple, straight forward, yet they allowed for complex configurations easily without going all over the program. Its one huge factor I couldn't stand about programs like LnS, and Outpost for example. For the most part I like having my entire firewall configuration in one place so I know exactly how the rules are going to process, and programs like Kerio is top to bottom, the first rule that matches, is the last rule that effects the packet, aka logical.

    I might check out the program again later, hopefully when its a stable full release.
     
  9. ferdi

    ferdi Registered Member

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    Quick heads up about a new beta release:

    http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm

    Installed over previous install, no problems so far.
     
  10. Kerodo

    Kerodo Guest

    Thanks... They've fixed some problems in this one, but there's still a few more to go. Otherwise it looks pretty good here too... It definitely has potential. They're putting out new releases fairly often and fixing problems as they arise. The more feedback you give them, the better.
     
  11. Hi all! what's the best way to configure ip and network protocol modules?
    thanks for answering. I am using now kerio 2.1.5 that is a good one, but I want to try this one because of the filtering sandbox, I read here that it works fine, thanks for answering.
     
  12. Hi, it is very good, I am glad with it, passes every test, even leaking tests.
    The way to configure it is not easy but in a little time one can learn to do it.
    I am going to use it for a while and to give kerio 2.1.5 ( my favorite) a little rest, it diserves it.
     
  13. dukebluedevil

    dukebluedevil Registered Member

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    New beta version of Jetico out today for those of you testing it.


    http://www.jetico.com/jpfirewall.htm

    http://www.jetico.com/jpfwall.exe
     
  14. New beta:

    14. The firewall now detects outbound attacks illustrated by PCAudit test program in Windows Server 2003. Several issues in the firewall interface are fixed (drag-and-drop from the left to right pane in Configuration tab, synchronization between left and right panes). (24-September-2004 release, version 1.0.1.31 beta).
     
  15. HI all! Has someone tryed to test jetico with any keylogger? to see if detects it from sending information outside? waht a question! excuse me if I am asking a foolish thing for you that know many things about this matters.
     
  16. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    Did you happen to try Thermite and Wallbreaker? These two test are rather rough on firewalls usually showing no mercy!
     
  17. gkweb

    gkweb Expert Firewall Tester

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    Hi,

    Jetico will be on the next update of my website's test page, and might not score what you expect, even if it performs well.
    None firewall still pass them all, based on my criteria.
    Obviously, if you just "throw at it" without any testing protocol, our result can be completly different.
    I recall that Jetico is still in BETA and that it has bugs in the program detection, bugs that I have submitted to their dev team (which is btw very responsive).

    regards,

    gkweb.
     
  18. Kerodo

    Kerodo Guest

    That's one of the things I like best about the JPF team. They ARE extremely responsive. I've been submitting many bug reports over the past month or two and they've replied to and fixed all of them. Plus they seem very open to suggestions also. Very nice. I'd recommend that anyone testing JFP give them as much feedback as possible. This will help it become a better product. I personally like JPF a lot and think it has much potential.
     
  19. Hi, yes Q Section, I tested jetico with thermite and wallbreaker and passed very well, but I was curious to know opinions about this kind of tests. I am glad with it and hope when it goes out of beta stage to be a very good firewall.
    minor bugs, no bugs, better firewall, good for it!!!
     
  20. Hi, I am here again!!!
    It´s passed some time for many of you, what do you think are the basic rules to configure jetico? It would be good to know how you configure it to be safer.
    Thanks !!!
     
  21. chew

    chew Registered Member

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    Hi Folks

    It would be nice to see more of the Senior Members or Experts testing out Jetico Personal Firewall. A full report would be nice too.

    I was wondering about it about a month or two ago when I saw it on a CD accompanying a PC mag here.

    So in term of resource usage is Jetico Personal firewall as "lite" as Kerio 2.1.5 or LnS?

    I think a thorough test should be done on Jetico Personal Firewall.

    Cheers

    Chew
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2004
  22. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    GKWEB,

    You may recall I have written you on a couple occasions about this firewall and am very anxious to see how it performs with your tests. Your site is very nice.

    I also am in frequesnt contact with jetico support and agree they are very responsive. I do have to say that I saw above a quote from Jetico page stating "The problem of incompatibility with Cisco VPN Client is solved". This may be true in most cases but I am having trouble with 4.0.2 and also 4.6 still BSOD's. Jetico is working hard to fix these as we speak. Again great support.

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  23. chew

    chew Registered Member

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    I do hope Jetico Personal Firewall will be the next Kerio 2.1.5 & LnS .... lite and powerful.

    :D
     
  24. About configuring jetico, I used general rules that are at other firewall sticky posts and added the rules by BlitzenZeus for kerio 2.1.5 and they go very good with it.
     
  25. chew

    chew Registered Member

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    Sounds encouraging if that is the case.

    I think Experts should give it some severe testing to see if it is up to scratch.

    If it is free ... the better.

    :D
     
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