Alternatives to Comodo Kill Switch

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Tankred, Mar 4, 2017.

  1. Tankred

    Tankred Registered Member

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    Hello!

    For me, modern firewalls are quite strange: you can set some rules, everything else is made automatically and you do not see what's going on in the background. That being said, I was intrigued by the approach of some of the tools from Comodo, especially the firewall and, as part of the Comodo Cleaning Essentials, Comodo Kill Switch. It show you exactly what I am missing in modern firewalls, i.e. what's going on in the background. It lists programs and processes and shows me what they are doing. Which programs are responsible for in- and outgoing traffic, what IP is the program trying to connect a.s.o.

    As always, this kind of protection is not a 100% secure (there, I've said it... so let's go on). But it gives me some kind of control or the feeling of control and I like that.

    So, are there other programs like these from Comodo out there I should check? Because what I'm missing right now is some kind of history where I can analyse connection events. And possibilities like resolving IP addresses directly in the program to determine who might be on "the other side".

    And it should be possible to terminate processes, block them a.s. Of course, as it's about firewalls, isn't it. ;-)

    I'd appreciate your input and tipps concerning similar programs I should try.

    Thank you,

    Tankred
     
  2. HempOil

    HempOil Registered Member

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    Check out GlassWire. The only thing I like better in Kill Switch that is missing from GlassWire is the ability to sort by up/download bandwidth utilization. However, GlassWire has a history so it is better for forensics.
     
  3. Tankred

    Tankred Registered Member

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    Cool, GlassWire looks really nice. Thank you, I will test it!

    It's so sad, that not many of the these days famous internet security programs provide such insights into network activity.
     
  4. guest

    guest Guest

    Kill Switch is a process monitor , Glasswire a firewall controller, not the same thing (despite both doing network monitoring)

    to answer the question : Process Hacker is what Killswitch is based on (despite what Comodo said) .
     
  5. illumination

    illumination Guest

    Look into sysinternals. Process explorer and TCPview, and Autoruns. TCPview will show you current connections with whois and terminate process options.

    TCPlogview by nirsoft will as the name suggest log events.
     
  6. guest

    guest Guest

    @Lucent Warrior yep TCPview is a great tool, anyway most Nirsoft tools are great :D
     
  7. Tankred

    Tankred Registered Member

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    Thank you for your replies!

    @guest: yes there's of course a difference here. But honestly, if it gives me the right information, I don't care if it's a firewall or a process monitor. Process Hacker really is Killswitch I recognize each and every part of it. And Comodo denies that? Strange...

    @Lucent Warrior: yes I know the Nirsoft and Sysinternals and used to work a lot with the latter. As it wasn't updated for a long time already years ago, I don't think it can finally resolve IP addresses? Because that's one thing I would like to have to add some convenience here.
     
  8. guest

    guest Guest

    Yes it is an old drama (now resolved) between the two parties : https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/comodo-killswitch.289569/#post-1802865

    answer from comodo :

    They didn't denied using it, but heavily insisted that the products are now different.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 13, 2017
  9. illumination

    illumination Guest

    TCPview will resolve all IP addresses to their domain name versions. I have been using it for some time, even though the last update was 2011, it still works as intended even on the latest versions of Windows 10 of which I have it running in both my Host and Guest machines. If you require further logging and traffic information, try using wireshark or Microsoft Message Analyzer "I prefer the latter" to capture full details.
     
  10. Stode

    Stode Registered Member

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    See Tinywall, as the name suggests, very TINY (installer 1mb) and it's not a resource hog at all... does what you want it to do...plus..
    it's a frontend for Windows Firewall (aka, requires Windows Firewall to be ON,cause it's not a firewall on it's own,it just makes controlling Windows Firewall a lot easier,even for a newbie) +freeware, which makes external firewall software on windows obsolete in my books.
    It also protects it's own process (unlike many commercial "firewalls") so it can not be killed that easily,even malwarebytes couldn't kill it, when i tried. (doable,but requires some knowledge..)
    And as a cherry on a pie, it also prevents anykinda modifications to your HOSTS file,if you so wish..
     
  11. askmark

    askmark Registered Member

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    I'd be wary of using a program that hasn't been updated for a year, especially on Windows 10, which has received major updates in that time.
     
  12. imuade

    imuade Registered Member

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    Tinywall is just a front end for Windows Firewall. Can you tell me what has changed on Windows Firewall from Windows 7 to Windows 8/8.1 to Windows 10 ? :isay:
     
  13. guest

    guest Guest

    not much, on Win8/10 they improved it a bit more but i don't think it will broke Tiny FW.
     
  14. imuade

    imuade Registered Member

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    Yeah, I agree :)
    I checked the "profiles.xml" file that comes with TinyWall (where it stores the rules to apply to Windows Firewall) and I see everything already mentioned here http://hardenwindows10forsecurity.com/ (section "Windows Advanced Firewall, turn on outbound blocking and logging"
     
  15. guest

    guest Guest

    Im using only WF , blocked all connections for all profiles, edited/disabled most default rules then created my own ones.
     
  16. askmark

    askmark Registered Member

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    Sorry I mistakenly thought it used it's own driver.
     
  17. Stode

    Stode Registered Member

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    @askmark: you probably mixed it up with another firewall which does.. and it is called "Tiny Wall" (with a space) i recall... it's commercial,and it sux. :p
    (you were probably thinking of that last very old freeware version of that software, before it turned into a commercial firewall app..)
     
  18. Tankred

    Tankred Registered Member

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    Thanks for your further input!

    I think I used to work with a program called 'Tiny Firewall', a few years ago. However, I will definetely check out Tinywall. It's Hungarian, so that's a plus for me already before looking at it. ;)
     
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