another Windows Firewall Control?

It seems that when Workstation service is disabled and Learning Mode is enabled, it generates that error about "Length cannot be less than zero" which conduct the program to an unhandled exception. Please set Workstation service to Automatic and start the service, to avoid this error, and also we will add a new verification, for this service to be started, in our program, to avoid this error in the future.

 

Unfortunately, that was not enough to avoid the .NET Framework errors. However, after eventually enabling all the services that I had disabled, then rebooted, those errors have stopped occurring. It must be that workstation service plus at least one of the others is necessary for wfc to work.

It is annoying that I have to restore the default win fw policy for this to work properly. My custom-made ruleset causes problems with wfc's learning mode rule creation. Example, as seen in the screenshots, I already have an outbound igmp rule for system, but wfc keeps alerting me to it, and when I choose to allow it, it alerts me that the rule already exists. Since it already exists, why does it alert me to the outgoing connection attempts in the first place while in learning mode??

 

Is binisoft site down for everyone? I can't seem to pull it up

 

Thank you JR. Pretty neat way checking downed sites

 

This is getting more bizzare. After jumping through hoops manually uninstalling 2.6 and doing the same for installing 2.8, I have imported my Advanced Security policy and all seemed to be working. I am unable to get to binisoft for the latest version of 2.9. The task popup for event 5157 has not chimed in once since installing 2.8. Getting suspicious to no 5157 alerts, I look at a few things from WFC.





Even though Internet Exploder is not checked, nor is Windows Update, both are working. Also, all rules made with prior version are not present in the second screenshot but those apps work as well which is normal I guess. The old Windows Firewall Control folder in Advanced Security is now become property of Advanced Security. Looks like WFC could read it's own folder of rules in Advanced Security and re-populate it's allowed rules dialog. I'm rolling this back to 2.6 until something better becomes of the installer/uninstaller of WFC. WFC's alert popup looks interesting but until I can cleanly uninstall re-install, I'll have to stick with the pre-historic task scheduler/event viewer method for blocked events.

 

may i know which service deos it disable ?
are there all the yellow service ?
and if you uninstall it , does windows firewall control re-enable them?

thanks

 

WFC doesn't disable the services. wat was saying that he had disabled some of his services.

 

As we said, the new version is somehow incompatible with older versions. The rules created with version 2.9 are not predefined rules anymore. Also they store extended info like the program name, instead of just program's path.

WFC uses a timer on each second to read 5157 events from Security Events, and sometimes if a program tries to connect several times in one second, like in your case, WFC report the event multiple times. This behaviour is encountered on PID 4 and sometimes for svchost.exe. But for the rest of the programs, the timer should be fine enough tuned.

Pop up notifications are available only from version 2.9. Also 5157 events are tracked only from this version. Prior version 2.9 auditing events 5157 was not enabled.

There is a problem with our website host. We asked them to move our site to a new better rated server in U.S., and there seems to be some problems in the process, with the propagation of the new ns's. We are sorry for the incovenience. We will post here an alternate link to download the latest build of version 2.9. In my country the website is working and responds to ping, and I even can upload files to the server. Strange.
Until the website is accesible again, you can download the latest build version from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?p6rg3jhnfszbl1a
or here
http://uploading.com/files/2m574e62/wfc.exe/

The old rules are recognized in WFC only if they were exported and imported from WFC. Rules exported and imported from Windows Firewall with Advanced Security are not recognized and listed in WFC, but they still work. That's why in this particular case, Internet Explorer is working even it is not selected in WFC. Only rules created by WFC are listed in WFC. Rules created in WFwAS are ok, but they are not showed in WFC. That is why WFC has Import Policy... and Export Policy, because it saves not only Windows Firewall settings but it own personal settings.

WFC does not enable or disable none of Windows services.

 

Yes, I know this. I have manually setup a custom task for the event 5157 which alerts me to look into the Event Viewer for the detailed blocked event. This was set up by me months ago and prior to installing WFC 2.6. If I get version 2.9 working, do I need to disable my custom task I made for event 5157?

Does your export/import include custom rules made with Advanced Security? If not and I have to use Advanced Security to import custom rules made with Advanced Security, it will also include rules that were made with Windows Firewall Control but will not populate your Show Allowed... .Although, I guess one could first import Advanced Security rules, manually delete your folder of custom rules then import the exported WFC rules. That's providing your export of rules do not include custom made Advanced Security rules.

 

WFC became really strange to me - at first it got crippled - now it has its own
settings (export/import) - last is the "donation". nothing in mind but i prefer
spending money in a more sophisticated software than this.

for the latest updates - really annoying - only regged users can update this
one without losing all settings

conclusion: this update has really no use without the knowledge of existing rules
free-users got nuts

 

Events 5157 is now read by the timer of the WFC, from version 2.9 you don't have to use your task anymore, those events are now reported in Learning Mode which shows you notifications of locked connections.

Import/Export from WFC saves all the custom rules, even those modified by the user in WFwAS, it uses export function from WFwAS to save a *.wfw file, then it exports own settings into a *.reg file, and after that, those files are packed into one file with extension *.wfc.

 

This is a young software, and improving the software is the main goal. Some users would liked the program to have Shell Integration, I have added Shell Integration, other users would wanted notifications on blocked programs, I finally got a workaround on this thing. It is difficult to have in mind hundreds of scenarios when using a program, that is why, when somebody had a problem, I have tried to fix it. This means software development, continous development. Even this is a 200KB size application, it has thousands of lines of code. As you see Google Chrome has 13 beta versions and every week they release a new beta version. They have a bigger team to test the software, and other financial power. It is hard to develop the software, test the software, debug the software, but I'm glad that I have found some well intended users from this forum, which are helping me to improve this liitle application. Donations are strictly used to pay my Visual Studio license, pay the website hosting, and to get in the future a new laptop to keep up the work.

I have stated with coloured writing that the new version 2.9 needs a fresh install. Users can use version 2.8 or to update to the version 2.9. Nobody is forced to update. If a user has now installed version 2.8 and it is working fo him, and he launches version 2.9 and choose to update, the program rules remains intact, but in the new list of the rules of WFC he won't see the extended info, I mean the program's name, only the path of the program. Also if a user do not do a fresh install, he won't have the posibility to restore to the previous state when he uninstalls the program. A user suggested me that it would be good to have such a feature at uninstall, and instead to restore to default Windows policy, to have a choice to restore to the previous state before WFC was installed. I have implemented that feature, but if a user does not do a fresh install, WFC has no clue which were previous settings, because only from version 2.9 it makes a backup of the current settings before installing the program.

The user has restored the firewall policy through WFwAS not from WFC, that is why the programs were still working but they did not appeared in WFC list of rules.

Again, there were some issues in some usage scenarios, for the version 2.9, but Greg S. has Windows 7 on E:\ and I don't know why when executing cmd.exe from E:\Windows to execute some registry import it calls regedit.exe from C:\Windows instead E:\Windows. Also wat0114 has stopped some Windows services which generated some unhandled exceptions in .NET Framework.

I'm here to debug all the problems and to build a better program.

 

2.9 version installed with one exception. Your command script, if I remember correct has on the last line for it to launch WFC from it's final resting place and give the installed success message. When WFC tries to launch by executing that cmd line, it crashes and you have to choose to close it out. I then launched it from the desktop shortcut which did give me the install was a success. I then launched IE which gave me this.



How may I help you debug this?

Learning mode has exception error, show allowed has exception error. The errors are different. The big issue with the crashing of the app beside the fact that it is crashing, when it crashes, you are stuck in whatever mode you have enabled. If I have medium security checked and no allowed rules set, I have no net access. I then have to run the program shortcut or scheduled task in order to check no filtering in order to have net access.

 

@alexandrud
something personal - pls dont talk that "loud" to me - pls stop using bold font.
your cites are fine so i dont need another difference to normal text. thx

legal - but WFC started not crippled as a complete freeware.
this last "improvement" blows all free users - although none is forced,
if some want to use its new or improved features some have to restart
from scratch - and that is from my point really <censored>

the next major issue - wfc started with using/creating/modifying rules
in the windows firewall - no word about its "own" rules/settings.
no its complete dropping that. so the main reason using wfc is gone -
a tool for windows firewall without any other own settings - just a simple GUI.

in that case there is no difference between W7FC or PCTools.
compared to those its only fortune is its size.

nevertheless - if some want to push it (donation) - just do it.

 

One of the positive point is the developer (alexandrud)
Always answer and reply to any question
Accept the many request patiently, but yeah "bold" can be reduced

I think the software will improve a lot in the future
Still waiting for the software to become more mature
Wishing u the best of luck, GBU

 

Hi again alexandrud,

if you can solve the .NET Framework and other stability issues some users may be having, include the option to select at least the protocol and remote port(s) from a connection alert (not just Allow, Block or Ask later), and also include compatibility with custom-made .wfw rules, then you will have a most excellent program. Some basic logging functionality would make it near perfect I know this may be asking for a lot, but if you can make it happen, you'd no doubt attract a considerable market of Win7 users to your product.

It takes time, probably lots of it, but I'm sure most people are willing to wait it out. The $10 donation fee is, imo, very modest, so I've no problem with it, especially since you seem to be quite active in the development of the program and addressing its issues.

 

I'm agree with Brummelchen, this software would be very interesting in freeware. If you pay there's a lot of powerfull firewall.
But i can understand that the team need to live
And like blasev said the support is fast

 

Due to some problems with our current host, our website is down from friday 29 april. Today I have aquired a new host plan at HostGator, and tommorow I will try to move our domain name to the new host, and make the site available again, in a day or two, until propagation. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

 

I'm still having issues with the Learning Mode which Alex is working on but the Shell Integration works pretty sweet. Anyone have the Learning Mode working properly?

 

last time I tried v2.9.0.0, no it didn't. The .NET Framework crashes stopped after I enabled the additional services I had previously disabled, but it still alerts on connection attempts that existing rules already cover.

 

Thanks alexandrud. Great program. Please be sure to keep the old versions available. Personally I preferred them over the new. It makes it so easy to create rules for my programs instead of going through Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. And you don't even have to keep it running realtime once you've made your rules. Excellent software, keep up the good work.

 

We are happy to announce you that we upgraded our website. Also, due to some problems with our website host, we have been forced to move to a new host and a new domain. On the new site we created a login page, where from now on, registered users can go to get a new registration key anytime they need, without beeing necessary to request a new one through email.

From now you can find us at: http://binisoft.org

Also, on first page of our website you can find a link to a video on YouTube that demonstrates all the features of the program, including the new Learning Mode.

Thank you for your support for the further development,
BiniSoft.org Team

P.S. Now that we resolved the problems that we had with the website, I'm back now, ready to further develop Windows Firewall Control.

 

The "Start with Windows" option does not work for me. I think it is because I am running under a Standard User Account in Windows 7. When I check the "Start with Windows", it is showing an error about not having privileges, when I tested it and reboot.