another Windows Firewall Control?

Thanks for the clarification alexandrud.

focus

 

Version 3.8.2.0 available.

What's new:
- Fixed: Up to 20 seconds delay can occur when showing notifications, because of the checking of the digital signature. This function was removed from the service and it will be done in a different thread directly in the notification dialog after displaying it. Finally, notifications without major delays.
- Fixed: Switching a rule from Inbound to Outbound from the rule properties window doesn't work.
- Fixed: Notifications for svchost.exe and System appear after returning from sleep state even if there are rules that block all connections for them.
- Updated: New IP ranges for Akamai Technologies were added to the recommended rules.
- New: Added new translated strings in the program. The new language files are available for download on the website.

Other Notes
- New translations were added on the website. Right now, there are language files for: English, Romanian, Spanish, Dutch, Czech, German, French.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc.exe
MD5: 86754d5168ed1df65a1635690ad62aea

Your feedback is welcome. Please let me know if you see any improvements in the notifications system.

Alexandru

 

Thank you.

Can you please provide the new IP-ranges here in the forum as I want to manually add them to (which?) rule.

Also the German language file does not work on my Win7/64 system.
I placed it in the installation folder, where the wfc.exe and the wfcs.exe are located and restarted. It is still English...

Thank you again.

 

Just add the following two IP ranges: 23.0.0.0-23.15.255.255,23.32.0.0-23.67.255.255 to the rule named WFC - Akamai Technologies

The language files work. If you do a fresh install of WFC it will work. The problem was with the shortcuts because they didn't had the correct start-up folder. This was fixed in the previous version. If you used the updater you probably have the old shortcuts which can't load the language files. If you start the program directly from the installation folder, it will work. Anyway, take a look at the screenshots below. You will understand.

 

Thank you. It works now!

 

Am I the only one getting an application hang when using "Create new rules from..." and searching?

 

Nope I tried that and also got a hang

Using Win 7 x64

 

Yes, it happens here too. It is a small bug. Somewhere in the code, instead of a 5 I set a 6. It is already fixed. I will publish a new fixed version very soon. My bad.

Thank you for reporting this.

 

Version 3.8.2.1 available. Quick fix.

What's new:
- Fixed: When pressing on the search button in the "Search for executable files..." the application crashes.
- Updated: Small layout fixes to improve the readability of the translated strings from the language files.

Other Notes
- New translations were added on the website: Brazilian Portuguese and Hungarian
Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc.exe
MD5: 8ddc63baffa9f99d35f6355f8d7e98ed

Your feedback is welcome.
Alexandru

 

I am happy to report that the problem I was having, namely the repeat notifications of system services/programs even though they were under a permanent block, has been solved by V.3.8.2.0

Thank you alexandrud.

 

Alex, there are some problems with Windows Update and Microsoft Security Essentials Update. The problem started with 3.8.2.0 and is still there in 3.8.2.1:

Windows failed to find update information and could not install MSE updates.
I cannot remember the error code, but the meaning was that something blocked svchost to access the internet. That brought me to the idea that the new recommended rules may be the reason.

So I found the solution as follows: I had to disable the Akamai Technologies rule to be able to use the Updates again. So it looks like some IP-addresses of the added ranges are used for Windows Updates, too.

 

I could reproduce it:
With Akamai Rule enabled the error code is: 80072EFD
With Akamai Rule disabled the Update runs fine.

 

And from the event viewer I found out that at least the IPs 23.62.99.xx
are the reason for blocking.

 

So we have to change the last range for example to 23.32.0.0.-23.61.255.255
and we will be fine. I don't know if Akamai uses IPs starting from 23.62.x.x, though.

 

Thank you for reporting this. I will remove the IP range that interferes with Windows Update.

 

I don't want to increase graphical elements by changing the DPI, only the font. The font is increased only by one point and I've had no issues with other apps. Anyway it's not a deal breaker.

 

Using version 3.8.2.1. I'm constantly being notified for UDP port 137 to my local LAN broadcast address (192.168.10.255). Even creating a protocol ANY allow to my entire network gets ignored. Anyone else seeing this? I'm on Windows 8.

Lastly, this may have already been brought up. Any plans to possibly have an option to remember column horizontal order, vertical column sort order and have the ability to remove certain columns?

After two weeks of using WFC it has been a great replacement for Comodo. WFC reminds me of Tiny/Kerio firewall that I've missed from the XP days. It's great to see the constant updates from the developer here too. More then worth the $10.

 

Network Discovery uses port 137 on UDP protocol. Do you receive this notification for System even if you have a rule to allow all connections for System ? I assume that you use High notification level. If you create a block rule to block all ? The same happens ? What antivirus do you use ? Do you use Avast or Avira ?

Good suggestions for the Manage Rules view. I will try to implement the hiding of the columns and to remember their position.

 

Thanks for reporting this

Because of this I found out that Microsoft is delaying it's MSE Updates by 1 hour (for me that is (I am in SE Asia). Maybe this is because it has to send it to all Akamai update Servers ?

If you want instant updates (as soon as MS release them) just run
"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Security Client\MpCmdRun.exe" with the Options
SignatureUpdate -MMPC . I have this in my Scheduler from now on.

The -MMPC switch Performs update directly from Microsoft Malware Protection Center

-https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/definitions/howtomse.aspx-

 

Will the Akami rule be changed on an update install or is a fresh install with the recommended rules needed?

 

Only on a clean install. But, the new port range will be changed in the next release because it interferes on some situations with Windows Update.

 

Ok, I will wait for the next release and do a clean install. Thanks.

 

Very interesting, indeed. Thank you for sharing this information

 

You said to do a clean install of WFC when the pending update is released to correct IP ranges with the Akamai Technologies rules. My question is: After I do the clean install and the restore my backup policy, will that not over write the new Akamai Technologies IP ranges with the old ones?
Thanks

 

Do it this way:

1. Before uninstalling the old WFC delete the 8 rules named "WFC-xxx" (including Akamai) manually via "Manage Rules"
2. Uninstall WFC keeping all the other current rules.
3. Install the new version of WFC with the option to set "recommended rules"

This way you have the update of the WFC-recommended rules (including Akamai) while keeping all your other rules.