TinyWall Firewall

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by ultim, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Hi!

    You say this happens when your network changes. The network changes in what way? Does your WiFi get disconnected and reconnected to a different one? Or does you DHCP lease expire? Is it due to roaming wirelessly? Or are you changing the network adapter settings in the background? etc.
     
  2. fliflipoune

    fliflipoune Registered Member

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    Hi!
    I have seen it in two situations: when logging in and my Wifi is connected, and when starting a VPN. When closing the VPN and going back on my Wifi, it's ok, everything is fine. When disconnecting and connecting my wifi manually it's also ok. It's ok after standby. It's like only a problem the first time connecting to a network after a cold boot. I should have been more precise in my first post :).

    When this small problem is happening, Windows is sure there is connection to the Internet.
     
  3. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Do you use the natives tool to Windows, or do you maybe use a WiFi manager/utlity provided by your Wifi-chip/laptop vendor?
     
  4. dionysus

    dionysus Registered Member

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    Hola. I am looking forward to v3.0! I am trying to install the latest 2.99 and I cant uninstall the last one. please help. you can see the exact error in the image url i posted. its the same error pf the guy a few pages back that you said wasnt duplicated. Guess. what. lol, https://imgur.com/a/vsu0w2G thanks man lmk.
     
  5. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Hi, yes, sorry for that, that was an issue with the previous version (and only the previous version). Solution: Open the Windows Services management panel, set TinyWall to disabled and OK. Then kill all TinyWall processes (Task Manager -> Details tab -> look for TinyWall.exe, should be two items to kill). Then both uninstall or direct upgrade should work. Next time this won't be necessary.
     
  6. dionysus

    dionysus Registered Member

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    It's ok bugs happen thats why we are here and you rock so keep doing what you do. Thanks for the solution, if in the rare case it does not work out i'll post back. Have a great day.
     
  7. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    Hi ultim,

    Sorry for the delay, I only just noticed the update. Tonight I updated one physical machine and two virtual machines (all Windows 10 x64 1903) from TinyWall v2.99.10 to v2.99.11. In all cases I had to manually stop the TinyWall service before the upgrade would go ahead (as per previous posts about this). Other than that (and an embarrassing mistake on my part when working on the physical machine) the updates all went okay.

    As far as I can tell the problems that I had with local network (file sharing and also some other IP connections) not coming up after a reboot until I unticked and ticked the "Unblock LAN Traffic" option is now gone. Since it was not 100% consistent before, it's possible it might still show up, but I went through a number of reboots and each time everything came up properly, so it looks good. So congratulations, that seems to fixed. :)

    I like that the settings window can be resized. :) Assuming the updated machines are stable for a day or two I will update some other machines and see how they go.

    I did have one odd thing: On one VM, after getting the update installed, the TinyWall service (not the controller process) went into some sort of loop taking up 100% of one CPU and the controller menu would not come up. So I rebooted and everything looked okay for a while, but then the CPU use started again. Restarted the process, and it was okay for a while, and then started again. Finally I restarted, and then before the problem began again, I saved the settings and uninstalled TinyWall. I then re-installed, imported the saved settings and so far everything looks good. Neither of the other machines have showed any sign of the problem. Whatever it was, it seems to be gone now.
     
  8. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Thanks guys for your support.

    @fliflipoune, @gmw: I also experienced the same problems once last Friday on a train, it was pretty strange because it worked before and after ever since countless times. This needs to be solved 100% before v3 final is let loose in the wild. So I guess one more test release will be necessary to make sure these issues are gone, but I haven't gotten around to working on it yet.

    On a different matter: Has anyone tried the new auto-whitelisting of a child-process feature? Any luck with it or is it useless?
     
  9. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    I have not had that 100% CPU problem again since the uninstall/reinstall.

    I did have an issue on the physical machine after a reboot just now. I mostly rely on that "Unblock LAN Traffic" option, but one process (monitors some IP security cameras) ended up with an explicit rule: "Unrestricted UDP and TCP traffic" with "Restrict to local network" ticked. After this reboot the process did not reconnect to the cameras (it had done so properly after the previous half-a-dozen reboots). I have removed the explicit rule and all is working again for now (but, from experience, that might just be because TinyWall updated its settings). All the Windows LAN connections seemed to be fine. Maybe it was just a timing issue.

    I like the sound of the auto-whitelisting for child processes, but so far I haven't come across anything that needs it (or not that I actually want to have access). The multi-process browsers are all just instances of the same executable, ditto a database program I use.

    This might be an enhancement for 3.1 or whatever, but I notice that the interface does not save the column widths set in the Connections window, nor the Application Exceptions list in the Settings window. The connections window lays out pretty well as it is, but now I can resize the settings window I'd like to make (and keep) the custom layout for application exceptions. Not critical, just sayin'. :)
     
  10. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    It's official: I HATE COMPUTERS!

    Yesterday, all three of these test systems were rebooted multiple times and each time the network - Windows shares and Internet/IP connections - reconnected properly without intervention. Today, on two of them (one VM and the physical) TinyWall is no longer working properly on reboot. The Windows shares come back, but both of them start with the Internet down until I go into TinyWall and do something to the settings (even just an "Apply" without making any change). Then the Internet and other IP stuff comes back.

    The system that is (so far) still working properly is the one that I had to uninstall and reinstall yesterday (to get out of the 100% CPU problems). So I tried an uninstall and reinstall on the physical machine, but on reboot the Internet still isn't available until I fiddle with TinyWall settings.

    All are Windows 10 x64 1903. I know some Windows updates came through, so maybe it was them. Everything seems to work fine after I do the "Apply". It's just something odd at the startup.
     
  11. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    Hi ultim,

    I've gotten over my hissy-fit now ;). I have two Windows 10 x64 1903 VMs (virtual machines) using VMware Workstation. Both are now fully up to date with Windows updates. Both are relatively clean (not too much crap installed on them). Both have had TinyWall uninstalled and then reinstalled. One starts up properly without intervention, the other one does not (the Windows shares come up, but the Internet does not come up until I do something with TinyWall settings - even just "Apply" with no changes).

    Even just watching the little network icon that shows on the bottom right before you logon is enough to see when it is working or not. On the good VM this icon may very briefly flick from the screen-icon to the world-blocked-icon during startup, but quickly comes back to the screen-icon indicating the network is available. On the bad VM it starts as the world-blocked-icon and stays there.

    My question is: Is there anything I can do with these to help you isolate why one works and one does not? Some system information, or some procedure that might help, or maybe install a debug version of your program?
     
  12. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Not at the moment, I hope to get to the bottom of it soon.
     
  13. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Okay, next release candidate. Contains only fixes and profile updates, most importantly fixes for the issues reported by @gmw and @fliflipoune. The rest are just small stuff and noise.

    [Download]

    Release notes for TinyWall 2.99.12:
    - Fix occasional high CPU usage
    - Fix rules not updating on network change
    - Fix windows may appear clipped on high-DPI screens until resized
    - Fix application finder form might freeze if closed before detection is finished
    - Fix some valid multicast addresses wrongly disallowed for local subnet rules
    - Profile updates and fixes for mDNS support, new MS Edge, Nextcloud, and Network Discovery

    This is an RC, which means if no major issues are found, I'll consider just re-versioning the same binary to v3.0. There is no better time to help with testing :D
    For the curious, [here] are the expected release notes for v3.0 containing all the changes since v2.1.
     
  14. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    I updated one physical machine and three virtual machines (all Windows 10 x64 1903) from TinyWall v2.99.11 to v2.99.12.

    All updates went smoothly.

    All systems now appear to be rebooting smoothly with both Windows shares and Internet coming up without needing manual intervention. On most of them you can see the network icon showing the network is active well before logon. Just the one VM (the one that was "bad" on the previous update) seems to take a while to switch from the blocked icon to the connected icon (it takes so long that you can logon before it changes, but the network still comes up, if you just wait 20 seconds or so before logging on the icon will change).

    Then I installed the latest Windows updates (yet another .NET cumulative update for January), and everything kept working after all the reboots required.

    There has been no sign of that mysterious using of 100% CPU so far.

    Obviously I will let you know if that changes, but it looks very promising at the moment.

    Nothing new here but just to be complete: the upgrade did not keep user interface settings (window size and layout, "Enable global hotkeys" setting and so on are lost). But it does keep the list of application and special exceptions, which are the most important things.

    P.S. Thank you ultim!
     
  15. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Thank you!
     
  16. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    Hold your breath, I need to test on Windows 8.1 but I need to do a system image first, both pcs, lol. Hang on.
     
  17. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Lol, don't worry, it's not like I will rush the release now. I will leave the RC out there for a couple of days also for others to test, and in the meanwhile I have preparations to make too.
     
  18. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    That is odd if you upgraded from 2.99.11. I am thinking, since you had connection problems with .11, maybe you downgraded to an earlier version before you tried .12? In that case the loss of UI settings would be expected. Just making sure.
     
  19. gmw

    gmw Registered Member

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    I did not downgrade, it was a direct upgrade from 11 to 12. I wondered if maybe I had not updated things from my last uninstall and reinstall of the 11 release, but I feel pretty sure I must have because all the application and special exceptions were in place, and one of the first things I do on install is bring up the connections window and size it so I can see all the columns. (I wouldn't want to bet the house on it, but I am fairly confident.)
     
  20. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    If others don't report any big problems, I'm willing to install it on my Win 8.1 system too. BTW, don't take this the wrong way, but I assume you didn't implement any "funny" stuff related to telemetry in the new TW? So with that I mean, no outbound connections are being made right?
     
  21. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    Of course not. The only outbound connections are the update checks, but those have been there for many years, so nothing new. They transmit which TW version is currently running, and nothing else (no Windows version, no .Net version, no patch levels, no logs, not anything). And just like in the old version, you can turn even this off in the GUI, in which case there will be absolutely no connections made (but you won't know when a new TW version becomes available).
     
  22. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    It turns out one of the fixes in .12 did not cover every case. 2.99.13 is out now under the old download link to remedy this.
     
  23. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    What fix may I ask.
     
  24. ultim

    ultim Developer

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    The occasional high CPU usage. The bug happened because the new TW (for the ability of being able to inherit rules to child processes) now needs to track process parent-child relations. When naively asking the OS "who is this process's parent?", you sometimes get false results (mostly due to PID reuse, but not only). If such a false result is not detected using some other means, you can run into infinite loops when walking up the process hierarchy due to never reaching a top process. And this is what happened when TW got stuck in a loop from time to time. .12 implemented the necessary extra checks to prevent this, but it was slightly wrong in one spot, which .13 fixes.

    When the bug happened TW would stop reacting to the GUI as well (since it got stuck in a loop after all), so you'd instantly know. You weren't affected by this problem if you never saw it happen.
     
  25. Deathmaw

    Deathmaw Registered Member

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    Loving the Firewall, been using 2.99.12 and can't say I've run into anything major, the odd occasion I can't bring up application and see it seems to be using more CPU a end task and re-open fixes it quick, I guess this is related to the previous problem you posted though that is fixed in .13.

    I do have a question though, some Windows 10 games recently have started to move? where the .exe is located, I've ran into the issue with Gears 5, Master Chief Collection and Darksiders III, all installed through the Windows 10 Store so for example my Windows App folder is "D:\WindowsApps" so for my Darksiders III install the folder is "D:\WindowsApps\NordicGames.DarksidersIII_1.0.12.0_x64__46xc33nm0q0f8" and you'd think, great, just allow "Darksiders3-Win64-Shipping.exe" through the Firewall but each time you launch the game it needs a new rule.

    Tend to have to set TinyWall to Autolearn each time I boot the game and end up with the following process being allowed through "\\?\Volume{781225a9-9908-d55b-6542-53a499b04977}\Darksiders3\Binaries\Win64\Darksiders3-Win64-Shipping.exe" is there anyway to do this automatically? since it'll be a different path every launch.
     
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