fireBwall...anyone used it?

I found today new and unknown firewall for me - fireBwall.

Home site http://code.google.com/p/firebwall/
Download http://code.google.com/p/firebwall/downloads/list
A quote from review on Softoxi

http://www.softoxi.com/firebwall.html

 

Merged from separate thread: fireBwall - What would you add to it?

Hey,
Recently joined wilders, and my team and I are developing and OSS Windows firewall called fireBwall. It allows for modules to be developed so anyone can customize their network communications. Please check it out at http://firebwall.com and feel free to join us on freenode in #firebwall

You can also email us at firebwall@gmail.com or see our personal emails on the site.

We are open to questions/discussions at pretty much any time we are around.

Thanks,
bwall

 

I have, actually, I lead the team developing it.
Personally, I use it on every Windows box I have, as I find that's one of the best ways to make sure its a quality firewall. 0.3.10.0 is coming out soon, and we are testing it to death right now.

 

Hello, is fireBwall compatible with other firewalls?

 

Hey, I don't believe we've actually done any testing with multiple firewalls installed. I'll get back to you on that. Do you have any specific firewalls in mind?

 

Currently I'm using Windows 7 built-in firewall and managing it through TinyWall..
EDIT: Went through fireBwall website and saw different modules for fireBwall, IP blocking and Ad filtering, looks like fireBwall has potential in becoming a great firewall.. Is it compatible with 64 bit windows? What are the target audience of fireBwall? Do you intend it to be used by home users like me or just to expert users? I'm very curious.

 

The drivers we are using only gave an interface in x86, but I run it without any issue on Windows 7 x64. We want to appeal to all audiences, but its not the easiest thing to do all the time. What would be really useful is if you don't understand something, let us know, and we'll try to clarify it as much as possible. We attempted some of that with the Help section. As for running along side the Windows Firewall, I do believe they can work in tandem, but I'm not sure what will process the packets first.
We are close to releasing the next version of fireBwall, as well as some of the external modules. IPGuard, the module for blocking ip ranges will be improved extensively. It already is in a good state, and has been tested a lot, but is compiled with the new API, so we can't release it until the next version of fireBwall.

 

Hello Brian
So the latest version is A BETA Or Release Candidate?
Have you tested this new program with avast! and or Malwarebytes
for compatibility?
thank you looks very interesting indeed

p.s. looks FREE but you want donations correct

 

Another question? Does it work under a standard user account? Without needing administrative privileges?

 

Got an error - “Unable to find a version of the runtime to run this application". What does this mean? I tried to test it on VPC 2007 with XP SP3 installed as guest OS.

 

We kind of have a weird release schedule. The current version out has known bugs have been fixed in the version to come. I guess its closer to a beta than anything. We have not tested it with either yet, I'll add it to our list. It is free to use, but we do need money for various things, mostly for signing our own drivers.

 

It does currently run under the standard user. The drivers allow only one process to hook into them(the Winpkfilter drivers) so there are no worries about someone hijacking it when firebwall is running. Once we finish our own drivers and can afford to sign them, we'll be able to make this better.

 

This is probably because of .Net, you need the .Net 2.0 runtime.
.Net 2.0 Framework Downloads
You want to grab the redistributable for your system.

 

Also, I'd like to apologize for those who have popped into the IRC channel when we weren't around. It would be greatly appreciated if you stayed.

 

bwall, Thank you for the info.
My only concern is to make aware that your firewall is more
than likely in BETA stage so folks know the possible
problems that make or may not hose their systems.

 

That sounds fair. I do use every version of fireBwall as my primary firewall, and it hasn't hosed my systems yet. Most of our bugs are GUI things, or false positives. The worst was when I was testing out the Rectify Attack part of the ARP Poisoning Protection module while developing it, I had 2 instances of it on my network. I had a value switched in the packet that updates the other victim of the correct value, and it caused the other to send a rectifying packet, and likewise, it crashed my network. That was when I was developing it though, just a funny story.

 

Hi Bwall,

Thanks. That part I figured out. I only had .Net 4.0 installed when the error occurred.

 

So I can use it without any problems or reduced security in Windows 7 x64?

Guess I will wait for the next release, will you implement auto update of lists in IPGuard module?

 

There is no decreased security or issues running fireBwall on Windows x64.
The other developer does most of the work on IPGuard, but he does plan on implementing auto updating of lists in IPGuard. Not sure if this will be out right when the release happens, but an improvement to IPGuard will. We also have a plan for a method to check for updates to modules, and even a little module market for downloading modules through firebwall.

 

fireBwall 0.3.10.0 is out! Supports IPv6 and many other changes!

 

Thanks for the update. May try it again later.

 

How about making a video about fireBwall so that everyone can have a sneak peak before trying it?

 

Softoxi did that for us 6 versions back, I'll email them to see if they can update it. In the mean time, heres the one they did of 0.3.4.0
http://www.softoxi.com/firebwall-video-trailer-screenshots.html

A lot has changed since then of course.

 

Here's a quick video I made of fireBwall.
Its pretty low quality, but I've never really done this before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzItC1ZbEbA

 

Umm, help? The Adapters tab is blank and the Help tab is also blank, I have no idea what to do know, LOL.
EDIT: BTW, I'm using Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, the security applications I'm using are on my sig. (doubt it's about conflicting apps). I would be glad if you will be able to help me solve this issues. Are there anything that should be done after installing it?