Lightweight FW

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by whitedragon551, Mar 31, 2012.

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  1. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Looking for a nice lightweight firewall to run along side Emsisoft AM v6 in real time. I dont want a HIPS or something overly complicated like LnS. I have a lifetime license to LnS and have uninstalled it due to complexity configuring rules for my applications.
     
  2. FadeAway

    FadeAway Registered Member

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    I trialed ZoneAlarm free, both v.9 and v.10 for a few
    weeks each on my Win7 x32 ASUS notebook, 1.8Ghz CPU, 2 gig RAM.
    Don't recall the memory stats, - it ran about as fast as when
    using the Windows firewall. Boot up was a few seconds slower.
    But I just couldn't stand the weekly advertising pop-ups,
    so, as usual, I'm back to the Windows fw.

    However, it is a nice, no HIPS fw program. It auto detects
    just about everything - programs, connections, etc. I'm not
    familiar with Emisoft AM, so don't know if there would be conflicts.

    If you install ZAF & don't like it, be sure use the
    ZA Clean uninstaller. Then go through HKCU, HKLM, and all
    the user app files to clean out the stuff it still leaves behind!
     
  3. majoMo

    majoMo Registered Member

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    . Windows Firewall Control - [Win 7]

    . Windows 7 Firewall Control - Version 5.0 Beta available for free (Plus Edition), stable [Win XP- Win 7]

    > Both are easy-to-use, enough to control outbound connections of applications.​
    > Native Windows Firewall doesn't need to be disable with any of these two firewalls.​
     
  4. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Those arent firewalls. They are just GUI's for the built in Windows FW.
     
  5. adrenaline7

    adrenaline7 Registered Member

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    I am thinking about donating the $10 for wfc and setting up some rules with it, it seems solid. Is windows 7 firewall control just as good? I was surprised to see that Win 7 FC even works on XP. If you are on vista/7 and don't need HIPS I see no reason to go outside of windows firewall.
     
  6. FadeAway

    FadeAway Registered Member

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    I tried W7FC free version on my old XP Home SP3 system, decided
    it was unnecessary, and when I uninstalled it, it took out
    the Windows firewall/ICS service. I got the "cannot start"
    message. Fortunately, I had imaged C: before installing, so
    a messy repair was unnecessary.
     
  7. adrenaline7

    adrenaline7 Registered Member

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    well I guess I won't be trying that one on xp at least then. Have you tried it on Windows o7? I installed WFC but haven't donated $10 yet to really unlock it and utilize it. If Windows 7 Firewall control works just as well on Win 7 I may just try that instead but I am under the impression the regular WFC is better.
     
  8. FadeAway

    FadeAway Registered Member

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    I have tried it both on my W7 x64 desktop and my
    W7 x32 notebook, and it installed and uninstalled
    without difficulty. The free version does not control
    anything that executes in C:\Windows outside of System 32.
    It lumps all of those in a "System" zone. You need
    the paid version for full granular outbound control.
    They explain that in their FAQ. So if you are concerned about
    bad stuff sending your bank info out to the dark side, then
    it's of limited value. I took it off my x64 machine yesterday,
    and may start writing outbound rules for the native firewall
    as an educational exercise.
     
  9. carat

    carat Guest

    Windows firewall - it's the lightest FW ;)
     
  10. Kees1958

    Kees1958 Registered Member

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    Yep and the free Windows firewall notifier also. How light do you want to have it? Only a GUI add-on to the build in FW? What can be lighter?
     
  11. Dark Shadow

    Dark Shadow Registered Member

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    What Kees said. Also consider no third party firewall bugs or conflics with other third party security that may be installed on the system.Windows firewall just works plain and simple.
     
  12. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    I'd be interested to know what you mean by "lightweight". Do you mean a FW that handles outbound connection requests automatically?
     
  13. G1111

    G1111 Registered Member

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    Have you ever considered Phant0m's ruleset for LnS -http://www.mntolympus.org/
     
  14. majoMo

    majoMo Registered Member

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    . Firstly Windows FW is in fact (it's not a name only) a Firewall. To use A GUI could be VERY useful (e.g. oubound connections control more easy; close any connections, etc.). If someone doesn't like GUI's can use native firewall and manage by itself.
    . Windows 7 Firewall Control isn't "just GUI's for the built in Windows FW": "The both products work independently entirely. You can switch the Built-in Firewall ON or OFF at your option due to complete product independence".
    . I'm using it in a XP machine; it works very well.
    . Using Version 5.0 Beta available for free (Plus Edition), very stable; thus I'm using it with all Plus features for free. The beta free version has a very useful warning:
    Both these Firewalls allow to disable all connections when user wants.
     
  15. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    I have considered it, but its still going to require some configuration. Ive considered using it to just block/allow certain applications.

    By light weight I mean low maintenance, easy to configure, and light on system resources.
     
  16. JoeBlack40

    JoeBlack40 Registered Member

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  17. Wroll

    Wroll Registered Member

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    Windows Firewall from Vista and up is very good although sometimes it doesn't recognize a rule anymore until I restart the computer.
     
  18. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Refuse to use something from a company that openly gets caught and denies creating malware to make a profit.
     
  19. SnowWalker

    SnowWalker Registered Member

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    I've been trying out Tinywall (the beta version, haven't tried the stable) for a couple of days and so far I'm impressed. It's being discussed on this thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=309739

    It uses the Windows FW for Vista and 7 but I like it better than the other Windows FW controllers.
     
  20. alexandrud

    alexandrud Developer

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    Why do you think this is a better choice than other solutions that work also with Windows Firewall ? Thank you.
     
  21. SnowWalker

    SnowWalker Registered Member

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    To be honest it's been a while since I tried another one, but when I did it seemed to be just an interface to more quickly access the Windows firewall, then you had to have a good idea of what you were doing in setting up rules. Not much different than going directly to the Win firewall and trying to figure it out yourself. I never tried a paid version. But reading some of the comments helps convince me I'm better off with TinyWall.

    Tinywall, at least in my case, seems to have been pretty much preconfigured, and it makes it easy to add exceptions for other programs it doesn't recognize. It doesn't give pop-ups asking me to allow/block all kinds of services that I have no idea what they are.

    As always, YMMV. Many people here probably know more about firewalls, setting up rules, and what to block or allow, and would rather have something more configurable. I just want something fairly simple yet effective.
     
  22. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    Went with my LnS subscription and paid for the Phant0m ruleset.
     
  23. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Privatefirewall from privacyware.com
     
  24. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    The free versions are useless, they don't provide System/Core application protection.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2012
  25. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Useless, doesn't provide proper protection.
     
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