Totally forgot about this tool. It still looks interesting, perhaps I might give it a try on Win 11. However, I still think it looks a bit overwhelming. And I also didn't know they were bought by IVPN, are these guys trustworthy?
For info : https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ivpn-discussion-and-update-thread.437171/page-2#post-3217564
OK thanks for the info. To clarify, I use VPN's only to get access to certain movies and series that I can't find over here in Europe. But I do wonder if Portmaster Firewall is in safe hands, so that's why I asked.
No, but seems like it has been improved a lot, I might give it a try when I buy a new Win 11 machine. I would use it mainly for the firewall, but it also has adblocking capabilities. What's your opinion about it?
OK I see, I thought you were testing it. At the moment I'm still happy with my SpyShelter 12 + TinyWall combo on Win 10, but SpyShelter 15 is missing a couple of features (no network monitor), so who knows, perhaps I will switch to Portmaster.
Anyone else with Postmaster comments? I am very happy with Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control, but sometimes new stuff is fun to play with.
sorry for the delay pop up at every connections to ips , so we can create rules using ip range thanks
Been using only the free/limited options (alongside WFC) - and still a great tool. Here's compression between free, plus and pro: https://safing.io/pricing/#comparison Based on that comparative list - you'd think it's rather limited (used as free), but for a home user: Privacy Filter, Secure DNS & Network Monitor - is more than enough. To get a better idea, in terms of free features and transparency - is quite superior to GlassWire. Here's a side by side comparison: Code: Category | Portmaster (Free) | GlassWire (Free) ----------------------|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------- Source Code | Open-source (fully) | Closed-source (proprietary) Platform Support | Windows & Linux | Windows (limited) + Android (full free) Firewall Control | Full per-app blocking, DNS filtering | Basic; advanced firewall modes are paid Tracker/Ad Blocking | Built-in blocklists (trackers, etc.) | None by default (monitoring-focused) Visual Network Graphs | Basic logs, no fancy graphs | Yes – graphs, alerts, usage charts Bandwidth Monitoring | Limited in free version | Limited – detailed usage requires upgrade DNS Privacy | Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT) included | Uses system DNS unless configured History / Logs | Limited (advanced logs are paid) | Limited (short history only) Alerts & Notifications| Connection alerts + blocking info | Alerts on new connections, anomalies User Interface | Functional, minimal | Polished, user-friendly UI Custom Filtering | Per-app/domain/IP filtering | Minimal – mostly passive monitoring SPN / VPN Features | Not included (SPN is paid) | No built-in VPN features Ease of Use | Some setup/tweaking required | Easy out of the box for monitoring As shown above - the main Pros of GlassWire over PortMaster - is the UI (rather intuitive - at first glance, while PM needs some reading, testing and getting used to) and ease of use (tho, GW is rather limited in terms of settings and free features - so there's not much to set/tweak anyway - while PM really beats it in this regard - by including blocking, DNS filtering and a built-in blacklist for trackers already set by default - which in GW is paid with no default blacklist). Once again, despite the included description for each settings - it takes some getting used to - you need to put some effort (trial and error) - to get a better idea of what works "and HOW". Which, from what i noticed - is where a lot of people fail and give up on it, such as - treating it as if it's a browser Ad-blocker - while applying the following fillers... ... and forget about it/them. Only to notice latter - that some sites don't load at all (working as intended - since above fillers block every affiliate). Obviously blocking FB - you won't be able to access it, but blocking Google will also block YouTube, blocking Amazon - will also block IMDB (which is a Amazon affiliate). Then there's - per app blocking, even more than that - when it comes to a browser - where you can block a specific domain (it's not like you block the App itself - like Firefox - cause then all sites are blocked). For example... If the "Green Dot" turns Red - that's a blocked site/domain (none are blocked in above list). Above page - is one of it's best features - since it can monitor both the app and the domains that pass through it. GlassWire can do this too - but the blocking part is only available in the paid version. Before this apps - was using WireShark - which shoes the connection but not the app itself (so it took some extra effort to identify it). Then there's the DNS filtering function: ...where, as can be seen above - you have to disable every app's internal DNS encryption - staring with Windows. All the DNS encryption will be handled by PortMaster, tho - using a public DNS - depending on preference (Quad9, Adguard, Cloudflare - or add whatever you like). Just my 2 cents.
Ok thanks for the review. BTW, I did see in your screenshots, that it couldn't display the Firefox icon, is this some bug?
Sure looks like it (all icons are broken - for some reason). Only workaround to this bug - is to edit the app profile - for each app like so... ...and click on "reset icon" - thus it will display a generic icon - as shown by above arrow (just the starting letter and some random color).
