Private Firewall Updated (again)

Great info, Bill. All the more reason to reduce the chance of conflict and go with an excellent program that provides HIPS, keylogger and firewall protection all in one package.
(And did I mention the price is right? )

 

RELEASE NOTES - 7.0.24.8, posted 6/7/2011
- Fixed ICMP rule-change specific GUI crash issue.

http://www.privacyware.com/PF_support.html

Rules

 

Is there a whitelist in this program now?
Or is it the same old "ask for everything"?

 

Installed the updated version over the previous version with no problems at all. I have never had a problem installing, uninstalling over previous versions or from a fresh start and have been using PFW for a few years now. The only time that I had a problem with PFW was when I tried to run GesWall with it. Everything would go into a complete "ice age" type "deepfreeze" .....would not be able to connect to the internet, and then only if I would uninstall one or the other (PFW or GesWall), could I connect. As of now I am running Sandboxie (paid) along with avast and PFW is playing quite nicely with both.

 

You said it all! With everything set to high in PFW and a little common sense, it is all what you need to protect your system.

 

There is a lot of overhead & logistics for maintaining an extensive, up-to-date whitelist. Online Armor has a whitelist -- even for their free version (I think) -- but Online Armor has a paid version to cover the costs. PFW is free, & has no paid version.

IMO, "Ask for everything" can be avoided when using PFW, without incurring excessive alerts. If you are using a "virgin" PFW, a good approach is to keep PFW in training mode for a few days, while you go about your daily routine. As you do so, PFW will learn your trusted apps and add them to its databank for YOUR own computer. Just be sure to exit Training status if you start doing non-routine or potentially risky things.

+++After you decide to exit Training states, I suggest that you save your configuration...

Main GUI > click File at top left of GUI > on the resultant drop-down menu, click Export Settings

+++ After you exit Training mode on a more or less permanent basis, IF you get an alert from PFW & you are sure that what you are doing is *Safe*, then click "Options" on the alert & it will display additional options that will allow you to Enable Training. (It also will allow you to Terminate the Process if PFW's alert sounds ominous.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If this is still too much hassle to suit your tastes, then I suggest that you try Online Armor FW -- even OA's free version has a whitelist (mostly "cloud-based").

OA is a teeny bit heavier than PFW on most computers that I am familiar with. However, the small difference shouldn't be a "deal killer" except on older machines (such as mine) or machines used for game playing.

OA does a pretty good job of alerting to keyloggers but I don't know if it does an equal or better anti-keylogger job than does PFW. IMO, when you transact REALLY sensitive business, you should always protect yourself, while doing those sensitive things, by running Trust Rapport (sp?) or SpyShelter or Zemana.

 

Thanks for the feedback bellgamin.
I'm familiar with OA but the latest version needs improvement.
Comodo... well.
I'm trying Zone Alarm (free) now, but not very happy with it.

If I decide to install PF I'll ask again for your good will.

Regards,
Jose.

 

PFW doesn't work correct under Win7 x86 Standard User Account. I did manual settings and set "disable auto response". It fails Zemana tests. It doens't remember the process settings. In Admin account, it passes Zemana tests, It works perfectly as expected.

I have just wanted to let you know. I will install Comodo again.

 

is this more popular on here then OA free?

 

I use both. I have Private Firewall on my main PC and OA free on a laptop.

 

I installed OA Free and my laptop no longer shuts down. So I uninstalled it and now it shuts down fine. So now running Private Firewall.

 

I never have had a problem with OA. The only reason I'm not using it on my main PC is because there was a conflict with DefenseWall.

 

Hmm odd, only other security software on my laptop is Panda Cloud 1.9

 

I found out the problem. Zemana signature was in Trusted Publisher List. Thats why Privatefirewall failed. I removed signature from list and Private firewall passed. Sorry.

 

My laptop setup is OA, Avast and Sandboxie. It all runs smooth together. Panda Cloud is supposed to be real light on resources so you should have had better luck with it than I did. Maybe there is a known conflict with Panda Cloud and OA?

 

yeah maybe there is a conflict.
I also got Safe Online installed.
PFW works fine on here so might just leave it like this unless I trial new Panda Security suite,

 

I have tried Panda 1.5 beta as well as earlier versions. It is FAR from light on my computers. (Your mileage may differ.)

 

damn, it still lock-up with fullscreen games, my pc turned unresponsible with fallout 3 new vegas and empire earth, closing pfw kills the problem...

 

I'm just going by what I have read in reviews. I personally have never used it.

 

I have been testing this private firewall. it feels very light. over all I am impressed however it does fail some old POC's I have.

 

I just switched back to PrivateFirewall from Online Armor Premium yesterday (I've been running PF on my wife's setup for some time now).

I started noticing the oasrv.exe cpu usage issue raising its ugly head again after a few months of relatively quiet performance. When this happens my fans start spooling up frequently and it's annoying as all get out.

Anyway, reinstalled PF and things are back to cool, calm and quiet.

There are a few features in OA that I wished PF incorporated but overall I think it's a winner, especially layered with Sandboxie and the malware fighters of your choice.

This time I think I'll just stick with Greg Salvato and PF as they always respond quickly to requests for info or assistance and constantly strive to make the product better.

 

Any PFW users here use shared folders?

At work and home I have a desktop computer with C: (system) and D: (data) partitions. I keep D: shared on the local network so that I can transfer files easily between the desktop and my laptop. That worked fine with PFW v7.0.24.6 (or whatever the version was before the latest few updates), but after updating to v7.0.24.8 (maybe v7.0.24.7 also), the shares stopped working, and now I have to 'allow all traffic' just to transfer files between the two pairs of machines. For this latest update, I exported PFW policies on the desktop, uninstalled the old version, installed the new version, imported the policies from earlier.

Anyone know how to fix this or what options I have to check or uncheck to get this thing working?

 

well, this morning i had another look at PFW settings. it turns out something had gone wrong with the export/import of preferences. to enable file sharing earlier i had added local IPs on the Trusted Sites list (e.g. 192.168.0.101). After exporting the settings, uninstalling- and upgrading PFW, and importing the old settings, the IPs had been reversed in the Trusted Sites list. (e.g. 101.0.168.192 instead of 192.168.0.101). I fixed them this morning and now the shared folder works again.

 

Even though Matousec's method of rating by levels seems odd, Privatefirewall's score of 91% is impressive. And it is now listed at Gizmo's freeware firewall recommendations, with a 4 out of 5 rating. Before, it was listed there in alternative firewalls, but I don't think it was in the main list until recently. Has it been improved? I've tried it before, and it seems to be running better on my computer since I installed it a few days ago. I think it will fit in really well with the other security programs I'm using.

 

It runs great on my XP Pro SP3 setup. (I no longer hear my fans spooling up and down constantly as had been the case with OA (unfortunately.)

Greg Salvato and the folks at Privacyware take this product very seriously.
I can't tell you how many email communications we have had back and forth about ideas for features to be added or enhanced. Greg always answers promptly and incorporates features regularly. That alone sets the bar pretty high imho.

I am very impressed with this program for its effectiveness, its lack of bloat and its constant evolution. (It has also done well in my own limited testing.)

I've recently sent Greg some ideas that I think might be successfully incorporated to make the program even better but he and his staff will have to determine whether they are feasible or ultimately desirable.