Windows 10 Firewall Control (Sphinx-Soft) Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by Brummelchen, Feb 14, 2015.

  1. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    Your license is valid for this major release, as long they will let you activate it for the amount of systems as you bought the license. For the next major release you need to buy an upgrade which is cheaper than a whole new license. Nevertheless, development has stuck since months (jan'20)
     
  2. wat0114

    wat0114 Registered Member

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    Indeed, this is a concern of mine. I always get an uneasy feeling when development of software I use grinds to a halt.
     
  3. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    Funny how opinions vary. No worries here. Last thing I want is changes which add nothing (think windows, acronis, malwarebytes...). This is a stable well working version. I'm sure they will update when needed, and/or if users request something.
     
  4. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    ofc it works, even the latest final (.79) or the latest build (.84), no matter. but it seems curious when they push new builds each month and now nothing.

    i found this one, rather old statement
    https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vistafirewallcontrol/trial-policy-changed-t667.html#p4041
    and at least they need to compete with those heer
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/forums/other-firewalls.31/
    ;)

    but i am not sure if such new features are such impressing for me to renew.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2020
  5. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    I used the "Export" button on bottom right corner of the "Settings" page of W10FC's GUI.......

    =>QUESTION: Is there an "Import" button somewhere (in case it's ever needed)?
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Great information. Thanks!!! :thumb::thumb::thumb:
     
  6. pb1

    pb1 Registered Member

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    Someone has told me that you can Allow/Deny programs from the context menu with this program, is that true?

    That would be handy to do from the download folder, it would make installations smoother.
     
  7. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    Yes. See pic. Export, Import, Reset is what I see.
    2020-11-29_15-25-29-ExportImport.jpg
     
  8. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    True. Two pictures.
    First one is of my existing VLC.exe. It shows the few rules I've setup long ago.
    Second one: I just downloaded into \Downloads newVLC, right click, Select Sphinx, Protect will take you to the standard alert questions so you can setup allows/blocks/whatever. That's all I know. I never used it.
    2020-11-29_15-37-47-Context-VLC.jpg

    2020-11-29_15-48-16-VLCdownload.jpg
     
  9. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Not on mine...

    ScreenHunter_03 Nov. 29 17.47.gif ScreenHunter_04 Nov. 29 18.09.gif
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2020
  10. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    @act8192 -- Okay, I see the problem. If I maximize the GUI "Settings" page, it shows the same as yours. I had the page minimized on the *assumption* that it was a smaller version of the entire page. Instead, the minimized page chopped off the bottom of the maximized page. First time I have ever seen it done that way. Sheeeesh! o_O
     
  11. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    i do not use the import/export function of that program, its limited.

    try to export
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall

    this ofc will retain all settings

    for each section:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall\1.0\AppList
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall\1.0\GUI
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall\1.0\Settings
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall\1.0\AgentList
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\Vista-Wall\1.0\ZoneList


    applist and zonelist will be the important ones.

    for reinstalling it will help much more as the pointless xml file
     
  12. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    I can't replicate your mishap on Windows10. When I minimize the Settings window using the standard windows buttons in the upper right corner, it all goes to the system tray.
    When I resize using the arrow in the corner, it stops well before covering anything so all is visible.
     
  13. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    Can you please explain what you mean here?

    I've used export with all items checked and imported back several times with no problems.
     
  14. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    the xml has limited information while registry export has all settings, thats all what i can say to you. when they started this feature (dont remember) i tried and was disappointed when importing. the reg files has it all.

    there are also issues with the regular installer i noticed, in special when installing back and forth. i do that for my own with a special tool since v5.

    export/import as xml was available since 4.5 (beta) and you can trigger it with a command line.

    Windows10FirewallControl.exe Export
    Windows10FirewallControl.exe Import

    i am dealing now for over 10 years with it.
     
  15. Melita

    Melita Registered Member

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    I have three questions please. I am using the portable version. (1) For internet browsers (Firefox and Epic Privacy Browser) what is the correct Permissions Zone - OutgoingOnly or EnableAll? (2) As it is not installed, should deleting all the folders get rid of it completely. (3) If I decide to delete W10FC, have I got to remove all the Permission Zones settings I have selected for various applications?

    Thank you
     
  16. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    All browsers need ingoing and outgoing. (free is very limited in zones)
    Portable is not recommended for regular usage, use setup instead.

    yes

    no (see 2)
     
  17. Melita

    Melita Registered Member

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  18. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    Two of 3 browsers I use (Opera 12 and SeaMonkey) only need in and out to/from local host, and only out for the web. But maybe portable doesn't have a way to make that distinction. I don't know.
     
  19. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    @Melita -- Please take note of my post #183 & stapp's response #184. The paragraph stapp referred to reads as follows:
    Therefore, as @Brummelchen so accurately stated, it is probably best to use the portable version for testing and then -- if you like this firewall -- you might prefer to revert to the installed version.
     
  20. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    Thank you for pointing out admin rights - that's ofc a risky behavior in this case, otherwise it would ask for creditials (i guess).

    The portable is portable as given, no remnants (i tried). It is usable for trialing out that piece of software. But as you can read for security reasons it is better to install it for a longer usage.

    All settings are saved in the folder of that software
     
  21. act8192

    act8192 Registered Member

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    @bellgamin posted a screenshot of Sphinx zones in a non-Sphinx thread here in post 44:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...f-windows-firewall.434464/page-2#post-2971235

    Please look at that post first.
    My 2 cents: (prev) additions occur after update over the top indicating that something may have changed.
    1. If you have not edited any rules within a zone in the zone list repository, you can delete all (prev) zones.
    2. If you have edited any rules within a zone before update without renaming them (bad idea), then you may want to compare new version to (prev) manually and adjust if needed.
    None of this has any effect on the zones already applied to programs.
    See this old thread (post 498 )
    https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vistafirewallcontrol/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6&p=3539&hilit=Prev#p3539
     
  22. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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  23. blabhead

    blabhead Registered Member

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    Anyway to disable HP Touchpoint Analytics Client Service in the free version of this ?

    I am not seeing any.
     
  24. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    I recommend you raise this question at the W10FC forum at HERE.
     
  25. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    I asked W10FC's forum some questions. Here are their answers:

    Q1: When do you expect to issue an update to W10FC?
    A1: For now the product is in “no known problems” stage. We are working on a completely new functionality

    Q2: Is W10FC a "front-end" for Windows own firewall (WFW), or is it a "manager" for Windows Filtering Platform (WFP)?
    A2: It’s a WFP “manager”. Working at WFW “layer” is actually not safe and rather impractical. Also there is additional rules protection and (separately) auto recovery even inside W10FC.

    Q3: Is it advisable for user to disable WFW?
    A3: Complete WFW disabling is not possible technically. Correct/Documented (via UI) WFW disabling doesn’t disable WFW completely. The WFW services will be up and running anyway. Disabling the services can sometimes cause unpredictable networking behavior, we know a lot of such cases. It’s Widows version dependent though. Windows Updates may stop working with WFW services disabled for instance. So we wouldn’t say WFW disabling could solve a problem unconditionally.

    Q4: Is it true that the Windows operating system gives WFW's rules high priority so that they are processed BEFORE any other firewall's rules?
    A4: That’s not correct. WFP determines the prioritization and WFW rules are not on the priority top even by default. Anyway W10FC rules are triggered before WFW ones.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
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