Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

Every company needs a minimum of telemetry (for diagnosis, etc...) , telemetry isn't evil, what may be evil is how and for what purpose it is used.

People use cars with electronic parts that collect datas, they use GPS-equipped devices, they use smartphones, they use credit cards, ATM, the list is neverending...
Banks know all your life and even your dirty secrets, any bank employee can access your datas, but i dont see people complaining one bit. Oh but when Microsoft, Google, and other do the same then it is unacceptable...

 

True if you can trust, in this day and age.
With all of the stories of leaks and more leaks tell me how to trust.
Happening with most every company, not just MB.

 

you can't hide from telemetry/data collection, what you can do is limiting your exposure.

 

This is blatantly false!
For the entire history of computing except the last few years there was no telemetry; most users did not even had a permanent internet connection.
And the companies did just fine using professional testers and testing them selves, relying on voluntary user generated bug reports.
There is no valid justification for forcing telemetry on anyone.

People are morons in general.
And their mistake is not to complain about the cars the credit cards etc...
They rightfully complain about Microsoft, Google, and others.

Also Violating your PC is worst than tracking your car. For many their PC is a part of their most private thoughts.
Monitoring your car is like CCTV on the streets, monitoring your PC is like CCTV in your bathroom or bedroom...

Tolerating CCTV in public is... well one can live with it, CCTV in the privateness of your home is a reason for a violent revolution.

 

Very true!

 

I am a moron

 

I'm another one. And a pretty decent Windows critic to boot.

 

Well "in general", meaning not all, just most,
I suspect many here are an exception to this rule.


Its really annoying (cause its not a valid argument) when people are advocating for bad tings just because the masses does not riot against other bad things.

 

It was the opposite. We will give you this amount of money for your existing work and this salary to work with us. It is true that they wanted my knowledge, not really WFC. Anyway, WFC will not be open source.

 

Sheeple is the term. Morons is a little harsh, careful they will melt away.

 

The thing I like best is that WFC is been one of those long standing apps that simply did what was expected and that this Dev kept it up long term as long as he did, offering support, answering questions/concerns etc and is been really engaged with users of it.

Nice to see those years and effort put into it return some surprise satisfaction for it's original builder.

 

It made development, testing and diagnostic easier and less costly. The question is not to have it or not, it is to tell the user you are using it.

Exact, but it doesn't matter if it is justified or not, the company does what it want, it is their product. Like it or leave it. You still have the choice.

Indeed, and what is funny is all those people complaining over and over but keep using the accused products, which is pure insanity...
Why people don't complain about banks analyzing every transactions they do to build profiles on them with the purpose to tag them as good or bad customers deserving this or that service?
What is the difference with a software company collecting telemetry? NONE, it is even worse.
I don't say it is justified, but people should measure their opinions and get all the facts straight before complaining.
Those people totally miss the big picture (PRISM and other mass surveillance, etc...) but guess what? for them it doesn't matter much, only software X collecting their IP and system infos is a crime...

Put a CCTV in my bathroom, means you know my name and address, you will see me, you can reach me in real life.
Put telemetry, sure you may know my IP, some system infos, at worst my browsing history, but you can't locate me accurately or see me in my environment and how i live; you won't get my real name (unless i expose it), you won't collect my pictures, etc...

Telemetry isn't surveillance, CCTV is; you can't compare them.

Anyway we are already way offtopic , this thread is about WFC , not privacy.

 

May I suggest opening a separate thread for those who still want to talk about Malwarebytes/telemetry etc., and keep this one for WFC operation/features alone?

 

+1

 

Follow-up:

I noticed that every time I launch MS Excel or Word, there is a notification of an outgoing call. Can I safely block these without compromising the functioning of both (and MS Office in general)? It is difficult to judge from the pop up notification if the outgoing call is legit or even necessary?

 

Office should work just fine, unless you'd want to download online templates, help files etc. In this case, you can allow TCP outbound connections. Office also asks for UDP connections, I don't know what for. I've blocked those with no issues.

Outlook also auto-creates an inbound rule. I don't really use it so I've disabled it.

 

You are simply obliged to block all the processes of the MS Office. Starting from v2016, the MS Office transfers a lot of telemetry to its owner. At work Office this does not affect. v2010 - the latest version without telemetry.

 

See here about configuring/disabling Office telemetry. Also note this (link included in the previous article).

 

Thanks AmigaBoy for the links. I'm not prepared to tamper with the registry entries (link1) in case I need to backtrack in 3 month's time. However blocking telemetry through the Telemetry Dashboard is worth looking into.

 

I'll add my comments and a possible solution (works for me) for the case where the logging dies.

This is a Win7 SP1 system so no Win10 idiosyncrasies.

The log was always working up to the point I tried the 5.4.0.0.
At that time, after installation it would work either until a restart, or around 80 minutes or even 5 minutes the last time I reinstalled it.

In the last try, I saw an entry in the Event Log just before the logging stopped:
-->
System audit policy was changed.

Subject:
Security ID: SYSTEM
Account Name: MyPC$
Account Domain: WORKGROUP
Logon ID: 0x3e7

Audit Policy Change:
Category: Object Access
Subcategory: Filtering Platform Connection
Subcategory GUID: {0cce9226-69ae-11d9-bed3-505054503030}
Changes: Success removed, Failure removed
<--

0x3e7 is the NT Authority special account.
Why it changed this policy, I don't know. Maybe something done by WFC caused it (?)
The change seemed to refer to disabling logging in successful and failed connections. Right after it was set, the logging by wfc ceased.

To cut a long story short, after lots of googling and registry searches, the solution came down to this:

1. Run secpol.msc
2. Navigate to:
Advanced Audit Policy Configuration -> System Audit Policies - Local Group Policy Object -> Object Access
3. On the right panel, "Audit Filtering Platform Connection" is probably 'Not Configured', so configure it.
4. I enabled both "Success" and "Failure".
5. Soon as you "Apply" the change, refresh the wfc log. It will work. Flip-flop with the change and you'll see it stopping-going.

Why this happened, I've no idea.
I had never touched these policies before and it used to work fine.

Cheers.

 

moved to 5.4.0.0
found a bunch of Invalid Ruled > deleted same
found a bunch of Duplicate Rules > ?
can't find what to do re Duplicate Rules in User Manual

Edit: after another Restore Windows Firewall default and Restore Windows Firewall Control recommended. I deleted dupes and Duplicate Rules list is empty.

 

Sorry in advance if this is a really stupid question-- MBAM says that it's free for the short term... but what happens to the people who actually donated/have accounts on BiniSoft?

 

Same, you donated to @alexandrud , you didn't donated anything to malwarebytes, so they owe you nothing.

 

For the previous users nothing has changed, you can activate the version to 5.3.1.0 inclusive.