Windows Firewall Control (WFC) by BiniSoft.org

Windows Firewall Control v.4.7.1.0

Change log:
- New: Secure Rules was extended to allow two possible actions when handling unauthorized rules: delete or disable. All the rules that will be automatically disabled will be moved in a new predefined group named 'Unauthorized Rules'. The user can now review these rules in Rules Panel.
- Fixed: Customize and allow does not work in Connections Log from the toolbox button or from the context menu. It works only on double click.
- Fixed: Connections Log menu item is enabled in the system tray context menu if the service is not started.
- Fixed: The IP set in the rule named "WFC - Windows Firewall Control Updater" needs to be updated to the new website IP which is now 66.198.240.5 (This rule is not automatically updated, it gets updated only if it is recreated again).
- Improved: The timeout for checking for new updates was increased from 3 seconds to 10 to in order avoid connection timeout result.
- Improved: The predefined group names which can't be removed are now grayed out in the Authorized groups list. Added tooltip for the new authorized group text box to inform the user about the @ wildcard that can be used for Windows 10 apps rules.

Modified translation strings:
455 = Enable protection against firewall rules that are not created in the authorized groups defined below.

New translation strings:
462 = Unauthorized rules should be automatically
463 = deleted
464 = disabled
465 = Use a single @ to exclude firewall rules defined for Windows 10 apps

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: d50cac5129472d6151def1449c8dbde82c0acb8a

Best regards,
The developer

 

Thank you for the new version. I want to warm up an old post and your reply to this:

Are there any news? It could be also good to have the language files versioned and WFC can check this. At the moment I have to download the language file first to find out it is not updated yet. When this is integrated in the Main Panel, then WFC can check this by itself and offer you to update the language file.

 

I meant the following: if a user not use the timer he has no possibility to set a default level for WFC start. So, if he change the level for install purposes from medium to low (as said without timer) and restarts his pc, the level remains on low.

I know, if he WOULD use a timer - unfortunately sometimes the timer is a bit "difficult" - let us say we define 10 mins and while installation a problem appears, so this time is maybe too short - let us say we define 60 mins and the install is finished in 1 min, then it's ways too much.

The perfect solution IMHO would be:

Default Level: ___________________ --> Will be used after WFC-Start
Timer: ____________ [ ] --> Box to activate the timer - to set the Default Level (above) after defined time

Ok, it's not the most important thing, but ...

 

It is still on my to do list. Unfortunately, this had low priority than other things. Someday, it will see the light of the day.

 

@alexandrud

Please remove the group "Windows Firewall Control" from the groups which cannot be changed! I want have the possibility to make my own group names after I checked new Windows Firewall Rules in Rule Manager (without to deactivate the Protected Rules first) - and I am sure, much users too! Or do I see this not correct somehow (cannot test the secure rules here right now)?

Then this window here has a graphic glitch ...



Regardless of the window size I have always to scroll to see all of the bottom. Could be a problem for certain screen resolutions only (here 1920 x 1080) and/or font sizes (normal here).

2nd problem in this windows is the color of those protected Group Names, at least for people with no more PERFECT eyes (as me) it's almost impossible to identify those (grey is like black) - and in the screenshot here it's even better than in original window - so please change the color OR change the background color or so.

Have a nice week, Alexandru - and thanks for new version!

PS: German (DE) translation is in work ...
PPS: German (DE) translation is sent to developer and should be ready on binisoft.org soon ...

 

This reminds me of a question I wanted to ask, but it slipped my mind since Secure Rules was introduced.

What covers "Temporary Rules"? I had a recent example where I had to uninstall and reinstall Mozilla Firefox. It created two inbound rules during installation, and the group name was empty. Does an empty group name fall under a Temporary Rule?

 

The point is I can't play some games through hamachi (LAN) with the firewall enable, although hamachi and the games are allowed in the firewall. So what I do is to disable the firewall, but then I can be playing for hours, and If I restart the pc it will continue disabled. I can live with it if you don' t want to add more options, although I think it will be useful.

 

No, a Temp Rule will be generated only if you use the "T" from the Notification Window. And has then really the name "Temporary Rules" set as group name.

 

Bug or incorrect behaviour ...

In some cases - maybe if the connection is "active" yet - the ports cannot be changed or removed in this window ...

 

All new rules created with WFC are by default set in the Windows Firewall Control group name. This group name along Temporary Rules and Unauthorized Rules can not be removed from that list to ensure the WFC logic.
You can still define your custom group names in Rules Panel when you create new rules, but if have Secure Rules enabled you should define a new group name first in the Authorized groups list and then use it in Rules Panel.
Thank you for reporting the scroll problem. I will fix this. And also, I will revert the grayed out items back to black color.

Temporary Rules group name is used by the rules that are created from the T button available in the notification dialog. They are displayed with blue color in Rules Panel. Empty group names are just empty group names.

For your scenario you probably need some inbound rules too. I don't think that disabling the firewall to play a game is a good solution.

The behavior is correct. You change there only the details of a new rule that you want to create. You do not modify an existing connection. No bug, no incorrect behavior here.

 

I was wrong here, no problem and all right!

Of course I know that I can't have influence with this to an existing connection. I do not mean that I can change an active connection - I meant because a connection was still active or so and had influence to those fields, a change (delete) was not possible TO CREATE THE RULE AFTER. In real scenario: I just wanted to delete the ports and then create the rule, this was not possible in this case here (delete the ports with the "X" was not possible) ... this SHOULD be possible and IS normally possible ... BTW: remove of IP WAS possible ...

 

Suggestion for Authorized Rules

Instead to create all the necessary manually, it would be useful to have the possibility to create those from the Rule Manager Window too via Right Mouse Click with ...

"Add group(s) from selected rules to the Autorized Group List" or something like that.

 

The ports fields are enabled and have a meaning only when you use TCP or UDP protocol. When you select Any (Beliebig) these fields are automatically disabled.
1. I left the values there instead of deleting them when you select Any protocol just in case the user changes his mind and wants back the old values.
2. I disabled the fields when you switch to Any protocol to inform the user that those fields can't be edited anymore and will not be used in the rules that will be created.
3. I can delete the values when you switch to Any protocol, but then the scenario 1 will not work anymore.

No. I would like to keep the definition of authorized groups only in the Security tab. If the Secure Rules is enabled, then it is not possible to create a new rule with a new group without it being deleted or disabled. If the Secure Rules is disabled, before the user enables it, he has the possibility to import all existing group names and remove quickly the ones that he don't want.

 

Me neither but I prefer to play. Shouldn't WFC show a pop up for those inbound rules? I have accepted all the popups it has shown for this game.

 

Ahh, because ANY, ok - all right, thank you!

Oops, you are right, I was too fast - or in other words, not meant to end ;-) all right here too!

Thank you!

 

WFC does not display notifications for inbound blocked connections because it makes no sense to display notifications for these connections. There are thousands of blocked connections attempts from the Internet to your computer in a very short time frame, which are by default blocked by Windows Firewall. Check the Connections Log when this software gets blocked again. Check inbound and outbound too. You probably have to allow something else too.

 

Important Announcement

 

Hi Alexandrud. Some day, if you ever release a PRO version of WFC, I'd like to see some filtering on the logs, optional, selectable and can be used in multiples.

For starters:
1. No DNS
2. No Multicast
3. No DNS AND No Multicast
4. TCP
5. IPv6
6. ICMP
7. HTTP
8. UDP
9. NO Loopback
etc...

Y'all don't mind me... I'm just dreamin'.

Peace. Alan

 

Current version is 4.7.1.0 and I use Windows 8.1 (x64)
whois lookup / address check for remote IP address always opens only in IE.
How do I configure WFC to use a web browser of my choice (Firefox / Chrome / Vivaldi / Avira Scout / etc..) ?

 

WFC opens URLs with the browser that is set as system standard for opening html-files.
On Windows-systems it is IE by default.
If you want WFC to open the URLs for example with Chrome, you need to set Chrome as standard browser for your system.
HTH

 

Hi Rafales. I'm on Windows 10 Pro but I remember, you got to Control Panel/ Default Programs/ Set Associations/ scroll down to html then select/highlight it, then click on "Change Program". THAT will pull up a list of ALL your browsers and select the one you want. BUT THAT will make that browser the default browser for ANY html request on your machine.
hth

Peace. Alan

 

This will not probably happen. But when you are in the Connections Log, you can use the columns sort functionality to quickly find these.

 

Windows Firewall Control v.4.7.2.0

Change log:
- New: If the profile is set to No Filtering and the user inserts a new removable drive, the profile is automatically reverted to the previous profile to avoid unwanted programs to automatically connect to the network/Internet. This is a new implementation based on the code from USBC which does not generate errors in Windows Reliability Monitor.
- Fixed: The rules created for executable files which are located on removable drives don't work anymore if the drive is removed and reinserted, even if the same drive letter is assigned.
- Fixed: The vertical scroll bar from Security tab appears always even if the content is maximized.
- Removed: The grayed out effect for the predefined group names was removed.
- Removed: The installer can't update the existing installation if the same version is already installed. This limitation was removed and the updater can update the same version by overwriting the existing installation. The updater still does not allow to install an older version over a newer version.

Download location: http://binisoft.org/download/wfc4setup.exe
SHA1: d46e19b6d88a4e3cbfa6287760c81379824ebe51

Best regards,
Alexandru

 

LOL! I don't want to find them, I don't wont to see multicast or dns at all 99.9% of the time. But maybe I can play around with the WFC logging and see what I can get.

Like I said, "...just dreamin'."

Thanks, Alexandrud.

Peace. Alan.

 

@alexandrud,

ever considered the possibility of having a shortcut to switch between medium filtering and low filtering like we have for the Main/Rule panels and connections log?