BartWare Personal Firewall 3.0.2

I

Ian Edmont

Basically if you don't change any of the settings, the program will
only ask you to allow or disallow programs access to the internet.
Click to expand...

thanx for the reply Bart. this is the thing ... as with all firewall
programs, unless u have a good understanding of what should be allowed to
access the internet eg service and controller app then most users struggle
in my opinion. i wouldnt have a clue whether to allow that particular
program access to the internet. would it be a good suggestion that maybe you
could build some help into the program on what should be allowed to access
etc. (if that makes sense). please ignore me of course if i am talkin
boll*x. i have all these popups appear asking me whether to allow acces and
i havent a clue whether to say yes or no for most of the time. obviously if
i have just launched firefox or thunderbird and a popup appears then of
course i will allow access as it is obvious but for the 'obscure' programs
like what i have just mention, most people just don't know.
Then on to the next question: why would this firewall be better than
others? Well, as of my knowledge, Kerio has been sold to Sunbelt
Software, and Sygate was sold to Symantec, meaning they won't stay
freeware (infact, are they at all anymore?).
Click to expand...

mmm. think they are all payware now arn't they or at least u get a thirty
day trial and then they revert to basic mode?!!?!?

Anyhow, this means you
can't get free updates, and that security flaws in any of the software
won't be fixed for you. BWPF will stay freeware. I do believe ZoneAlarm
will keep a freeware version, but that is such a pain to update that I
think most users will just turn updates off. With BWPF it takes only a
few seconds to update, and you don't have to do anything. The
protection is, I think quite similar to others. Also ZoneAlarm just
refuses to remember my settings properly, which is infact the reason I
made this program.
Click to expand...

just one question on that ... i have heard nmany people say they are still
using kerio 2.1.5 (last freeware version i believe) and are still ok with
that. this was released in 2002/3 i believe and so am i correct in assuming
thse people are not fully protected with the latest updates. i hope these
aren't silly stoopid questions.

in any case, i will take your product for a test drive. thanks Bart. thanks
for the prompt reply.
 
B

BartWare

Hey Ian

No I'm not saying with Kerio they are not fully protected. I'm just
saying that it's nice to get an update on your software every now and
then, even if you don't have to do anything for it. Just in case it is
necessary. I do assume that users with the commercial Kerio (or any
other commercial firewall for that matter) are better protected than a
firewall from 2003. And no they aren't stupid questions at all ;)

As for the many popups, you won't get that, I don't think. The firewall
will go into 'learn mode' the first time you run it. If you see a
random program pop up with an odd name, you could always press the
'help' button in the window, it'll take you to a search on Google on
the application. If Google knows nothing about the application, you are
safe to block it. I'll think of a way for later versions to possibly
make deciding easier.

And like you said, if you've just started a new application you know,
you should allow it. If you trust the source, that is. (I.e. if you've
just downloaded it from a known site, you're good to go) :)

Bart
 
W

Wayne

BartWare said:
Hey Ian

No I'm not saying with Kerio they are not fully protected. I'm just
saying that it's nice to get an update on your software every now and
then, even if you don't have to do anything for it. Just in case it is
necessary. I do assume that users with the commercial Kerio (or any
other commercial firewall for that matter) are better protected than a
firewall from 2003. And no they aren't stupid questions at all ;)

As for the many popups, you won't get that, I don't think. The firewall
will go into 'learn mode' the first time you run it. If you see a
random program pop up with an odd name, you could always press the
'help' button in the window, it'll take you to a search on Google on
the application. If Google knows nothing about the application, you are
safe to block it. I'll think of a way for later versions to possibly
make deciding easier.

And like you said, if you've just started a new application you know,
you should allow it. If you trust the source, that is. (I.e. if you've
just downloaded it from a known site, you're good to go) :)

Bart
Click to expand...

At the moment I'm using Comodo PFW version 2.0. I find it very easy to
use, plus I don't know much about firewalls either. How is your firewall
different from Comodo?

Wayne
 
B

BartWare

I have no experience with Comodo, but I've just looked it up on Google.
I guess there isn't much difference except that BWPF doesn't require
registration, but obviously you have already. Other than that, does it
have a connection list where you can terminate connections? The
screenshots provided are very small, so I can't see.

Bart
 
I

Ian Edmont

At the moment I'm using Comodo PFW version 2.0. I find it very easy to
use, plus I don't know much about firewalls either. How is your firewall
different from Comodo?

Wayne
Click to expand...

Wayne,

FWIW, I tried this one and it seemed quite easy to use but used lots of
memory/resources etc. so I looked for an alternative and came up with
NetVeda Safety.Net. Seemed easy to use and light on memory.

Ian.
 
I

Ian Edmont

BartWare said:
Hey Ian

No I'm not saying with Kerio they are not fully protected. I'm just
saying that it's nice to get an update on your software every now and
then, even if you don't have to do anything for it. Just in case it is
necessary. I do assume that users with the commercial Kerio (or any
other commercial firewall for that matter) are better protected than a
firewall from 2003. And no they aren't stupid questions at all ;)
Click to expand...

I see. Thanks for the clarification Bart. Thank goodness for that. Was
beginning to think someone would tell me to get lost and go and learn all
about firewalls and how they work etc etc. :blush:(
As for the many popups, you won't get that, I don't think. The firewall
will go into 'learn mode' the first time you run it. If you see a
random program pop up with an odd name, you could always press the
'help' button in the window, it'll take you to a search on Google on
the application. If Google knows nothing about the application, you are
safe to block it. I'll think of a way for later versions to possibly
make deciding easier.
Click to expand...

Ah excellent. Will give your firewall a test drive then. Thanks for the help
Bart. Will report back when I've tried it.
 
W

Wayne

I don't think I can terminate a connection, I have never seen that
option. Does your pfw do that? If so, then I might want to try yours.

Wayne
 
W

Wayne

Ian, I have tried that one before, but I don't remember if I liked it or
not. Are you still using it and do you like it?

Wayne
 
H

Huss

John Jay Smith <[email protected]> said:
www.portableapps.com that has lots of traffic perhaps they would post
it there among the other applications.
Click to expand...

Bloody marvellous, and thank you for that excellent link.
I could say a lot about why portable apps have a great future.... but
another time perhaps.. in another place....
Click to expand...

I carry a portable email and a portable news client when I'm roving.
It's easier than using my notebook, and works on machines that do not
have bootable USB. Sorted.
--
Huss

They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered
reputations of the week.

William Congreve
 
C

Comodo

Ian said:
Wayne,

FWIW, I tried this one and it seemed quite easy to use but used lots of
memory/resources etc. so I looked for an alternative and came up with
NetVeda Safety.Net. Seemed easy to use and light on memory.

Ian.
Click to expand...

Hi

Comodo will be launching a Release Candidate of the Comodo Firewall
which will have much reduced mem usage.

We hope you guys can try it and give us some feedback pls. we would
really appreciate it.

Melih
Comodo
 
I

Ian Edmont

Hi

Comodo will be launching a Release Candidate of the Comodo Firewall
which will have much reduced mem usage.

We hope you guys can try it and give us some feedback pls. we would
really appreciate it.

Melih
Comodo
Click to expand...

Hi,

Excellent. As I said previously, I tried your firewall and was very
impressed. It was just that my machine is a PIII with 128MB RAM and seemed
to be using so much memory otherwise I would still be using.

Hopefully, I will be gettin a new machine soon and will prob change back to
Comodo. Still an important issue IMO ... memory usage.

Ian.
 
A

Al Smith

At the moment I'm using Comodo PFW version 2.0. I find it very easy to
Wayne,

FWIW, I tried this one and it seemed quite easy to use but used lots of
memory/resources etc. so I looked for an alternative and came up with
NetVeda Safety.Net. Seemed easy to use and light on memory.

Ian.
Click to expand...


I just installed Safety.Net an hour ago, after removing ZoneAlarm.
So far, so good. It shows some different stuff that ZoneAlarm
didn't show, but I'm assuming that is just differences between the
two programs. It seems lighter in resources than ZoneAlarm -- has
a lighter feel to it, anyway. ShieldsUp reports it as fully
stealthed. Unless it buggers up on me, I'm going to keep it.
 
D

darkness_devilz

Is it better than ZoneAlarm?

Starfoxy17 u104649

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W

Wayne

Hi Melih, when will this new RC be coming out?

Wayne said:
Hi

Comodo will be launching a Release Candidate of the Comodo Firewall
which will have much reduced mem usage.

We hope you guys can try it and give us some feedback pls. we would
really appreciate it.

Melih
Comodo
Click to expand...
 
A

Al Smith

Is it better than ZoneAlarm?

I guess not. I had problems with it and took it off and put an
older version of ZoneAlarm back on.

Safety.Net was blocking my browser at odd times, and I found
explorer.exe was giving itself permission to access the Internet,
even though I had it blocked. Didn't like that much.

The latest version of ZoneAlarm is over 13 megs, but if you go
back a version or two it's only 10 megs. I'm running ZA 6.1.737
now and it seems to work.
 
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