Report on Net Veda Safety.Net Personal Firewall

[David]

I tried Safety.Net for several weeks but do not feel I can recommend
it for the following reasons.

1. Safety.Net has not had any updates for some considerable time.

2. Slow Response times. I installed Spyware Blaster. I then told SB to
go online and download any updates. Sixty seconds later, well after SB
had finished its download, Safety.net popped up a window stating that
it had blocked access for the program. Too little too late.

3. I have a firewall in my ADSL modem which prevents any unrequested
access from outside so I cannot check just how effective the
Safety.Net firewall is in that situation however Safety.Net repeatedly
failed GRC's LeakTest until it finally caught on that LeakTest was
actually trying to access the outside world and plonked a block on it.
Once the block was actually in place it did deny LeakTest access.

4. The program seems to ignore any changes made to its rules unless
you perform both an "apply" and a "refresh". Changes made will often
not last through a reboot. The instructions say to stop and restart
the Firewall to initiate certain changes. This does not seem to work
with any consistency and often just serves to abandon any rule changes
made.

5. There is no easy way to block all internet access. You either have
to activate the control program, which is rather slow to appear, and
then click on the "Block" button or you have to activate password
protection, once only, then, each reboot, right click on the tray
icon and type the password before you are allowed to right click and
"Block". All other firewalls. which I have tested, allow blocking by a
simple point and click or hot key activation to make the process as
quick as possible.

6. I advised Net-Veda of some of my concerns via their contact e-mail
address. I have not yet been afforded the courtesy of _any_ reply.
--
David
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E-mail: justdas at iinet dot net dot au

 

[Curt]

I tried Safety.Net for several weeks but do not feel I can recommend
it for the following reasons.

1. Safety.Net has not had any updates for some considerable time.

2. Slow Response times. I installed Spyware Blaster. I then told SB to
go online and download any updates. Sixty seconds later, well after SB
had finished its download, Safety.net popped up a window stating that
it had blocked access for the program. Too little too late.

<snip>

Thanks for a detailed report and saving us the time/trouble of testing
it ourselves. Seems like there just aren't any good personal
firewalls. The last one I liked was Kerio 2.1.

 

[David]

<snip>

Thanks for a detailed report and saving us the time/trouble of testing
it ourselves. Seems like there just aren't any good personal
firewalls. The last one I liked was Kerio 2.1.

I've gone back to Zone Alarm 2.6. I may go up to V3 but am unlikely to
go higher. What I can't understand is why Zone Labs and other coders
insist on cluttering up their Firewalls with all sorts of superfluous
junk. I would never pay for ZoneAlarm Pro, not because it is not good
but because I do not need nor want the extras it provides. I want a
firewall to act like a firewall.

If I want a pop-up blocker then I use the one that is part of my
browser. If I want to block malicious e-mails I use a virus checker
and adware/spyware checkers to keep me safe and always save to disk
before opening any sort of attachment. These do not need to be part of
a firewall and all they add is more opportunity for bugs, crackers and
interference to the rest of my running programs if they are included
as part of a program that should be made to do one job and do it well.
--
David
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[miskairal]

Thankyou! This is exactly the sort of post I like to see here.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

<snip>

Thanks for a detailed report and saving us the time/trouble of testing
it ourselves. Seems like there just aren't any good personal
firewalls. The last one I liked was Kerio 2.1.

I've been quite pleased with Sygate Personal Firewall, which I hope can
still be snatched somewhere. My only problem has been that I finally hit
the 20-rule limit in the free version. And Comodo is said to surpass it
in its ability to block the "TooLeaky" test file. But Comodo is way,
way, too unknown yet.

Thanks to David for his articulate summary report. We could use more
like this here.

Richard

 

[David]

I've been quite pleased with Sygate Personal Firewall, which I hope can
still be snatched somewhere. My only problem has been that I finally hit
the 20-rule limit in the free version. And Comodo is said to surpass it
in its ability to block the "TooLeaky" test file. But Comodo is way,
way, too unknown yet.

Thanks to David for his articulate summary report. We could use more
like this here.

Richard

Thanks, Richard. I tried Comodo, briefly, and was not impressed at
all. Report in another thread.
--
David
Remove "farook" to reply
At the bottom of the application where it says
"sign here". I put "Sagittarius"
E-mail: justdas at iinet dot net dot au