Anyone using Kerio Personal Firewall?

Anyone using Kerio Personal Firewall?

Author
Discussion

wedg1e

Original Poster:

26,903 posts

276 months

Thursday 18th December 2003
quotequote all
When I got my ntl broadband connection, I was advised by folk in the know that a firewall would be a good idea, otherwise my PC would be raped mercilessly.
Accordingly, I installed Black Ice Defender (cos it was free ) but found that, although it advised me what was going on, it didn't really seem to be stopping anyone from getting in, no matter how I set it up.
So I had a quick Google and found this Kerio thing. Now it seems to be the exact opposite; it's so bloody good NOTHING gets through it! It's advising me that tx/rx transfer speeds are less than 1Kb/s at times - rarely more than 2K.
Pistonheads (in fact most other sites as well) pages take an eternity to open. OK, so I get no popups, but it would be nice to see SOMETHING..
For the moment I have closed all links to Kazaa, cos the P2P seems to be where a lot of the intrusions were coming from: I don't mind Kazaa having access for file sharing, but not the whole bloody world.
I can get a list of what 'rules' are set up for what ports, IP addresses, Windows services etc., but as I'm as thick as a whale omelette I haven't worked out what should or shouldn't be stamped on. I can get basic internet functionality and email OK; it seems to be acting more like an antivirus than a firewall.
Any thoughts? Although it'll probably take me till February to open the page again...

Ian

d-man

1,019 posts

256 months

Thursday 18th December 2003
quotequote all
I'm using Kerio, but I've not had any problems with it so I dont know how much help I can be.

It asks me if I want to allow an application to access the internet, I check the 'Create Appropriate Filter rule and don't ask me again' box and then hit the permit or deny button as appropriate. Might have to do this a couple of times for each app (for TCP and UDP) and it then goes away and doesn't bother me again If its slowed my connection down, I can't tell.

I've set up a few rules explicitly to get some P2P apps working to the fullest, block all incoming connections that I haven't otherwise permitted without the annoying popup and let me run game servers, but other than that its pretty hassle free.

Simpo Two

88,031 posts

276 months

Thursday 18th December 2003
quotequote all
ZoneAlarm do a free one that seems well respected, and I have no problems with it. It puts the PC in stealth mode and warns me if something tries to get out!
Also, my ISP does a kind of firewall that operates at their end - it's not a download, you just check the box.

Mr E

22,319 posts

270 months

Friday 19th December 2003
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I use Kerio as well, and have had no problems with it.

When you disable it do things improve?

chrishillcoat

168 posts

256 months

Friday 19th December 2003
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I've got Kerio at home. Basically, when you see the popup warnings, do one of two things:

- If it pops up randomly and has an address ending in .nl or .ru (dodgy Russian mafia) then DENY it.

- If it pops up when you click on something (eg. a submit button) then click "create filter rule" and PERMIT it.

Works for me

wedg1e

Original Poster:

26,903 posts

276 months

Saturday 20th December 2003
quotequote all
Update: I tried turning Kerio off and nothing improved. Seemed a bit odd; slow running definitely coincided with me installing it a few days back. Tried a reboot, no difference. Reinstalled Kerio and hey presto, it finds the existing set of rules, but speed is back to what it should be. Now though, I get more popups! Doh.... anyway it looks a lot better than it did.
As mentioned, I do see a lot of .nl, .ru etc. Also a lot of French addresses for some reason?
Will have to pluck up courage to try Kazaa again.
Thanks for the tips!

Ian