(!) http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf3-beta.exe (!)
http://www.kerio.com/us/beta_section.html
http://www.kerio.com

What can You say about it? Compare it to Zonelalrm and others.

Remember:
1)It`s under development and is for testing purposes only!!!
2)It`s a personall firewall, not profesionall!

It ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulez for me!!!

PS. Latest stable version (v2.1.4):
http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf2-win.exe
http://download.kerio.cz/dwn/kpf2-win.exe

I've been using KPF a long time, and i think it's the best personal firewall availible on earth.
Thanks, i'm gonna download it right away.

What i can say about it is that it knocks ZA (free and pro) to the ground, it has many more features. And basically better all around. (includes packet level protection of course), can't wait to see what the new version has.

(by the way, my opinions here, they mean nothing, they're just mine )

I'm also running Kerio. I've been very happy, especially because the feature/bloat ratio is high.

You guys realise that latest trojans and virii disables most firewalls and antiviral software, I hope.

Nothing beats prudence (and a firewall outside the pc).

The disturbing thing I find about these kind of personal firewal/antiviral softwarel is that they give users a false sense of security and invulnerability. Firewalls don't protect you from your own stup^H^H^H^Hgullibility.

Yeah, but still never had anything else except these spywares really.

Naah, I don't have any false sense of security at all. It's rather, that having some basic protection is better than nothing.

I'm interesed in getting firewall software for you computer. Are the 2 firewalls mensioned above better than Norton's Personal Firewall???

I have been using Kerio PF 2 for a while, after trying several others:
Sygate, Agnitum Outpost, NeoWatch (I think that was the name), Zone Alarm, and finally Norton.

Kerio wins hands down. It's not the most friendly, but it's the one that in my system has finally given me stability, flexibility, and the lowest resource consumption.

Version 3's feature list is impressive. I'll get around to test it shortly. Thanks!

Install KPF3b3 and try to open screensaver settings. Do you have error message?

Those disabler spywares were pretty evil.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as enlightened as you are
I decide to go without antiviral protection because it really takes up quite a bit of overhead.

Definately better than Norton's..
My suggestion is always Kerio Personal Firewall, for the best protection and features. Although many say it's not very simple and hard to understand, i agree it's not as simple as Zone Alarm, but i think it's really not complicated, takes a little time to get used to, then you'll see it's very comfortable and simple actually (i hope ).

That's a valid point however having some protection versus none is worth the effort especially if it will save the time it takes to reinstall Windows and 3GB+ of software. If having a Firewall and Antivirus saves my music collection and plethora of audio software it will have proven more than effective.

By having Kerio Personal Firewall configured to block high and low Trojan ports I already know it has saved my system more than a handful of times, especially from NetBus, and it has blocked BootPC a couple of times.

---

I've been using KPF2 a few months since Tiny decided to go the pay us "$$$" route with TPF3, no sad loss since I like KPF better anyway.

I'm glad to read about KPF3's new features, hopefully it remains free for personal use.

KPF3 has 2 modes: simple and advanced. Simple is like ZoneAlarm, Advanced is rather like KPF2, but with more options.

I suggest waiting for final version of KPF3, beta 3 is for testing ONLY.

If I remember correctly, Kerio is based off Tiny Personal Firewall. I've used Tiny, but not Kerio. Is there a noticable different between Kerio and Tiny's product? Or are they both the same?

OK, guys, I'll testify I'm using the beta 3. Betas 1 and 2 I deemed alpha quality -- they didn't work. This one I much prefer over Zone Alarm free.
But, I really think this discussion belongs in the thread expressly set up for Kerio 3 betas at www.dslreports.com/forum/kerio . Putting this discussion in a forum devoted to audio codecs vitiates the information, education and feedback process. I'm sure the Kerio developers closely monitor posts there.

Kerio 2.1.4 is a succesor of Tiny 2.X - Kerio is better. Kerio 2.1.4 is better than Zonealarm, Kerio 3b3 is also better than ZA, but it`s still unstable.

A personal firewall (firewall installed on the desktop pc) is not a firewall and I'd hardly call it security.

Grab an old computer and plug in two net adapters. Connect one adapter to your internet router/modem and the other to your desktop pc/lan. Then install linux or somebsd. iptables (included with linux) and ipfw (included with freebsd) are very well written and proven to function under heavy load.

Red Hat and others have included a firewall configuration GUI for the clue< :)

I've never used a firewall, just secured win2k and run everything with user privileges. Call me crazy.

Haven't had a virus/worm/trojan/attack for 3 years running.

-h

Cool. You just configured Win2k with Unix-like security.

I used to among other things create sysprep'ed win2k installations for a living, and locking down the local machine and only giving out user-level logins made our lives a lot easier. Machine-specific power-user accounts were created so people could use "Run As" to get certain tasks done.

I don't understand why anyone would run things like Office or IE (or even explorer) as root.

-h

Microsoft does not say or tell them how to do otherwise. In the Microsoft world root runs almost everything. Another weakness of Microsoft. XP takes the good things in 2000 and hides em.

so that i can move, save, dl, etc. files on my computer. doing what you said (about the user accounts) made sense to me, so i tried it on winxp. but then i had read-only access to everything except for my on little space on the system partition. and i can't seem to find in-between-administrators-and-normal-users accounts. i thought that my problem was that i couldn't find where to set file permissions for entire partitions, but probably i'm just a retard and don't know what i'm doing.

I like KPF 2, but I haven't been very pleased with the betas for KPF 3. I'll admit to having only tested betas 1 and 2, but it's just that the direction they're taking the software isn't really what I'm looking for. All I want is a program that lets me easily and quickly put in rules, then stays out of my way otherwise.

But I'd never give Kerio to someone who didn't have a healthy grasp on IP (protocol, not property ) concepts. ZoneAlarm takes the cake for eye candy and ease of use, IMHO. It even works half decently to boot.

Annuka: While firewall software running on a desktop PC might only be basic security, it's sure better than nothing for most people with a DSL/Cable Modem connection at home.

shimage: You can try the "Power Users" group. It should give you just enough access to pretty handily b0rk Windows, but not quite enough power to really fix it. I find it much better to do my day-to-day as a regular user and make liberal use of the "runas" command. Now if only WinXP would let me run a copy of Explorer.exe as Administrator, I'd almost never have to log in.

i am aware of that group on win2k and i was looking for it on winxp, but it never offered it as an option. there were only two choices: "computer administrator" and "user". unless i'm blind or doing something wrong...

i'd like to be able to do things as a regular user, but i'm always fiddling with files here and there (i've moved "my documents" to a separate partition, which is also troublesome), which makes it a real pain if i don't have write access to my user space on the network.

i don't use explorer, so running my file manager as administrator isn't really a problem, but then i can't access the school network without entering my login info again, which makes it really annoying.

edit: "useless" wasn't really the right word...

apart from ZA I dont have AV software, either. by being carefull, not using M$ products as much as possible (shit, i have win98, but eeej thats it, ok?) - I dont think im much vulnerable...

(email=The Bat!, browser = Mozilla 1.0.1, texteditor=TextShield)


hmmm, and za works fine for me, why change???

not that i dont want to try something else, but shouldnt a firewall be as simle as possible, blocking wrong traffik and allowing good traffic???

You'll have to go into computer management to find the Power Users. Right-click My Computer -> Manage -> Local Users and Groups.

it not there. i found what you were talking about, but there wasn't a pre-defined "Power User" choice under the "Member of..." tab, but i suppose now i can roll my own, as it were... thanks for your help, though!

Huh?

Wait. Are you running XP Home or Pro? I know that Power Users is a built-in group on Pro, but I'm not sure about Home. (I'll have to check my father's PC tonight.)

it says "professional" on bootup...

No, Kerio IS Tiny. You see, last year there was this new guy in Tiny that was involved with marketing or some shit .. there was some squable internally or some shit, and this new guy ended up getting the "Tiny" name, including the tinysoftware.com. He started his own company using the Tiny name and all his software is totally different from the old stuff. The original Tiny programmers, company, and software are now Kerio. They still make WinRoute, and the original "Tiny Personal Firewall" (now Kerio Personal Firewall). BTW, you can go to the original Tiny Software domain, tinysoftware.cz, and it points to Kerio's site.

Now, if you're still using TPF 2.x, then you definitely want to upgrade to KPF 2.1.4. You can also try their great KPF3 beta software (I've been running it for months.. it's awesome).

It's not really like that, not a fight or something like that between Kerio and Tiny..
Some just splitted away from Kerio in a complicated way, i don't even remember how it all went.
What i know is, that the plan is that Kerio and Tiny are remerging into Kerio. It's unknown if tiny will cease to exist in the end. Anyway, Kerio is the "REAL" thing. They are and will be the original creators of Kerio Mailserver (heard tons of praise about it) and Winroute (Pro and Lite. TONS of praise about it too ). KPF is for showcasing their firewall technology found in their other products. They make smart moves all the time...
For example one of their last smart moves was including NOD32 antivirus protection in their Mailserver software.
NOD32, is GOOD to say the least..
In short choose Kerio.

Changes in Current Version(KPF3b4):

-Enhanced packet filter
-Firewall can be configured by simply permitting or denying communication to applications
-Intrusion Detection System
-System Security
-New status reports in the Advanced Admin
-Many enhancements in performance and load on the memory, especially in the kernel part of the engine
-Completely re-vamped graphical user interface
-Advanced settings for experienced users available through the Advanced Admin

http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf3-beta.exe

Kerio 3 beta5 is out:
http://www.kerio.com/us/beta_section.html

But Kerio is better than ZoneAlarm Pro?

Yes, i'd certainly say it is better.

I'l give a try tonight

Like it, love it and i'm going to use it

well, I'll join the club, too... gonna give it a try.... winMX is blocked by Zonealarm, and I cant help it, so...


tnx anyway for the advice

Now, I've tried it, and it SUCKS. version 3, beta 5 gave errors, always the same, and hundreds of them, all locking up my computer until i clicked them away.
the error was:
kerio personal firewall driver
mactransferdata: invalid buffer tag
[ok]

So. I decided to un-install, and blame it on the beta-stage. So I installed kerio 2.1 - and after restarting etc - DAMN!!! the stupid prog came up with THE SAME FUCKING ERROR, it even led to a crash or 2. So, trew da shit off, and restarted ZoneAlarm. always did the job, pitty I dunno how to allow UDP packets, but I can live with that. I prefer a lower speed over crashes, an unusable computer etc etc....

*very very disappointed*

Did you have ZA and KPF installed at the same time? If so having two firewalls running, or even installed at the same time can cause conflicts since they will load their driver when Windows starts.

Send an email to kpf_beta@kerio.com about it.

Jospoortvliet,

Don't feel so bad. Before I reformatted this machine, all firewall software would cause random BSODs. ZA, KPF (2.1.4 & 3.0b), Outpost, even XP's firewall. This time around, things have been much better.

What do people think of the current KPF beta? I tried betas 1 and 2, and while they weren't crashy (outside of above mentioned problem), the UI was VERY slow and cumbersome to use, especially for defining rules.

I know the changelog says that things have been sped up, but I want to know what people that actually use it think.

kerio's problem on my ps could indeed have been that i still had ZA installed. but I dont want to uninstall it now, so I just wait for some time, until Kerio seems to be stable (as soon as its not beta anymore, I mean) and then I'll switch, I think.

btw - what about NOT having a firewall??? exactly HOW dangerous is it??? What happens??? and what MIGHT happen???

/J

I recently tested Kerio beta, Tiny, SyGate and OutPost. I think that OutPost is a clear winner here, SyGate also good. I very much disliked the Kerio beta.

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/

Well, you shouldn't judge Kerio by the beta at all...
Since non of the others you tested are beta versions, test the current stable version of Kerio, you CAN'T compare the beta, it's not fair and not reasonable. (the beta is VERY not recommended by Kerio developers again and again)

Sk1,

It's quite pointless to refer to something that might be. There are free softwares that deliver now, not tomorrow.

Not very dangerous at all. Firewalls can't protect against most "attacks".. their main purpose is really just for basic control over network traffic. You can still get hacked, still get DOS'd.. and a lot of firewalls these days are actually security risks themselves (ie. buggy Linksys firmware allowing attackers to crash your router, flaws in software firewall design allowing attackers to send CPU usage sky high, affectively freezing your computer).

You're probably better off without a firewall, especially if you're a "noob".

THAT IS NONSENSE!!!

Sheesh, this is so senseless i can't even begin to comment on that.
Anyone who wants to learn more about the risks of not having a firewall, just visit "Shields UP!" on GRC.com, and there are many other sites but no matter..

Steve Gibson of grc.com is hardly a security expert. Look at the way he writes, he's just hyping nothing, like a salesman. Check out http://www.grcsucks.com for more information.

The purpose of a personal firewall is to prevent people from exploiting bugs in software running on your system. Of course, in the first place if you are prudent with the software running on your own system, you will not need a firewall. Don't run any services you don't need and keep your software patched and up to date.

Of course, if you are a user who can't be bothered with keeping your software updated, or even to disable IIS or whatever rubbish is being installed, then the firewall is a lazy way out.

Shield's Up is useless to me. I knowingly run services which Shield's Up puts up all sort of alarm bells about. Yeah, in run an FTP server, pop3 server, proxy server, smtp server, and others, but hey, I know what I'm doing.

Also firewalls can give a n00b a false sensation of safety.

I have been on the net for years without a firewall. I never had any problems (visible), even though my previous connection was totally open and unprotected. But then I made a big mistake at my dads computer. I installed a proxy software, for internet connection sharin over LAN, without thinking about it any further. It took like 2 weeks before the proxy was exploited for sending SPAM email, and the ISP contacted dad and closed the cable.

So IPs/computers ARE scanned and potentionally exploited.

Currently I use personal firewall, but for a totally different reason than preventing external attacks. Every second piece of software nowadays says "hello" to some Internet server. Personal firewalls can detect and block/allow these connections, so I have at least some control what is going out of my computer via the cable.

BTW, my OutPost "attack detection" reports me dozens of port scans & connection requests from strange IPs, but I don't have the expertice to tell if they actually are serious or not. Something is happening, thats for sure.

Indeed GRC.com is not a place for experts, but a good place to start for people who know nothing about net security. (haven't visited it in a looong time.. will do, and will visit grcsucks..)

The point is, that many times you can't trust software you use. Software that tries to automatically connect to some server for some reason. And you can't just trust software to always be "security optimised".. Some software just isn't and can be exploited, so use a firewall.
What if someone scans a port range and finds that someone is behind your IP? Don't you want to be "invisible" (or have "stealth" as said in grc..)? The first way to avoid being a target is to not be found. (some) Firewalls allow you to do that.
And what if say you want to only allow incoming or only outgoing connections for a certain port or port ranges? Or totally block it?
A firewall can't be said to just be an easy way out.. It's essensial, no matter how up to date you keep your software and os and services and what not.

edit: and yeah, as cd-rw said, it's always good to know exactly what's going on! So nothing happens behind your back.