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Does anyone use Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1?

Mel

0
I just came across kerio (free for home use)
<a href="http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html" target="_blank">http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html</a>

Just wondering how it compares to other free firewalls like zonealarm!
 
Hi Mel,

It's actually the old Tiny Personal Firewall v.2.1 with a few enhancements. Its a very good freebie for home users, better than the basic ZA firewall but not quite as feature rich as the Pro.

Kerio was basically a staff buyout from Tiny. They bought the old PF, Winroute and Mail Server packages. Tiny are now concentrating on the higher-end home user and business markets with the Centrally Managed Desktop Solutions (of which the Tiny PF and Trojan Trap are key components).

Hope this answers your questions.

Regards
Emeric
 
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I tried it's asking too much to accept or Denny I got confused . How do I know which to accept and which one to Denny. Is it possible to download the rules from some where . :confused:
 
<img src="http://www.plauder-smilies.de/sad/confused4.gif" alt=" - " />

KDS - You've finally gone <img src="http://www.plauder-smilies.de/nut.gif" alt=" - " />. I might have to put my RPS hat on and beat you around the trefoil until you start making sense.
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by KDS:
<strong>I tried it's asking too much to accept or Deny I got confused . How do I know which to accept and which one to Deny. Is it possible to download the rules from some where . :confused: </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I finally got round to trying kerio - it is quite involved. I'm pretty sure I set the rules up right, but I've reinstalled zonealarm after I tried it until I have time to read the instructions and test it properly of course.

Now I understand why zonealarm is so popular - I'm an ex-programmer (mainframes not windows) & I didn't find it that easy to configure.

<small>[ 17-06-2002, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: Mel ]</small>
 
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I have been testing it and found it easy to setup for the network. Unfortunatly it failed the leak test tonight..

I will have another look at hopw it is setup before I pass judgemnet.
 
It passed the leaktest I tried (only tried 1 of those I listed) although I did fiddle with the advanced settings.

I was also monitoring it with taskinfo2000 & it seems to use more processor time than zonealarm.

<small>[ 17-06-2002, 10:46 PM: Message edited by: Mel ]</small>
 
If you want to try a good one that is free - take a look at Outpost from Agnitum.

Includes ad remover, content advisor and various other utilities.

<a href="http://www.agnitum.com/" target="_blank">http://www.agnitum.com/</a>
 
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Found a test of Kerio here -

<a href="http://www.firewall-net.com/en/firewall/index.php?firewall=kerio&l=en&p=test" target="_blank">http://www.firewall-net.com/en/firewall/index.php?firewall=kerio&l=en&p=test</a>

Hmm makes interesting reading

"The substitution test : (you can make it yourself : for example you substitute Iexplorer.exe with leaktest.exe - yes this one :) - by renaming the latest and running it). does not detect the substitution (MD5 seems unused).
It's a bad result."

very bad if you can get round it by renaming a program <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

<small>[ 17-06-2002, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: Mel ]</small>
 
That is VERY worrying. I have a lot of contacts at the top levels in Kerio. I will seek clarification of this.

Regards
Emeric
 
I just reinstalled kerio & tested this myself (I never take reviews for granted)

I replaced outlook express (windows complains bitterly if you attempt to replace IE)

I also tried puting the renamed leaktest in the correct folder so the path was correct.

Kerio did detect & report the ap was replaced.

So it does work in my case anyway.

I also got seem to have got it to configure properly this time - I got far, far fewer accept or deny messages (guess I must have blocked something I shouldn't have :o - or it didn't install properly)

Still got a couple of problems I'll have to look into if I keep it. - Sometimes kerio fails to shutdown when I restart the pc & it always tries to open a connection when I boot.(fixed this one - it was trying to connect to check for an update :rolleyes: )

<small>[ 19-06-2002, 10:53 PM: Message edited by: Mel ]</small>
 
Mel,

Thanks...I have just tried the replace test myself and Kerio did complain. It's possible that the review used an old version. Everyone using Kerio should make sure they download the latest version from the Kerio site. Everyone using the Tiny Personal Firewall 2.x should also upgrade either to 3.0 (pay version) or switch to the version Kerio are now developing.

Firehole and TooLeaky are another matter, and require quite sophisticated methods anyway (not really script kiddy stuff yet). They are quite recent and firewall manufacturers are only just now fixing those holes.

If you have any problems with the Kerio one then post a question on the Kerio discussion forum at my site. There is a US techie who keeps an eye on that forum as well as their UK director. Not sure though if they will respond to a query on a freeware product, but you only find out if you try.

Regards
Emeric
 
If they did use an old version they didn't realise it reads -

"Tests of Kerio Personnal Firewall 2.1.4 Firewall"

spelling mistake theirs not mine :)

at the top of the page etc.

Same version number as I'm using. <img border="0" alt="[Shrug]" title="" src="graemlins/shrug.gif" />

Also according to the outbound website -

"Now Kerio Personal Firewall (used to be Tiny Personal Firewall) as of version 2.1.0 correctly blocks non-winsock packets. Kudos to the folks at Kerio!"

This is another contradiction - so it looks like that review is seriously flawed :rolleyes:

You might want to contact Kerio so they can tell <a href="http://www.firewall-net.com" target="_blank">www.firewall-net.com</a> to sort it out.

<small>[ 18-06-2002, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Mel ]</small>
 
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One way of generating this error condition they got in the report would be to install Kerio, then before using IE replace it with leaktest.exe - the MD5 only gets recorded the first time a program is run. If they haven't run IE after installing Kerio, but replaced it with leaktest first then bingo!! the leaktest.exe MD5 would be recorded as being the IE one.

Kerio PF would then only protest when the original IE was copied back since it would then have an MD5 to compare against. I suspect that the reviewers would have removed the firewall being tested by that point.

Follow the logic on that one? Any firewall can only record MD5 information the first time an application is executed after installation. It then compares all future instances of that program against the original MD5.

I think the review tests are probably flawed because they didn't follow the logic processes properly. I have now managed to replicate precisely the scenario above!!

Regards
Emeric
 
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"> Follow the logic on that one? Any firewall can only record MD5 information the first time an application is executed after installation. It then compares all future instances of that program against the original MD5.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"><img border="0" alt="[Nod]" title="" src="graemlins/nod.gif" /> Of course if your Application has already been patched by some nefarious piece of software before installing a firewall an MD5 check will not detect it, unless it had a database of MD5 checks for popular internet applications to compare against.
 
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