Kerio is the ticket!

[Culpeper]

No, the web portion of the paid version is disabled after 30 day trial.  You don't need it.  It's just a basic popup and advert blocker with some cookie options as well.  Nothing important in my opinion.  I'm using 4.1.2.  There is reports that 4.1.3 is buggy on WinXP startup.

[kenwong]

Thanks, Culpeper.

Do you mean that the "Runs as internet gateway" (see http://www.kerio.com/kpf_comparison_version.html) is unimportant either?

From where can I download 4.1.2?  My machine is running on Win 98.

[sded]

The "run as a gateway" says it is to support Internet Connection Sharing-is that even applicable with W98?  In any case, Kerio has announced they will no longer support W98 for 4.2 and beyond.  Try 2.1.5  if you want Kerio; the bugs in 4.1 will never be fixed for W98.

[Culpeper]

dito

I misunderstood about the internet gateway.  I confused it with content filtering.

[inconnu]

kenwong,
older versions of kerio (all the way back to 2.1.4) are available at:
http://download.kerio.com/archive/
(But they don't seem to have added the 4.1.2 yet ... )

[kenwong]

Thanks, Culpeper and sded.

Installed 4.1.3.  Was smooth initially.  But the machine hanged during boot and needed to force a hard reboot!

May need to go back to Sygate.  Could you please advise me about Outpost - how is it compared to Sygate and Kerio?  My machine is running on Win 98.  Thanks.

[Culpeper]

 I used to use Outpost 1.0 on Win98 and I liked it very much.  Can't remember why I quit using it though.   If you have access to ftp let me know and I'll upload Kerio 4.1.2 install file.

[Lisandro]

Can anybody compare the Outpost Professional 2.5 with the 'old' Free 1.0 available?
Seems that the company isn't updating the free version very often... Why?

[Culpeper]

I don't think they have done a thing to version 1.0 since they came out with Outpost 2.  Just just throw 1.0 out as a freebie.

[Culpeper]

Thanks, Culpeper and sded.

Installed 4.1.3.  Was smooth initially.  But the machine hanged during boot and needed to force a hard reboot!

May need to go back to Sygate.  Could you please advise me about Outpost - how is it compared to Sygate and Kerio?  My machine is running on Win 98.  Thanks.

This got my curosity up so I disabled the router firewall and tested Outpost 1.0 (free version) and it still passes all the Sygate (sos) and Shields Up! tests.  So, good enough for me on my Win98SE machine.  I forgot how much I missed that old program.  I love the way you can define application rules.  There are some unneeded plugins like ads removal,  DNS caching, and so forth that can be disabled.  This old Outpost firewall is still viable security.

Also, did the same test with the WinXP firewall with the same results.  Both run well with Avast!. 

[Jarmo P]

Man, after much confusion and frustration over whether not Sygate was a good combo with Webshield, I decided to uninstall Sygate and try out Kerio.  I'm sticking with Kerio.  The default settings are all I need out of a firewall and it works great with Avast thus far.  Sygate is history on my machines.

I used both Sygate Pro and Sygate Free with the same controversial problems associated with both of them.  Sygate bad.  Kerio good.  Avast Webshield good.

Also, did the same test with the WinXP firewall with the same results.  So, I'm just going to use the WinXP firewall on the main machine and the old Outpost firewall on the remote Win98SE machine, both behind a router firewall.  Both run well with Avast!.  Good enough for my ladies.

Any software firewall should provide you 'stealth" with port scan tests.
I really thinked you were after strong outbound application control.
Another guy whose words are hard to be taken serious again.
Even ZA is better than XP SP2 firewall.

[Culpeper]

Outbound is only as good as the person allowing the access.  What?  You sit there and every single time your browser needs to send out you allow it manually?  I'm not that concerned about outbound.  I'm concerned about inbound more.  I'm not going to plug one firewall after another up my butt when one is basically just as good as another.  Kerio's default settings basically allow all outbound transmission anyway. 

Nevertheless, this isn't a firewall support board.  My main concern is to use a reliable firewall system that adapts well with Avast.  Nothing more and nothing less.  I normally keep technical matters outside of that on the appropriate support forum.

And be careful taking my inventory.  I have chuncks of guys like you in my stool.

[Jarmo P]

 

Why did you change then from Sygate?
Avast's webshield has always worked with it. Scanning viruses.

It never had any other problem, but that in the first webshield version the outbound application control was lost, especially if not setting a manual prowser proxy setting.

You even recommended Kerio, cause Sygate had in your opinion a weakened outbound app control.

[Culpeper]

You're incorrect about your assumptions of my concerns about outbound controls.  Sure I'm concerned about unwanted outbound transmission but I'm not studying any traffic logs paranoid.  But a firewall is a management process and not a silver bullet and every single firewall has their own brand of leaks.    The most important line of defense is keeping the bad guys out.  Once in however, it would be the job of a good AV program to stop or warn about malicious activity.  I'm not changing my mind about Kerio's brand of ease and safety.  I also have resources to consider and I think a hardware firewall as well as a basic software firewall is sufficient.  In fact, I still have Kerio installed on the WinXP machine.  I was merely testing the Outpost and WinXP firewalls with the router firewall disabled.   And they worked fine with Avast and passed the standard online tests!  I think all the hype and paranoia about outbound transmissions are overstated.

I haven't stabbed Kerio in the back.  Just letting people know they have options without being biased about one program over another.  My beef with Sygate was all the controversy over it in regard to Avast.

[smokethapimp]

I used ZAF, ZAP, ZASS but found they didn't provide adequate logging or display insight into what was happening or how things should be configured.

You're right... For ZoneAlarm, I always consider VisualZone (http://visualize.phenominet.com) a must have complement.

I don't have a complicated system and don't see any effort on the Kerio forum to help solve the previous comments on it.

Unfortunatelly (or not  ), no other forum can give you the same support as here 

Technical, here I am again with another noob question. Has the VisualZone program been tested by you or by others who are competent to insure it contains no hacks or spyware? I suspect you must feel it is safe since you are recommending it, but felt i should double check before adding it to my system. Thanks......Smoke