Good, older alternative (seems to be not this user friendly) is Malwarebytes Window Firewall Control.
aiiotnoodle 19 hours ago [-]
Just tried this and it has a learning mode which is what I was looking for.
Thank you for the recommendation.
mlnj 18 hours ago [-]
Came here to see how many others there were. This is only way I can actually feel like I'm in control of using modern OS. Everything is telemetry this and analytics that.
Dwedit 22 hours ago [-]
Isn't this just ZoneAlarm?
doodlebugging 18 hours ago [-]
It reminds me more of the old Windows firewall/IPS/IDS called Sygate. It was ahead of its time. I think Zonealarm came after since that is what I replaced it with after Symantec(?) bought Sygate and rolled the best functions of Sygate into their Professional firewall for a premium price. Sygate was free or you could buy a permanent license for a one-time fee. It was the best personal protection products available for pcs running Windows up to WinXP.
I had also tried a different firewall/privacy tool from a company in Canada I think called ZeroKnowledge. That was a great product that also allowed you fine-grained access to and control of all connections to/from your Windows pc. They had a product available for a short time but shut down suddenly. I think I read that they were bought out by another firewall company but can't remember which one. They may have been rolled into the Blackberry software line.
Both of these were available in the 90's lead-up to the dot com bust if I remember right. Sygate became obsolete when support ended around the time WinXP faded. ZeroKnowledge disappeared much earlier. I may have old executables and installers somewhere on antique backups.
Tarq0n 21 hours ago [-]
Is zonealarm still alive?
Portmaster has been filling this role for me for the last couple years.
LoganDark 20 hours ago [-]
I used Portmaster too until they started locking existing features behind paid subscription. And generally just pushing towards microtransactions in general. I vastly prefer buy once or buy per major version.
byteknight 19 hours ago [-]
Windows firewall control
LoganDark 16 hours ago [-]
This only prompts you after the connection has already been rejected, instead of holding it for approval like Little Snitch and Portmaster -- but I did have WFC installed on my Windows machines anyway, it's still useful.
TwoNineFive 11 hours ago [-]
More than a decade ago, I tinkered around with doing stuff like this. I found that many Windows apps got ugly and naughty when you hold up the connection. I started making a list of the various methods I used to try to hold the connection before user authorization could occur and that's about where I gave up on working it.
Kuraj 17 hours ago [-]
Personally I used Kerio Personal Firewall. I remember it being very good and while I didn't care about outbound connections much back then, I'm pretty sure it had a similar feature it was just off by default
jeremycarter 21 hours ago [-]
It's a tvery similar concept and presentation
constantlm 21 hours ago [-]
or perhaps BlackICE
aand16 19 hours ago [-]
Wow haven't read that name since around 2000, gave me a weird feeling in my brain.
Here's another one:
F.O.S.I.
unixhero 10 hours ago [-]
Yes
bad_username 12 hours ago [-]
> Windows' own components are allowed automatically, so you're only asked about the apps you installed
That's not necessarily a good thing.
TwoNineFive 11 hours ago [-]
You know these threads are mostly astroturfed because nobody mentions Binisoft/Malwarebytes WFC, one of the oldest and better Windows application firewalls. It's also totally free, though not OSS.
Which I use for years, and just because of lack of a better alternative (minimal, OSS) I actually quite "hate" it.:
It has no rules, like "Allow a file with THIS name on THAT path", the biggest complain of every simplewall user is its biggest flaw and annoyance: It asks you a million times to allow or deny the "same" app, after its checksum changed. So all the Windows apps that auto update always pop up again and again.
A coding agent autonomously compiling and testing an exe with network access is impossible. I have to turn off simplewall, because it would constantly block the executable after recompilation.
joering2 20 hours ago [-]
I'm a simplewall user and what you describing is not my biggest flaw or annoyance - I simply don't upgrade windows (why would calculator need updates??) and after clicking few denies, its get very quiet. Been this way for 2 years now on Win 11.
Dylan16807 16 hours ago [-]
Personally I like getting the security updates even if I have a firewall.
Even among simplewall users I bet the vast majority install OS updates regularly.
iagiagiag 20 hours ago [-]
I also easily recommend this one. And OpenSnitch on linux seems to be doing the same job, though the interface can be less friendly.
djfobbz 19 hours ago [-]
Simplewall is quite terrible, IMO. They still haven't fixed the painfully slow fuzzy search functionality for firewall rules.
dikei 13 hours ago [-]
I used to be a fan of outgoing firewall control, but alarm fatigue became a major issue, and I just accept everything, which just game a false sense of security.
Nowadays, I just use Windows built-in firewall.
darksim905 17 hours ago [-]
With all the reverse engineering out there going on now, I really hope someone does the REA with BlackICE. I miss that software so much. If it works native and is high quality with the simplistic GUI of ZoneAlarm, I would be so happy.
lhk931122 15 hours ago [-]
Seems like tools like this get mentioned a lot lately. I think it's because there are more and more things the user allowed to leak out without the user knowing? (mostly through AI)
23 hours ago [-]
rasz 15 hours ago [-]
Windows Firewall Control by binisoft https://binisoft.org/wfc is the real Little Snitch for Windows
Kwpolska 22 hours ago [-]
I'd rather not use a security tool which is 100% vibeslop with a 100% vibeslop website.
hn_submit 21 hours ago [-]
People are conjuring up all kinds of apps slapped together by LLMs and actually have the gal to ask money for them?!
msdrigg 21 hours ago [-]
It’s free tho
hn_submit 20 hours ago [-]
They removed the "Pricing" menu item from the website.
voidfunc 20 hours ago [-]
Might as well make some money while you can.
AltruisticGapHN 19 hours ago [-]
So now we use AI for coding we can't sell any apps anymore?
Like this guy pushed a button and everything just happened?
What does it matter if it's mostly coded by an LLM. If someone skilled guided an LLM to build an app that does something meaningful and useful why shouldn't they be able to sell it or accept donations?
hn_submit 16 hours ago [-]
If there's no real skill involved and anyone could've built it then it's essentially worthless. Save for the cost of the tokens used perhaps.
somenameforme 13 hours ago [-]
You just described the future of all software as LLMs continue to improve. This is an outcome most don't seem to appreciate, yet. And by "most" I'd certainly include large software companies.
alwa 15 hours ago [-]
I mean—I can think of a whole lot of people whose jobs I could do, but who I’m happy to pay a little to avoid having to deal with it myself.
It doesn’t take particularly sophisticated skill to load up your garbage and drive it to the landfill—and, frankly, it’s kind of fun every once in a while—but I certainly wouldn’t call municipal trash service worthless…
I’m reminded of that old saw about contemporary art: “That?! I could have done that!” / “Yeah, but you didn’t…”
Avicebron 22 hours ago [-]
I've been working on my own version of this for a little over a year. Sigh.
adzm 22 hours ago [-]
May I see it?
Avicebron 21 hours ago [-]
I'm looking for somewhere to put it anonymously, don't want to doxx myself.
someothherguyy 21 hours ago [-]
many options for this? unless you are ultra-concerned with anyone knowing who you are.
Avicebron 21 hours ago [-]
I'm not that special. Apologize for the LLM cruft, I had Fable spin through to try and clean it up. If it's broken, oh well.
It would be better if it suggested the consequences of stopping programs from phoning home, like will this program say the license check failed after 2 weeks, or will it keep working.
packethound has that air of AI slop sophistication
poszlem 22 hours ago [-]
I beg you. At the very least, please, write your own headers. I don't even need you to write the whole copy on the page, but please, don't make us read that claudease slop. This makes the app you advertise look like the lowest of efforts, no matter what it is.
"Know which apps are calling home."
"Every connection, your call"
phendrenad2 22 hours ago [-]
Or better yet, make the aite itself open-source so people can contribute better writing.
Thank you for the recommendation.
I had also tried a different firewall/privacy tool from a company in Canada I think called ZeroKnowledge. That was a great product that also allowed you fine-grained access to and control of all connections to/from your Windows pc. They had a product available for a short time but shut down suddenly. I think I read that they were bought out by another firewall company but can't remember which one. They may have been rolled into the Blackberry software line.
Both of these were available in the 90's lead-up to the dot com bust if I remember right. Sygate became obsolete when support ended around the time WinXP faded. ZeroKnowledge disappeared much earlier. I may have old executables and installers somewhere on antique backups.
Portmaster has been filling this role for me for the last couple years.
Here's another one: F.O.S.I.
That's not necessarily a good thing.
https://www.binisoft.org/wfc
WFC allows you to block Windows components. This can cause a lot of trouble, or keep Microsoft from spying on you. Or both.
Edit: and glasswire although portmaster is my favorite
Such unadulterated greed, it was painful to watch as it unfolded.
It has no rules, like "Allow a file with THIS name on THAT path", the biggest complain of every simplewall user is its biggest flaw and annoyance: It asks you a million times to allow or deny the "same" app, after its checksum changed. So all the Windows apps that auto update always pop up again and again.
A coding agent autonomously compiling and testing an exe with network access is impossible. I have to turn off simplewall, because it would constantly block the executable after recompilation.
Even among simplewall users I bet the vast majority install OS updates regularly.
Nowadays, I just use Windows built-in firewall.
Like this guy pushed a button and everything just happened?
What does it matter if it's mostly coded by an LLM. If someone skilled guided an LLM to build an app that does something meaningful and useful why shouldn't they be able to sell it or accept donations?
It doesn’t take particularly sophisticated skill to load up your garbage and drive it to the landfill—and, frankly, it’s kind of fun every once in a while—but I certainly wouldn’t call municipal trash service worthless…
I’m reminded of that old saw about contemporary art: “That?! I could have done that!” / “Yeah, but you didn’t…”
https://codeberg.org/Avicebron/Sereno
It would be better if it suggested the consequences of stopping programs from phoning home, like will this program say the license check failed after 2 weeks, or will it keep working.
packethound can be managed via group policy
packethound has that air of AI slop sophistication
"Know which apps are calling home." "Every connection, your call"
Uh, no they don't. I haven't used a firewall in 20 years that hasn't had both inbound and outbound monitoring lol.