12 comments

  • Dwedit3 hours ago
    Isn't this just ZoneAlarm?
    • doodlebugging21 minutes ago
      It reminds me more of the old Windows firewall&#x2F;IPS&#x2F;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.<p>I had also tried a different firewall&#x2F;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&#x2F;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&#x27;t remember which one. They may have been rolled into the Blackberry software line.<p>Both of these were available in the 90&#x27;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.
    • Tarq0n2 hours ago
      Is zonealarm still alive?<p>Portmaster has been filling this role for me for the last couple years.
      • byteknight1 hour ago
        Windows firewall control
      • LoganDark2 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.
    • jeremycarter2 hours ago
      It&#x27;s a tvery similar concept and presentation
    • constantlm3 hours ago
      or perhaps BlackICE
      • aand161 hour ago
        Wow haven&#x27;t read that name since around 2000, gave me a weird feeling in my brain.<p>Here&#x27;s another one: F.O.S.I.
  • codernews1234 hours ago
    Good, older alternative (seems to be not this user friendly) is Malwarebytes Window Firewall Control.
    • aiiotnoodle1 hour ago
      Just tried this and it has a learning mode which is what I was looking for.<p>Thank you for the recommendation.
  • s3p2 hours ago
    Portmaster is my go-to<p>Edit: and glasswire although portmaster is my favorite
    • eps3 minutes ago
      Glasswire royally f*cked all the goodwill by going subscription-only.<p>Such unadulterated greed, it was painful to watch as it unfolded.
  • shrx4 hours ago
    Another alternative is Simplewall: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;henrypp&#x2F;simplewall" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;henrypp&#x2F;simplewall</a>
    • underlines3 hours ago
      Which I use for years, and just because of lack of a better alternative (minimal, OSS) I actually quite &quot;hate&quot; it.:<p>It has no rules, like &quot;Allow a file with THIS name on THAT path&quot;, the biggest complain of every simplewall user is its biggest flaw and annoyance: It asks you a million times to allow or deny the &quot;same&quot; app, after its checksum changed. So all the Windows apps that auto update always pop up again and again.<p>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.
      • joering22 hours ago
        I&#x27;m a simplewall user and what you describing is not my biggest flaw or annoyance - I simply don&#x27;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.
    • iagiagiag2 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.
    • djfobbz1 hour ago
      Simplewall is quite terrible, IMO. They still haven&#x27;t fixed the painfully slow fuzzy search functionality for firewall rules.
  • RecycledEle35 minutes ago
    Cool.<p>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.
  • Kwpolska4 hours ago
    I&#x27;d rather not use a security tool which is 100% vibeslop with a 100% vibeslop website.
  • hn_submit3 hours ago
    People are conjuring up all kinds of apps slapped together by LLMs and actually have the gal to ask money for them?!
    • msdrigg3 hours ago
      It’s free tho
      • hn_submit1 hour ago
        They removed the &quot;Pricing&quot; menu item from the website.
    • AltruisticGapHN47 minutes ago
      So now we use AI for coding we can&#x27;t sell any apps anymore?<p>Like this guy pushed a button and everything just happened?<p>What does it matter if it&#x27;s mostly coded by an LLM. If someone skilled guided an LLM to build an app that does something meaningful and useful why shouldn&#x27;t they be able to sell it or accept donations?
    • voidfunc2 hours ago
      Might as well make some money while you can.
  • baal80spam4 hours ago
    How is this better and more comprehensive than Fort Firewall? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tnodir&#x2F;fort" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tnodir&#x2F;fort</a>
    • Sarky1 hour ago
      I prefer this one as well.
  • Avicebron3 hours ago
    I&#x27;ve been working on my own version of this for a little over a year. Sigh.
    • adzm3 hours ago
      May I see it?
      • Avicebron3 hours ago
        I&#x27;m looking for somewhere to put it anonymously, don&#x27;t want to doxx myself.
        • someothherguyy3 hours ago
          many options for this? unless you are ultra-concerned with anyone knowing who you are.
          • Avicebron3 hours ago
            I&#x27;m not that special. Apologize for the LLM cruft, I had Fable spin through to try and clean it up. If it&#x27;s broken, oh well.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codeberg.org&#x2F;Avicebron&#x2F;Sereno" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codeberg.org&#x2F;Avicebron&#x2F;Sereno</a>
  • devilsdata3 hours ago
    slop
  • poszlem4 hours ago
    I beg you. At the very least, please, write your own headers. I don&#x27;t even need you to write the whole copy on the page, but please, don&#x27;t make us read that claudease slop. This makes the app you advertise look like the lowest of efforts, no matter what it is.<p>&quot;Know which apps are calling home.&quot; &quot;Every connection, your call&quot;
    • phendrenad23 hours ago
      Or better yet, make the aite itself open-source so people can contribute better writing.
    • iKlsR3 hours ago
      I learnt recently these are called &quot;staccato sentences&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;michael_chomsky&#x2F;status&#x2F;2107235505620521274" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;michael_chomsky&#x2F;status&#x2F;2107235505620521274</a>. Update your agents.md
    • eviks3 hours ago
      But then how would you know that the app is the lowest of efforts if the copy is better written?