New: Capture2Text (Sep 26, 2023), Platform 26.2.1 (Sep 17, 2023)
450+ real apps (49GB), 1.1 billion downloads, Please donate.
Jack Haller, Advisor and Father of Our Founder, Has Passed Away
Hey:
I'm looking for a firewall program that actually works while I'm surfing on other peoples computers. I come across a lot of unsecured rigs that are full of viruses and people hacking them all the time. The firewall that comes with windows is okay but a determined hacker will just march right through it. I'd like to have a way to atleast protect myself from outside attacks while I'm on there. Maybe you could even give an option to leave a copy on the computer I am currently using.
yeah that would be a nice idea
I'd like to use a portable app like this too, but I don't see it happening. Filtering network packets on a Windows box would require you to install a filter-hook driver. Once you do that, your app isn't "portable" anymore. Here's Microsoft's explanation of a filter-hook driver (note the word "installed"):
"A filter-hook driver is a kernel-mode driver that is used to filter network packets. Filter-hook drivers extend the functionality of the system-supplied Internet Protocol (IP) filter driver. A filter-hook driver can only be installed on the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system and later versions.
Only a single filter-hook driver can be installed on the operating system and used by the IP filter driver."
Using something like CoLinux also would not work because the packets originating from windows wouldn't get filtered by the Linux distro as Linux doesn't sit between Windows and the outside world, it would just reside inside Windows.
Contrary to the previous post, the Windows Firewall isn't all that bad. Maybe an app or interface to set it up with your pre-configured rules when you start and then return the firewall's state back to what it was when you started would be the way to go.
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Follow us on BlueSky