FireWall Suggestions & Torrents

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Ok, been using Windows' own firewall for a good couple of years now.

Never been a problem, never been done over or attacked in any way whatsoever, and its a fine FireWall FWIW... Except...

When running torrents, its slows internet access down massively, for when I want to browse.

I get around this by killing off utorrent when I want to browse, but for obvious reasons, this is not what I want to do.

Previously before this, I used BlackIce and it was fine at the time, but when I try to install it recently, it just switches itself off all the time, and I went back to XPs own.

Now, for the last month or so, I have been using ZoneAlarm.

I was almost impressed with it except for one thing... this TrueVector thingy keeps killing itself?

After looking for it with google, I find several billion other people have the same issues, but not once have I found a cure, and I dont think I would be lying if I said that I have been through at leasta huindred different pages regardign this issue, I have also been in touch with the programmers themselves but not had any reply, so stuff them.

Its annoying because when it works, its done a great job, allowing me to grab my linux torrents etc at 200K+ and download with DAP at 500k+ and I can still shoot in and out of webpages as if Im not downloading at all, but it just keeps crashing all the time!!!

Anyway, can anyone suggest a good FireWall, that will not slow my PC down at all... Not even by 0.1% because if it does, then its no good.

Or, alternatively, does anyone know why BlackIce switches itself off all *** time, or how to cure that TrueVector Service thing in ZoneAlarm?

Ta very much
 
firewalls not the issue
uTorrent is
reduce the number in "max connections" to sub 200 or so (routers etc often limit this) and max per torrent to about 130
 
It might not even be that.
I have a max of 30kb/s upload. If my torrents are using that, browsing is like being back on 56k again. Even if the download is 0kb/s.
 
KingAdora said:
It might not even be that.
I have a max of 30kb/s upload. If my torrents are using that, browsing is like being back on 56k again. Even if the download is 0kb/s.
Click to expand...
yeah thats maxing out your connection so you can't send some of the packets you require
set max up to about 20-25k/s and see
 
Unlikely.

As I said, its fast as hell through ZoneAlarm but slow through Windows FireWall

Routers FireWall is NOT enabled.
 
ok how about setting up the router firewall and disabling the software ones on your PC?
much better way of doing things tbh.
setup UPNP on the router and then enable it in uTorrent
 
VeNT said:
ok how about setting up the router firewall and disabling the software ones on your PC?
Click to expand...
How safe is that? I though router firewalls worked in different ways to sofware and protected from different threats.
I have router firewall turned on and Kerio personal firewall in windows.

FatRacoon, aren't you expecting a bit much if you want not even 0.1% slowdown and the security of a firewall?
 
VeNT said:
ok how about setting up the router firewall and disabling the software ones on your PC?
much better way of doing things tbh.
setup UPNP on the router and then enable it in uTorrent
Click to expand...

I have tried this, but too many things get stopped and Im permanently going in to allow this or that through such as games etc... It gets ridiculous.

I have been keen on the idea of forcing this however, I have a number of different routers and they all offer their own ways, so I might do it.

I have also toyed with SMoothWall too which nice ,but not what I wanted


bledd. said:
just lower the upload again, try 6, and work up from there
Click to expand...

Getting too low though?

Hen_Dawg said:
How safe is that? I though router firewalls worked in different ways to sofware and protected from different threats.
I have router firewall turned on and Kerio personal firewall in windows.

FatRacoon, aren't you expecting a bit much if you want not even 0.1% slowdown and the security of a firewall?
Click to expand...

No, a FireWall whether hard or soft is pretty much the same thing, with a Hardware Firewall definitely being a superior option.

As for askign too much... No, Im not.

A Good firewall should not take ANYTHING from my download speeds... IF it does, its not a good firewall.

Same with Antivirus, Spyware or anythign like that... Which is why I dont use anything that has been near the word NORTON.

I once had norton on a cover CD and I put my blank CDs in top of the magazine and I had to throw all my blanks away ( Thats a joke by the way )

KingAdora said:
Software firewalls are a waste of time IMO.
Click to expand...

Yes, but they are also straight forward.
No hardware router brings up a message informing you that Software X is trying to access the internet, shall I enable or disable it?

Sod it.... Im going to enable the Routers firewall. and get back to you in a couple of hours on how its gone yeah?
 
FatRakoon said:
As for askign too much... No, Im not.

A Good firewall should not take ANYTHING from my download speeds... IF it does, its not a good firewall.

Same with Antivirus, Spyware or anythign like that... Which is why I dont use anything that has been near the word NORTON.
Click to expand...
Taking that purely at face value, you are asking far too much. EVERY software firewall, EVERY antivirus, and EVERY spyware software, bar none, will slow something down. It might not be particularly noticeable, but it's definitely there. Even one of the most popular antivirus around these parts (NOD32) slows things down - and surprisingly, sometimes by the same amount Norton slows things down. What you probably meant is that you want software that doesn't noticeably slow things down, which is surely most people's goal. :)

Get rid the software firewall (just exit it), and try your torrents again. If it's still slow, then it's not the firewall. Could be your router, or even your ISP (particular culprits spring to mind).

Having run ZoneAlarm pretty much since it was created, I've come to the conclusion that software firewalls are a waste of time unless you're installing lots of dodgy stuff and want to limit outgoing connections, or you are too paranoid (there are a few cases where paranoia is justifiable of course). In the absence of viruses, any old router with NAT will stop attacks from outside your LAN.
 
Yes, ok, all software will slow it down, but as you can clearly see, I just need to limit by how much.

Anyway, not tried any gaming yet, and torrents being whatthey are have nearly stopped, with the exception of one Debian CD thats coming in at 320K ( Which is werd that all the others have stopped - well, are connected to a billion people but is coming in at 0.0% ?? )

Emails have stop up... Just received my usual 400 Offers of Viagra and a dozen of my barclays bank accounts may be compromised, so I needto go and check them out by offering my account details - ( hey, they need that information to make sure I am who I am ) and anyway, they all came in less than a second, so thats good news.

I will play a couple of online games and see what happens there and then later on I will check up for spyware etc.
 
Interesting.

A short while ago, the internet suddenly trundled to a complete stop.

Router was still connected, but browsing did nothing, and the torrents had stopped, all showing 0.0%

Had to switch the router off to get it back up and onto the internet?

Really annoying that... This router is now 14 Months old and has NEVER done that.

Could it be something to do with the Firewall?
Unlikely, but possible especially given the fact that its only done it for the first time only a couple of hours after switching it on!!!

Leave it overnight and see what happens then. I have cleared the routers logs so see if that turns anythign up yeah?
 
Been using a router for a good few years now and i can't say i've ever looked back at the software firewalls since.

Ok you get no popup box, but for its as simple as typing "192.168.1.1" into the brwoser address bar, a few clicks later i'm at the forwarding page if i need to open ports, so far i've opened 3 for myself, the rest is upnp.

If you are mainly worried about games, common ports are usually used for most games except when you need to host a game, say with some friends over the net, but theres a way around this. Google for "Hamachi", its basicly like a VPN and i think the freebie version (one i use) supports upto 6 or 9 players.

I can max out my 4mb connection on torrents no probs, on private torrents (much faster generally), but as said above giving to much upload bandwidth cripples my browsing.

I play bf2, bf2142, css, or whatever else online without any problems with the firewall. As i said the only time i need ports forwarded are hosting some online games, but in these cases i usually use Hamachi,
 
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