Protowall has been designed with performance in mind. Before it's creation, DudeZ, the coder, tried many firewalls and similar applications in order to protect his system from bad IP addresses. Unfortunately, his CPU was often under heavy load and some firewall applications could not handle all the IP addresses he wanted to block. So, he decided to code something better, something that he and others can use for a better solution.
Introducing Protowall!
Protowall is a lightweight application which runs in the background, taking up little CPU and memory, while blocking thousands of bad IP addresses. In Protowall, all the work is done by the driver that filters each packet, extracts the IP header and then compares the address with the ones in the table, then either discards or permits the packet to pass.
The GUI is essentially a "driver instructor" that communicates to the driver the IP list to check against. The GUI also receives notifications from the driver when a packet arrives and when actions are performed with a packet. Protowall Blocks both inbound and outbound packets.
Protowall blocks incoming packets from Internet addresses that are on the Bluetack Blacklists. This is handled by another program called the Blocklist Manager. This program finds and retrieves lists of bad IP addresses. They are sorted (overlapping resolved) and then converted to various formats such as Protowall, PeerGuardian & other common applications and firewalls.
Why does Protowall stand above the rest?
Traditionally, many firewalls are resource hogs and have a tendency to crash your system. This is worsened when you try to add extra IP addresses for it to block. Protowall, however, is driver based, meaning it blocks packets at the system level, allowing for fast, lightweight and efficient operation. Protowall leaves a very small footprint on your resources, even under heavy uploading/downloading, and is very accurate at blocking packets.
Does Protowall contain Spyware? Absolutely Not!
There are no hidden programs in Protowall. The Bluetack team is committed to providing an Internet security solution that is free of any devious spyware/malware. Protowall has no ads either. Many ask why Protowall isn't open source - Protowall has nothing to hide, but it remains closed source to prevent cloning and others stealing its code.
Is Protowall a complete firewall?
No, it is not! Protowall only blocks IP's (internet addresses) you instruct it to block, by giving it a list, or by entering them manually. It is not a firewall, or a replacement for one. It runs alongside a firewall without any problems, however, and we recommend you always have a firewall installed.
Which protocols does Protowall block?
Protowall blocks all NDIS protocols. These include:
IP/ICMP/TCP/UDP/HOPOPTS/IGMP/GGP/IPV4/ST/EGP/PIGP/RCCMON/NVPII/PUP/ARGUS/
EMCON/CHAOS/MUX/MEAS/HMP/PRM/IDP/TRUNK1/TRUNK2/LEAF1/LEAF2/RDP/IRTP/TP/
BLT/NSP/INP/SEP/3PC/IDPR/XTP/DDP/CMTP/TPXX/IL/IPV6/SDRP/ROUTING/FRAGMENT/
IDRP/RSVP/GRE/MHRP/BHA/ESP/AH/INLSP/SWIPE/NHRP/MOBILE/TLSP/SKIP/ICMPV6/
NONE/DSTOPTS/AHIP/CFTP/HELLO/SATEXPAK/KRYPTOLAN/RVD/IPPC/ADFS/SATMON/
VISA/IPCV/CPNX/CPHB/WSN/PVP/BRSATMON/ND/WBMON/WBEXPAK/EON/VMTP/SVMTP/
VINES/TTP/IGP/DGP/TCF/IGRP/OSPFIGP/SRPC/LARP/MTP/AX25/IPEIP/MICP/SCCSP/ETHERIP/
ENCAP/APES/GMTP/IPCOMP/PIM/PGM
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· Fixed a GUI error on the granted packets reset button
· Uninstaller now removes the driver
· Was rebuilt in Release Mode (No debugging stuff) and is now much smaller
· Added option to reset the video log
· Installer Tweaks and Optimizations
· Changed the protowall driver error message
· Disabled the 24 hour update for the time being
· Made the space bigger for the Blocked/Granted packet activity tracker as the number gets too big and will not display correctly. (Did it but i don't know if it will take)
· Updated About Screen
· Moved the Red/Green icon on the GUI
· The limit on the amount of rules PW can hold has been increased to over 400,000 rules
· Updated IPFilter.dat
· The blinking red/green Icon has been removed form the gui, but still blinking in tray.
· The "View Log" is now located in the File Menu. W/File/ViewLog.
· Other misc. gui fixes.
· Prevent crash occasionally occuring when closing protowall after being in about and/or preferences window
· New Tray icon
· Included a donate link in: W/About/ProtoWall on the Web/Donate..
· Shows an amber icon when pw is not running, green when running, flashing red if block occurs, in the system tray
