14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet's a scary place
The Internet hasn't been a safe place for a while and it's a pretty foolish mentality to have if you think you don't need a firewall to surf it safely. If you've already tried out some of what's already on the market, you should give Kerio Personal Firewall a try.
On this trial version, you'll receive the features of Kerio Pro for 30 days, then falls back to its limited state that takes and remote administration, host intrusion prevention, Web filtering offline. Although these features are not central to firewall protection, but they do still help.
Inside
Once you install Sunbelt's Kerio Personal Firewall, you're given the option to either install the 'Simple Mode' (the typical setting in which the firewall won't ask you for anything) or the 'Advanced Mode' where it gives the user more flexibility in what they're trying to do (the firewall will ask about unknown network traffic and launching unknown operations).
Within the actual program, you're treated to an abundance of options that you'd find in some other firewalls as well. I'm going to go through the options to lay everything out and then talk about how it all works on the whole.
You start with the 'Overview' where you're given the option to take a look at what's presently happening with your machine. You can take a look at your connections, some statistics (how many ads you've blocked and so on). You also have some preference options (you can auto-check for updates, generate crash dump, import/export configs, and enable password protection) and finally you can take a look at that glorious License Agreement if you forgot what was originally entailed.
Your 'Network and Security' tab lets you control your applications; here's where you can permit or deny the Internet to your programs. You can take a look at what's already been Predefined, this includes: Internet group management protocol, ping & Tracert in/out, Dynamic Host Configs, etc.. You can also set your trusted area and play around with the advanced features (you're able to block all incoming connection attempts during bootup/shutdown and enable/disable 'Gateway Mode' which should be on if you want to allow Internet sharing).
Your 'Intrusion' tab offers you the possibility of enabling/disabling your NIPS (Network Intrusion Prevention System). You get some advanced settings on this service which let you set priority levels and permissions for each action. You can also enable/disable your HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System). The advanced options let you block buffer overflow and block executable code injection (while logging everything).
The 'Web' tab enables web filtering and blocks advertisements. Along with these functions, you're also able to block Javascripts, VBScripts, and ActiveX controls. In the Privacy part of the tab, KPF lets you filter foreign cookies, it lets you deny servers to trace web-browsing and lets you block private information.
Finally, the 'Logs & Alerts' tab lets you take a look at your network, NIPS, HIPS, Behavior and Web activity.
The Good
You're given a lot of useful features in Kerio Personal Firewall. You can block all external IP traffic, you can render your desktop 'invisible' to others, you're given three (not two) security settings. KPF lets you easily work through its intuitive interface while giving you options not typically found in every firewall that's out there. You also have MD5 app. signatures protecting against Trojans and more.
The Bad
Aside from this, I had a bit of a rough spot with what I wanted as rules. When working with my very first Internet page, KPF asked me if I wanted to let it go through. I permitted it but was sad to say that I wasn't given more options. What rule did I in fact create? Did I allow IE only go to the current IP address? Did I let IE always go out (or in for that matter)? Did I let it grab the current port? What protocol is it using? I didn't know exactly what rules it had set up. Sunbelt KPF contains two version free or paid, the free version disables the HIPS and ADS features after 30 trial days.
There's also something else, here's something posted on their Web site:
During the second half of this year, Kerio will be discontinuing two host-based security products from our portfolio - Kerio ServerFirewall and Kerio Personal Firewall.
Kerio Personal Firewall will be discontinued as of December 31, 2005. It will not be available for purchase after this date. Subscriptions will not be renewed. Technical support will be provided to all customers with valid subscriptions until December 31st, 2006. Refunds will be available for customers with a subscription that extends beyond January 1st, 2007.
Thank you for your support of Kerio.
Cheers, Joshua Thomas
The Truth
Some Pro features will be disabled within 30 days, but you'll still get the feel of what it's like to have a pretty good firewall. If you want a quiet firewall that doesn't make all that racket, you can use Kerio Personal Firewall and it'll still do the job. If you want a more hands-on, let me see what this firewall's doing, KPF can also do that too. It's very versatile and it works like a great firewall. You'll only really need the free version; the full version just adds web filtering and a few administrator type features. The last screenshot shows the differenes between Pro and Free.
Check out the screenshots below.
