14 DAY TRIAL // Firewalls have the purpose of protecting your computer against outside attacks. Unlike anti virus software that prevents malicious code from installing on your computer and damaging your OS or personal files, a firewall is supposed to prevent unscrupulous people outside your network from accessing your computer. Windows operating systems come with a built in firewall that, truth be told, is not highly configurable and does not do a too great of a job. But it's better than having nothing to protect your machine with.
A hardware firewall has lots of options and features to be configured and allows you to filter the URLs that cannot be accessed and even the content transmitted outside the network. Software firewalls will simply control the inbound and outbound traffic on your computer and prevent unauthorized connections as well as warn you when some softwares are trying to connect to the Web.
Basically, a firewall lets the user apply some control over TCP/UDP transport protocols which are part of the transport layer and applies a security mechanism when a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol) connection is established.
Most software firewalls on the market are commercial versions and their cost is quite high. However, there are applications in this category that are absolutely free of charge. Wallix Pro is one of them. This program is light and extremely easy to use. The version analyzed today is 1.0 and I must say that it impressed me quite a lot.
The interface is drawn up nicely and there aren't too many options to deal with. In fact, the entire program has two tabs to fiddle with. One is for adding and removing programs to be allowed to transmit the data outside your computer using the default ports and the other one is designed for adding the ports that can be used for communication.
That is about all that Wallix Pro offers the users in what concerns protecting the computer. Oh, there are also the On/Off buttons to start or stop the firewall protection and the program/port adding functions.
The moment you start Wallix there will already be some programs in the "Allow" list. From what I could see, these are the applications allowed in Windows Firewall. You can remove any of them by clicking on the "Remove" button. The moment you remove an item from the list it will automatically disappear from Windows Firewall as well. So it would seem that Wallix Pro is actually an interface for Windows Firewall provided in Windows OS.
Adding a software is done from the lower part of the Add/Remove Programs window and all there is to the operation is browse to the executable and provide a name. The result, just like in the case of removing the items, will also be visible in the firewall provided by Windows.
The Port window is as easy to use as Add/Remove Programs: name the port, provide the number, select the protocol to be used and click "Add Port" button.
The constant options available in both windows are the firewall status (turning it on or off), the About button and exit. There is no minimize button and the only thing you can do after setting up the program and port exceptions is exit the application.
At the beginning, I couldn't understand how in the world Wallix Pro works, as it did not scream at all when I ran softwares that should otherwise be blocked or ask for my permission. I even tested the software with a bunch of firewall testing tools (it failed absolutely every test). I also had a hard time figuring how to make it run in the background as Task Manager did not list any process affiliated with the software.
My first impression was that Wallix Pro is much worse then Windows Firewall. But that was until I figured out that Wallix Pro is in fact the firewall from Windows. So they are both on the same level and Wallix is in fact an interface allowing the control of the OS native protection.
The Good
The interface is nice and simple. You won't find it difficult at all to handle it. It's a good thing it is free.
The Bad
Wallix Pro is not a firewall. It will not protect you in any way. All it does is control the firewall in Windows XP package.
Even so, there are some spelling mistakes that are not appreciated by the users and drop the value a bit more (if possible).
The Truth
So all my tests were actually on Windows Firewall and it failed all of them. I was expecting that, but it still is a minimal form of protection. However, having Wallix Pro on or off is almost equivalent with having no firewall at all.
I do not even know how to rate this application. But I will leave Windows Firewall aside and consider Wallix a stand alone protection and rate it accordingly: there is no warning for the user, failed all the tests and it doesn't even work.
However, the control over the firewall in Windows is 100% and all the settings made in Wallix immediately took effect in Windows Firewall. I wish the developer had specified this in the description.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
