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Is there a Firewall with a quick toggle per program, to open/close connection?

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nudone:
I think I've worked it out, well it seemed to work here but it's 0220 and I've got to get up in 2 hours  :(

Anyway, by default WFwAS, (Windows Firewall with Advanced Security), allows all outgoing connections so you have to set it to Block connections by default for the Private profile.
You then need to create rules for the programs you want to let through, including your browsers, just like you would with a normal firewall.

Once you've done that, you can limit the access your browsers have by using the netsh command like above but using the remoteip option, (not profile or enable).

eg. remoteip=any                     Full access
     remoteip=192.168.0.1/24      LAN access only

Sorry, my screw up with the mis-leading profile stuff above, (I think old age is catching up to me).
-4wd (July 09, 2012, 11:28 AM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks, (and get to bed!) I'll look at this again tomorrow now that you've discovered a bit more.

Hopefully it doesn't change what you've just said but I was manually setting up blocking rules on each of the browsers (just using the GUI for the firewall). So, all profiles (Domain, Private, Public) are selected and blocked and the rule enabled - so, I'm confused now why that isn't enough - hopefully it will be obvious when I see what you mean in the firewall control panel.


edit:

I think I see now...

I created a rule to block everything for the Private profile and this does block everything, including the browsers that wouldn't block before.

The problem with this approach is that "everything" is going to cause problems elsewhere or be too time consuming to start creating filters for all the programs that needs connections. It would be more secure, of course, but it seems like a backward approach to just blocking a couple of browsers (and Apache and MySQL sometimes).

I think I need a way to identify why some of the browsers are still getting through even when a rule says they are blocked for all profiles.

IainB:
I use the Win 7-64 inbuilt firewall in conjunction with Windows 7 Firewall Control FREE to provide a quick toggle per program, to open/close connections.
It is brilliantly simple and requires no brain-twisting logic to set any rules. You just toggle an app ON or OFF through the Firewall.
I have since tried several other Firewall control apps. - including W7FC PLUS, and though they can undoubtedly give you a finer degree of control, they seem too tediously complicated and (human) error-prone.
So, I keep coming back to W7FC FREE.

nudone:
Thanks, IainB, Windows 7 Firewall Control Free does provide a very quick way of toggling each program's connection. I like it, I'm just not sure if I like it enough to replace NetLimiter as that does the same, albeit with an extra mouse click. NetLimiter just has a better appearance and makes is easy to see (from a distance) which programs are blocked/open (because it has nice colour icons representing the connection state).

W7FC is a good candidate, definitely simpler to use that messing about with Windows Firewall rules.

IainB:
...Windows 7 Firewall Control Free ... NetLimiter ... does the same, albeit with an extra mouse click. NetLimiter just has a better appearance and makes is easy to see (from a distance) which programs are blocked/open (because it has nice colour icons representing the connection state).
-nudone (July 09, 2012, 12:30 PM)
--- End quote ---
Sorry, I think I must have misunderstood your opening post requirement. I would not have suggested W7FC if I had known you already had something very similar (NetLimiter).
But that sounds interesting. I think I shall try NetLimiter out.
I can then add it to the list of the ones I have tried so far:

* TinyWallInstaller
* WFN (Windows Firewall Notifier)
* Windows Firewall Control v3.3.0.1 2012-05-30 - wfc
* Windows7FirewallControlPlus-Setup (PAID) - I incorrectly called it "W7FC PRO", in my comment above (now corrected).
* Windows7FirewallControl-Setup-x64 (FREE)

nudone:
W7fc was a good suggestion. If it had the pretty icons it would be perfect.

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