TinyWall

[jamescv7]

Features
What makes TinyWall special?

TinyWall includes a combination of features that sets it apart from both commercial and freeware firewalls.

TinyWall does not annoy you with popups at all, yet it is still extremely easy to add exceptions to your firewall rules.
TinyWall actively blocks hundreds of trojans, viruses and worms.
TinyWall does not require you to know about ports, protocols and application details.
TinyWall makes use of network zones, allowing you to specify different behaviour when you're at home, at work or in the public.
TinyWall prevents malicious programs from modifying the settings of Windows Firewall.
TinyWall uses Windows' own firewall for filtering and does not install drivers or other kernel components.

Additional features

Firewall tinkering protection
Optional password lockdown of settings
Three modes: Normal protection, Block all, Allow all
Support for temporary (timed) firewall rules
Option to always allow communication within local LAN
Full IPv6 support
List current connections
100% free and clean software. No fees, no ads, no malware.

Link

Download

The download is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users (x86/x64).
Prerequisite for Vista: Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

 

[Deleted member 178]

seems interesting for people allergic to HIPS firewalls.

 

[Ink]

I installed and Chrome and Live Messenger couldn't connect to the Internet. Even after whitelisting the processes. :s

 

[jamescv7]

I think you need to configure first the outgoing and incoming connection through Windows Firewall w/ Advance Security.

 

[ultim]

I installed and Chrome and Live Messenger couldn't connect to the Internet. Even after whitelisting the processes. :s

Hello Earth,
I'd like to solve any problems TinyWall might have, would you help me figure out what went wrong in your case?

 

[ultim]

I think you need to configure first the outgoing and incoming connection through Windows Firewall w/ Advance Security.

You shouldn't need to configure anything else, other than whitelisiting applications.

 

[Ink]

Hello Earth,
I'd like to solve any problems TinyWall might have, would you help me figure out what went wrong in your case?

I didn't have any third-party firewalls installed beforehand, except Windows 7's default firewall.

I chose to whitelist Chrome and Live Messenger using Ctrl+Shift+W (click each window) method, but wasn't able to connect to the Internet afterwards.

Then I was thinking maybe during installation, could it be because I ignored the message about closing any open applications before installing?

Btw, impressed with the small installer (under 800KB).

 

[ultim]

Then I was thinking maybe during installation, could it be because I ignored the message about closing any open applications before installing?

No, probably something else.

After you finished whitelisting, did the tray show you any popup bubble, confirming that the rules for the selected app have been changed? Each time you allow an app, that bubble will popup.

If it does not popup for you, than TinyWall is not registering your click on the other application. That happens if that other app is running with admin privileges, but TinyWall is not. To see if this is the problem you can either:
- Try whitelisting another app that 100% not running as admin, or
- Select "Elevate" from the TinyWall menu to bring Tinywall to the same privilege level

Of course, if you do see the popup but the whitelisting is not working, the next thing would be to check the firewall rules in wf.msc. See if you can see the rules created by TinyWall for your applicaiton, they should be on the top of the outgoing list for chrome, for example.

 

[Ink]

I got a popup bubble for Windows Live Messenger. :s

I couldn't connect, so I uninstalled it.

Also it would be nice to notify the user about when uninstalling TinyWall, that the computer will restart automatically. Lucky I didn't have any unsaved work.

Are there any plans to add a whitelist that is already part of TinyWall?

 

[ultim]

I got a popup bubble for Windows Live Messenger. :s

I couldn't connect, so I uninstalled it.

I guess I will need to adjust the rules for Live Messenger. However, in such a case, you can always got to the tray menu of TinyWall, select Manage and add the "Blind trust" profile to Live Messenger. That will give the messenger unrestricted net access, but will still block other applications. However, in the next beta I will release this issue for Live Messenger will be fixed.

Also it would be nice to notify the user about when uninstalling TinyWall, that the computer will restart automatically. Lucky I didn't have any unsaved work.

It did warn you. You probably just clicked through the warning dialog without reading

Are there any plans to add a whitelist that is already part of TinyWall?

You mean, not having to whitelist applications by hand? Yes, but only for security relevant software, like Windows Update and antivirus updates. Also in the next beta.

 

[ultim]

okay, so i solved the msn login problem. msn needs 3 executables unblocked

C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Contacts\wlcomm.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Windows Live\WLIDSVC.EXE

they are not even in the same folder. this pretty much sucks. i'll try to come up with an idea to solve this in an automagical way

 

[ultim]

Hello Everybody, just recently the second Release Candidate has been released. Also, there has been many test releases since the last post in *this* forum, so most issues are fixed now. If anyone wants to test to make sure that 1.0 will be of good quality, grab the latest version from http://tinywall.pados.hu/download.php .

 

[Jack]

After installing TinyWall , this firewall blocked Chrome from accessing the internet so you really need to fix this.....
I've only manage to connect to internet after I've manually added Chrome to the firewall Exception List....I'm an advance user so it wasn't very hard to figure out how can I do that but for a regular user this would be a nightmare.........
To be noted is that the 'Auto-detect' feature ...didn't detect Chrome....which I think it should be the first one detected since it's a browser......

 

[Jack]

Tried to start FilleZilla (File Sharing Client) and it also got blocked.....hmm........How can I setup this to show me an alert when a program is trying to connect to the internet because your whitelist is very limited.....

 

[ultim]

Hello Jack,
TinyWall will never alert you when a program is trying to access the internet. You have to unblock each app manually, that is by design. So everything you've written about is in order. Except that it didn't detect Chrome. Can you please send me your Chrome's executable (chrome.exe)? I need it to add it to the detection list. Thank you.

 

[ultim]

Hello Jack,
TinyWall will never alert you when a program is trying to access the internet. You have to unblock each app manually, that is by design. So everything you've written about is in order. Except that it didn't detect Chrome. Can you please send me your Chrome's executable (chrome.exe)? I need it to add it to the detection list. Thank you.

You might be interested to know that work on TinyWall has been very active and it has seen a few updates since the last post. The problem with Chrome, among others, have been fixed and there is now even a released/stable version.

 

[eXPerience]

I'll run it and see if anything pops-up.

best regards,
eXp

EDIT : installed it and internet connection got shut off (opera next + msn messenger). after disabling the firewall everything works again. Gonna check if changing the rules helps

 

[eXPerience]

There are some things I noticed.

- first of all, I can start the applications x times I want . Gotta be protected right ?

Problem with no connection remains, tried the full trusting (forgot the correct name) rule for my applications, but still doesn't work...
I have the firewall on disabled now

Opening the Settings tab while double clicking the icon would be nice, now it's kinda click - (quit) click... *damn*

eXp

 

[ultim]

Problem with no connection remains, tried the full trusting (forgot the correct name) rule for my applications, but still doesn't work...

Hi eXp,
There have been only two reports (including you) of this problem, where whitelisting does not help at all (as a comparison, TinyWall has been downloaded over 3000 times since dec.27.). I would really like to solve and fix this, unfortunately I haven't yet been able to decipher when/why this happens. Would you be willing to help me more with this? If so, please send me a mail (see page footer of tinywall.pados.hu) and I will send you some instructions in response about what information I'd need from you. Thank you!

 

[ultim]

The mentioned "problems" above turned out not to be a bug in TinyWall, but were because of user-installed software. For example, if avast is installed, then the "avast! Antivirus" service needs to be whitelisted to regain access to the internet. In every case it boiled down to the fact that the user has not whitelisted the correct or not all needed executables. In case somebody experiences problems while TinyWall is installed, I recommend checking out the FAQ which lists some of the most common apps causing trouble and their solutions.