eEye Digital Security

 Blink's system firewall is blocking my connection to other computers, but not my shared internet. I have a wireless home network that I setup myself. I used to be able to access my other computer, but can not any longer unless I disable the system firewall in Blink 3.1.0 Beta. Is there anyway that I can setup a rule to allow this connection? Oddly, it use to work, but has quit only just recently, with no changes to the program or computers that I can think of. Thank you for your help.

Postscript: this has nothing to do with the rest, but I just noticed that I cannot use the select tags button, the window pops up, but will not load. I am using Firefox 2 with Google tool bar, Ad-Block Plus, and Tab Mix Plus, can you think of any fix?

Sorry for the delay; however, I'll assume you are now running the latest 3.1.1 which was released about 2 weeks ago as a full installer only.  You might have found things working when you upgraded or reinstalled because recently we introduced two system firewall rules which would affect the desired network traffic you are mentioning.  Maybe one or the other might have become enabled or disabled, but with the reinstall having possibly reapplied defaults (depends whether or not you kept the current configuration) traffic might have worked as you remembered it behaving before.  The System Firewall rules that would affect the file and printer sharing are:

    1) Allow local Subnet Netbios

    2) Deny all other Netbios requests

 
By default, both are enabled so that Netbios traffic is allowed between assets that are "local".  We regard "local" as assets that have any of the non-routeable ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12) or link local range both of which are safe assumptions.  However, if "local" for you happens to be routeable IPs, which is likely not the case, then by default you would find related traffic being denied having matched the second rule.

Could we get a fresh assessment on where you are in regards to this?  If you are still experiencing the same behavior, enable Firewall Passive mode which will allow all traffic regardless of the rule set; however, via alerts and logs, Blink will inform you of any traffic that would have been otherwise denied if the rule set was active.  Helps troubleshoot in situations such as this and also assists an administrator in building an initial rule set by identifying all the required network traffic.  This can be performed as follows from the Blink menu:

1) View -> Options

2) Click on the "Advanced" tab

3) Check the option: "Enable Firewall Passive Mode"

4) Initiate the traffic that was not working

5) View the Blink logs and correspond any denied traffic to required firewall rules creating them as necessary.

Once you have all the information required, do not forget to disable Firewall Passive Mode. 

 
As for the  "select tag" button (in the forum software) displaying the window but not the contents, are you still experiencing this?

Please keep us informed of your progress.  Thank you.

FYI, Blink 3.1.1 was working well on my home network (latest Netgear router, 1 iMac on an Ethernet connection, and 3 Windows XP, with WiFi) -- until last Friday or Saturday. Then I started to experience the same problem as noted above. Each computer could get on the Internet, but there was no file sharing.

When logging in to the router, it acknowledged all 4 computers, but each computer could not see any other. As soon as I clicked Blink's "Disable system firewall protection" on all three XP machines (with Blink installed), file sharing worked. 

As a workaround I have turned Blink's System Firewall OFF, left Application Firewall ON, have turned Windows Firewall On, and file sharing works. I tested the system using GRC's Leak Test (www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm), and all seems well. I am also relying on the router for protection. I hope someone notices this issue and makes a comment.

Was this problem timed with a recent update? Is there a firewall setting that I need to check is on or off?

Thanks in advance.

I have this similiar issue also...

Internet access fine

 In my case I can see my NAS from both machines and I can transfer files to it then for it to the other machine... but both machines that run BLINK cannot see eachother ..

Can you double check your system firewall rules specifically those dealing with Netbios traffic? By default they are set to allow traffic for a set of internal IP ranges. Maybe your systems received IPs in arange which is not covered by the default rules in which case you need to add your range to the default rule.

If you run befind a router (and you do) you can also disable the System Firewall rule (ID 510001) which denies all File Sharing traffic not allowed by the allow rule above.

So you are saying becase I am behind a Router I can safely turn off the eeye firewall....

 I will have to play with this over the weekend and see if I can get some more info on the specific issues.

It is no secret that we are not big fans of firewalls in general and while Blink provides firewall functionality we believe it is not for the firewall that Blink gets high praise for. We definetely shoot for offering complete protection even with the firewall portion disabled.

I just want to confirm this firewall-OFF comment. It's very important to me because I travel a lot on business.

 So, regardless if cable- or WiFi-connected, one does NOT need Blink's or Window's system firewall protection feature (as opposed to Blink's application firewall protection which is needed) as long as one is behind a local router.

- "Local" meaning one's own secure (WPA-based) network -- home or small office.
- The router is fairly new (< 3 yrs old), so it is for sure a NAT router. 
- Universal Plug-and-Play is turned OFF
- The router's built-in firewall feature is turned ON

If true for home and small business networks, what does one do in public WiFi areas, such as Airports, hotels, or coffee shops? Do I turn ON Window's "Don't Allow Exceptions" firewall feature, Blink's System Firewall feature, or ______?

Thanks again,
Bob

Great questions and you beat me to them..... very curious what the answer will be especially since most have been told for years that a firewall is an absolute must...

I am sort of curious if this file share issue is not blink and windows firewall not liking eachother - but I will have to continue to mess with it.....

My main issue I think is how bad windows shares files in general - I have to go between mutiple networks and its really a pain to switch from one to the other and get it up and running without multiple restarts or waiting forever for the network window to refresh etc... 

Brent wrote: "... I am sort of curious if this file share issue is not blink and windows firewall not liking each other..."

I've suspected the same since I did a recent update (described third from the top on this thread). 

See thats what I get for not actually properly reading all the posts...... thats interesting thou I know eeye mentioned extensive testing with Windows Firewall - but how anyone makes any software work for the masses these days amazes me so I cannot fault anyone when issues arise becase of so many possible combinations out there.... hopefulyl there is a simply work around or possibly there will be a step through to get file sharing working properly in different situations.... as the main complaint I have heard is the fact that BLINK is to secure... not seeing how something is too secure but its a very thin line between anoying and secure... thou i tend to like my security programs a bit on the anoying side this one issue is becoming more anoying mainly becase as you move to different networks you need to change mutiple settings to get re-secured on that other network...