Kerio Personal Firewall: Premium Security That Delivers Strength and Simplicity Security Made Simple ... or Advanced Joseph Moran
If your PC spends a lot of time connected to the Internet — and let's face it, if it doesn't, it's likely gathering dust in a closet — you need to be running some kind of firewall. And while the hardware firewalls found in most broadband routers are a good start and should be considered de rigueur for any small network, they generally deal with traffic only on the level of TCP/IP addresses and ports, and thus offer protection that's incomplete at best.
To better protect yourself against threats like rogue applications downloading and running on your PC, you need to be running a software firewall. Though such products from companies like Symantec, McAfee, and Zone Labs are certainly better known, Kerio Personal Firewall 4 (KPF4) distinguishes itself in the category by managing to be easy enough for a novice to operate while still providing many of the advanced features that typically appeal to more tech-savvy users.
Security Made Simple ... or Advanced
Kerio Personal Firewall 4 will run on any client version of Windows from 98 up through XP (it won't, however, run on any server version of Windows). When first installing KPF4, you can select from one of two modes — either simple or advanced.
The simple mode is intended for less technical users who are willing to give up some security in exchange for not having to deal with the inevitable and seemingly interminable prompts notifying the user and requesting confirmation on all attempted network activity. As a result, in simple mode the firewall rules are, well, simple — all outbound traffic is allowed, while all inbound traffic is blocked (except, of course, when in response to an established outbound request).
In contrast, configuring KPF4 in advanced (a.k.a. learning) mode gives it a more typical (and more secure) firewall posture. In advanced mode, KPF4 can alert the user whenever an application attempts to generate outbound traffic. The user then has the option to permit the traffic on a one-time or ongoing basis.
The ability to do this, of course, is precisely the purpose of a firewall, and it certainly isn't unique to KPF4. What does set KPF4 apart from some of its competitors is the detailed information the alerts provide and how it is presented. In fact, novices and techies alike will likely find the clarity of information in KPF4's alert dialogs to be one of the program's greatest strengths.
For starters, each alert clearly denotes whether the traffic in question is either inbound or outbound by a prominent green or red bar, and offers large 'permit' and 'deny' buttons along with a simple checkbox to create a rule for future traffic of that type (rather than requiring you to select from a number of options on a selection list, as some products do).
Furthermore, KPF4 provides as much information as it can to help you make an informed decision about an alert. In most cases this includes the full and actual program name rather than simply the name of the .exe file, which can often be cryptic. The alert dialog also presents the IP address (and the FQDN (define, if a DNS resolution is possible), protocol, and port number representing the origin or destination of the traffic. When you consider that many firewalls typically provide you with little information beyond "app.exe is attempting to access the Internet," the benefit of Kerio's approach is clear.
