Firestarter traffic question
 

i installed firestarter and have it up and running, but im unclear how exactly its working?
from windows im used to comodo and the allow/deny popup.
firestarter doesnt seem to have this, so my question is how exactly its working if it doesnt give me a choice to allow or deny the in/out traffic on my box? it cant just assume what i want right?

sorry if this question sounds really dumb.

Firestarter is a graphical tool to help you administer a firewall. You create 'rules' that apply to certain traffic, similar to the Allow/Deny popup, but you do it before those occurences by using firestarter. Think of it more like administering a router or installing packages. You do it once and (for lack of a better phrase) forget about it. If you have a need arise, firestarter can be altered to deny or allow new traffic through.

Cool

oh thanks for reply.

when you say create "rules" what exactly do you mean?
so far ive installed it, ran the config wizard, opened a couple ports for sharing and figured that was all i needed to do. i havent really messed with anything else. but figured it would notify me to allow/deny traffic at first since i havent yet specified to it what i want and dont want coming in and out.
i may just uninstall it since im already connected through a router anyways.

thanks.

Rules are what define how a firewall acts regarding packet types, ports, and other network traffic. IP Tables is what is being controlled, firestarter is a frontend for IP Tables. IP Tables work from rules, when you create these rules in firestarter, the changes occur at the IP Tables level. So, when you 'setup' firestarter you created rules, or rather, Firestarter created rules based on your responses.

Depending on which router you are running you may have a good setup. I run DD-WRT on a WRT54G and it had a lot of options. I eventually turned towards Smoothwall on a dedicated system to do my firewalling, but the DD-WRT was a good option for the "small blue box" I was using before then.

Good luck!

Cool

thanks. :)

Firestarter is a good backup for your router. You leave the ports open thru the router that you use "sometimes," and open or close them easily and quickly in Firestarter as needed.