I looooooove Tiny

[Nulland Void]

Hi all,

After reading a few disturbing posts about ZA, I decided to switch over to Tiny.

I've just spent the last few days configuring it
and it's great!

Meticulously scrutinizing the logs and setting up tight rules, I don't even get those wretched doubleclick(et al) ads anymore and my surfing is freaky fast.

Get it! Learn it! Use it! You'll love it.

[Blacksheep]

Dear Nulland Void,

A] Were you using ZA freebie or ZA Pro?

B] Did you uninstall ZA before you installed Tiny?

C] Pray tell us some more about your first hand comparison experience. Maybe you'll convince me to switch.:)

Eagerly awaiting your reply,

Yours truly,

[Blacksheep]

Well, Nulland Void, I took your advice and installed Tiny. :)

[Blacksheep]

Nulland Void,

After reviewing this thread it appears to me my posts could be construed as sarcastic. They are not. I and probably others would be interested in your experiences with Tiny.

[Nulland Void]

Hi Blacksheep,

Sorry about the delay, but I'm going in about 200 different directions here, also, I think my ISP has gone back to using strings and tin cans again.

Some answers:

A) freebie
B) no
C)It took a few days to gather a list of suspicious IP #'s and do a whois on them.

I used http://www.blackcode.com/net-tools/ and after drawing up a list (about 50 so far) of IP blocks assigned to the likes of Doubleclick and others, I set up one rule, and used the "Custom" option.
Then, in the Miscellaneous window, I inserted about 50 IP "Network/Range" rules.

And that's about it.

In the main administration interface, I also set up about 20 other individual rules, a list of which I got from a Tiny support site:
http://groups.**********/group/tinyfirewall

And there you go! *0-4 good buddy, and all that sort of thing.

I'm still diggin' in to it, and will post any other interesting stuff I discover about Tiny.

Hope this helps.

[Blacksheep]

Nulland Void:

"Sorry about the delay,"

I keep forgetting that patience is a virtue.;-)

"but I'm going in about 200 different directions here,"

Ditto.

"also, I think my ISP has gone back to using strings and tin cans again."

Ditto.

"Some answers:

A) freebie
B) no
C)It took a few days to gather a list of suspicious IP #'s and do a whois on them.

I used http://www.blackcode.com/net-tools/ and after drawing up a list (about 50 so far) of IP blocks assigned to the likes of Doubleclick and others, I set up one rule, and used the "Custom" option.
Then, in the Miscellaneous window, I inserted about 50 IP "Network/Range" rules.

And that's about it.

In the main administration interface, I also set up about 20 other individual rules, a list of which I got from a Tiny support site:
http://groups.**********/group/tinyfirewall"

Thanks for answers and URLs.

"And there you go! *0-4 good buddy, and all that sort of thing."

It's pedal to the metal on Tiny rules for Blacksheep.

"I'm still diggin' in to it, and will post any other interesting stuff I discover about Tiny."

Good. Me too.

"Hope this helps."

Absolutely.

I didn't want to uninstall ZA Pro so I installed Tiny also (not to run simultaneously). Ran Tiny and saw that rules would take considerable mental effort/time on my part to set up properly. As I have too many irons in the fire now, put Tiny on hold for a bit, shut everything down, did a reboot, and back to ZA Pro. Tiny was still blocking packets with absolutely no Tiny running processes as listed by Win*8 System Information. Strange. Uninstalled Tiny, reboot, back to ZA Pro- everything's back to normal.

Gonna try Tiny again later when I understand the rules better. Thanks much for your comments.

[Nulland Void]

The first time I ran Tiny, I ran both firewalls at the same time because I read in a forum (sorry, can't remember which one) that if you ran them together, they would check each other up, in case they tried to "phone home".

Remember that I got interested in Tiny because I had read that ZA might be designed to allow certain IP #'s through, like Media Metrix, to whom the Zonelabs boys license their TrueVector technology.
Now, this was a comment on a forum thread that I read. After all, ZA is just a side line for Zonelabs, and considering how the industry is obsessively psychotic about data hoarding, when I read stuff like that, I feel it's worth worrying about.

So, at first I did run both of them, and not having set up a lot of rules in Tiny, it was poping alarms like crazy. After a couple of hours, I disconnected from the web and checked ZA's logs.
Zippo! Nothing.
Therefore, ZA doesn't seem to work along side Tiny. But then, it might just be something I'm not doing right.

Anyways, keep playing with it and I think eventually you will find it great.

Just make sure that in the beginning, you set your rules to log EVERYTHING.
I copy the log file (filter.log) to a text editor every day and sift through them.
I created a second text file where I keep a record of all the suspicious IP #'s I come across, do a whois on them, and note the IP blocks.
I then set rules to block the entire range in the "Miscellanous" window. But you have to set ONE rule in the main admin window first, with the "Custom" protocol setting.
Give that rule a name (like "SlimeyDoubleclickLeeches").
Then, in the "Miscellaneous" window, enter all the IP ranges you want. Remember to set the address type to "Network/Range".

Hope this helps.


(Edit: I will post more on this, ss soon as I can.)

[Blacksheep]

Nulland Void:

"The first time I ran Tiny, I ran both firewalls at the same time because I read in a forum (sorry, can't remember which one) that if you ran them together, they would check each other up, in case they tried to "phone home"."

IMHO it's generally not a good idea to run two progs that basically do the same thing simultaneously because of the possibility of conflicts.

"Remember that I got interested in Tiny because I had read that ZA might be designed to allow certain IP #'s through, like Media Metrix, to whom the Zonelabs boys license their TrueVector technology.
Now, this was a comment on a forum thread that I read. After all, ZA is just a side line for Zonelabs, and considering how the industry is obsessively psychotic about data hoarding, when I read stuff like that, I feel it's worth worrying about."

You need to get yourself a packet sniffer so you KNOW what's going in and out of your PC e.g. http://www.tamos.com/products/commview/

I run a sniffer and have seen no suspicious activity from ZA. One ZA build had a registration bug that phoned home to ZA but packet text was cleartext, no crypto, nothing sneaky.

~~P.S. I forgot to mention that ZA was blocking it's own phone home attempt.;-)~~

"So, at first I did run both of them, and not having set up a lot of rules in Tiny, it was poping alarms like crazy. After a couple of hours, I disconnected from the web and checked ZA's logs.
Zippo! Nothing.
Therefore, ZA doesn't seem to work along side Tiny. But then, it might just be something I'm not doing right."

I know for sure there are conflicts between Tiny and ZA Pro when both are installed on my system.

"Anyways, keep playing with it and I think eventually you will find it great."

I'm interested in increased speed you mentioned in earlier post.

"Just make sure that in the beginning, you set your rules to log EVERYTHING.
I copy the log file (filter.log) to a text editor every day and sift through them.
I created a second text file where I keep a record of all the suspicious IP #'s I come across, do a whois on them, and note the IP blocks."

There is a log prog for Tiny's WinRoute Pro that might work on Tiny http://www.y2kbrady.com/firewallreporting/clearroute/index.htm

"I then set rules to block the entire range in the "Miscellanous" window. But you have to set ONE rule in the main admin window first, with the "Custom" protocol setting.
Give that rule a name (like "SlimeyDoubleclickLeeches").
Then, in the "Miscellaneous" window, enter all the IP ranges you want. Remember to set the address type to "Network/Range".

Hope this helps."

For sure. Thanks for comments.

[Nulland Void]

I'm not too sure how the speed is increased Blacksheep, but I suspect it has to do with Tiny preventing the browser from fetching the ads and anything else that might be going on during that process.

So, with no ads to fetch, the website just downloads, and that's that.

I also like to believe that with some of the IP blocks I have instructed Tiny to deny access or entry, other more sinister processes are stopped, and thus the browser doesn't have to wait for...???