A Little Snitch for Windows

Good, older alternative (seems to be not this user friendly) is Malwarebytes Window Firewall Control.

• aiiotnoodle · 8 hours ago

  Just tried this and it has a learning mode which is what I was looking for. Thank you for the recommendation.

• mlnj · 7 hours ago

  Came here to see how many others there were. This is only way I can actually feel like I'm in control of using modern OS. Everything is telemetry this and analytics that.

Another alternative is Simplewall: https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall

• underlines · 11 hours ago

  Which I use for years, and just because of lack of a better alternative (minimal, OSS) I actually quite "hate" it.: It has no rules, like "Allow a file with THIS name on THAT path", the biggest complain of every simplewall user is its biggest flaw and annoyance: It asks you a million times to allow or deny the "same" app, after its checksum changed. So all the Windows apps that auto update always pop up again and again. A coding agent autonomously compiling and testing an exe with network access is impossible. I have to turn off simplewall, because it would constantly block the executable after recompilation.

  • joering2 · 10 hours ago

    I'm a simplewall user and what you describing is not my biggest flaw or annoyance - I simply don't upgrade windows (why would calculator need updates??) and after clicking few denies, its get very quiet. Been this way for 2 years now on Win 11.

    • Dylan16807 · 6 hours ago

      Personally I like getting the security updates even if I have a firewall. Even among simplewall users I bet the vast majority install OS updates regularly.

• iagiagiag · 10 hours ago

  I also easily recommend this one. And OpenSnitch on linux seems to be doing the same job, though the interface can be less friendly.

• djfobbz · 8 hours ago

  Simplewall is quite terrible, IMO. They still haven't fixed the painfully slow fuzzy search functionality for firewall rules.

How is this better and more comprehensive than Fort Firewall? https://github.com/tnodir/fort

• Sarky · 8 hours ago

  I prefer this one as well.

• jiveturkey · 6 hours ago

  https://github.com/tnodir/fort/wiki/HVCI packethound can be managed via group policy packethound has that air of AI slop sophistication

I beg you. At the very least, please, write your own headers. I don't even need you to write the whole copy on the page, but please, don't make us read that claudease slop. This makes the app you advertise look like the lowest of efforts, no matter what it is. "Know which apps are calling home." "Every connection, your call"

• phendrenad2 · 11 hours ago

  Or better yet, make the aite itself open-source so people can contribute better writing.

• eviks · 11 hours ago

  But then how would you know that the app is the lowest of efforts if the copy is better written?

• iKlsR · 11 hours ago

  I learnt recently these are called "staccato sentences" https://x.com/michael_chomsky/status/2107235505620521274 . Update your agents.md

I'd rather not use a security tool which is 100% vibeslop with a 100% vibeslop website.

I've been working on my own version of this for a little over a year. Sigh.

• adzm · 11 hours ago

  May I see it?

  • Avicebron · 11 hours ago

    I'm looking for somewhere to put it anonymously, don't want to doxx myself.

    • someothherguyy · 11 hours ago

      many options for this? unless you are ultra-concerned with anyone knowing who you are.

      • Avicebron · 11 hours ago

        I'm not that special. Apologize for the LLM cruft, I had Fable spin through to try and clean it up. If it's broken, oh well. https://codeberg.org/Avicebron/Sereno

Isn't this just ZoneAlarm?

• constantlm · 11 hours ago

  or perhaps BlackICE

  • aand16 · 8 hours ago

    Wow haven't read that name since around 2000, gave me a weird feeling in my brain. Here's another one: F.O.S.I.

• jeremycarter · 10 hours ago

  It's a tvery similar concept and presentation

• Tarq0n · 10 hours ago

  Is zonealarm still alive? Portmaster has been filling this role for me for the last couple years.

  • LoganDark · 10 hours ago

    I used Portmaster too until they started locking existing features behind paid subscription. And generally just pushing towards microtransactions in general. I vastly prefer buy once or buy per major version.

  • byteknight · 9 hours ago

    Windows firewall control

    • LoganDark · 6 hours ago

      This only prompts you after the connection has already been rejected, instead of holding it for approval like Little Snitch and Portmaster -- but I did have WFC installed on my Windows machines anyway, it's still useful.

      • TwoNineFive · 54 minutes ago

        More than a decade ago, I tinkered around with doing stuff like this. I found that many Windows apps got ugly and naughty when you hold up the connection. I started making a list of the various methods I used to try to hold the connection before user authorization could occur and that's about where I gave up on working it.

• doodlebugging · 8 hours ago

  It reminds me more of the old Windows firewall/IPS/IDS called Sygate. It was ahead of its time. I think Zonealarm came after since that is what I replaced it with after Symantec(?) bought Sygate and rolled the best functions of Sygate into their Professional firewall for a premium price. Sygate was free or you could buy a permanent license for a one-time fee. It was the best personal protection products available for pcs running Windows up to WinXP. I had also tried a different firewall/privacy tool from a company in Canada I think called ZeroKnowledge. That was a great product that also allowed you fine-grained access to and control of all connections to/from your Windows pc. They had a product available for a short time but shut down suddenly. I think I read that they were bought out by another firewall company but can't remember which one. They may have been rolled into the Blackberry software line. Both of these were available in the 90's lead-up to the dot com bust if I remember right. Sygate became obsolete when support ended around the time WinXP faded. ZeroKnowledge disappeared much earlier. I may have old executables and installers somewhere on antique backups.

• Kuraj · 6 hours ago

  Personally I used Kerio Personal Firewall. I remember it being very good and while I didn't care about outbound connections much back then, I'm pretty sure it had a similar feature it was just off by default

• unixhero · 29 minutes ago

  Yes

slop

People are conjuring up all kinds of apps slapped together by LLMs and actually have the gal to ask money for them?!

• msdrigg · 10 hours ago

  It’s free tho

  • hn_submit · 9 hours ago

    They removed the "Pricing" menu item from the website.

• voidfunc · 10 hours ago

  Might as well make some money while you can.

• AltruisticGapHN · 8 hours ago

  So now we use AI for coding we can't sell any apps anymore? Like this guy pushed a button and everything just happened? What does it matter if it's mostly coded by an LLM. If someone skilled guided an LLM to build an app that does something meaningful and useful why shouldn't they be able to sell it or accept donations?

  • hn_submit · 5 hours ago

    If there's no real skill involved and anyone could've built it then it's essentially worthless. Save for the cost of the tokens used perhaps.

    • alwa · 5 hours ago

      I mean—I can think of a whole lot of people whose jobs I could do, but who I’m happy to pay a little to avoid having to deal with it myself. It doesn’t take particularly sophisticated skill to load up your garbage and drive it to the landfill—and, frankly, it’s kind of fun every once in a while—but I certainly wouldn’t call municipal trash service worthless … I’m reminded of that old saw about contemporary art: “That?! I could have done that!” / “Yeah, but you didn’t…”

    • somenameforme · 2 hours ago

      You just described the future of all software as LLMs continue to improve. This is an outcome most don't seem to appreciate, yet. And by "most" I'd certainly include large software companies.

Portmaster is my go-to Edit: and glasswire although portmaster is my favorite

• eps · 7 hours ago

  Glasswire royally f*cked all the goodwill by going subscription-only. Such unadulterated greed, it was painful to watch as it unfolded.

Cool. It would be better if it suggested the consequences of stopping programs from phoning home, like will this program say the license check failed after 2 weeks, or will it keep working.

> Most firewalls only watch what comes in Uh, no they don't. I haven't used a firewall in 20 years that hasn't had both inbound and outbound monitoring lol.

With all the reverse engineering out there going on now, I really hope someone does the REA with BlackICE. I miss that software so much. If it works native and is high quality with the simplistic GUI of ZoneAlarm, I would be so happy.

Windows Firewall Control by binisoft https://binisoft.org/wfc is the real Little Snitch for Windows

Seems like tools like this get mentioned a lot lately. I think it's because there are more and more things the user allowed to leak out without the user knowing? (mostly through AI)

I used to be a fan of outgoing firewall control, but alarm fatigue became a major issue, and I just accept everything, which just game a false sense of security. Nowadays, I just use Windows built-in firewall.

> Windows' own components are allowed automatically, so you're only asked about the apps you installed That's not necessarily a good thing.

• dyauspitr · 1 hour ago

  Yeah infact it’s the whole point of little snitch. You have to be aware of all traffic.

• TwoNineFive · 59 minutes ago

  You know these threads are mostly astroturfed because nobody mentions Binisoft/Malwarebytes WFC, one of the oldest and better Windows application firewalls. It's also totally free, though not OSS. https://www.binisoft.org/wfc WFC allows you to block Windows components. This can cause a lot of trouble, or keep Microsoft from spying on you. Or both.