Is It Possible To Save, Export, And Import Firewall Settings?

earnolmartin

I know previous versions of BitDefender were capable of saving, exporting, and importing firewall rules and settings. Is this still possible in BitDefender 2009? If so, how do I export my settings to a file? I'm thinking about reformatting my computer soon.

Let me know.

alexcrist

Hello Eric,

The firewall settings are stored in C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2009\Firewall (assuming C:\ProgramFiles\BitDefender is where you installed BitDefender).

From there, you can backup the settings. If you only want the firewall rules, you can just back up the rules.xml file. If you also want to backup the firewall profiles, also copy the profiles.xml file. Another file that might interest you is settings.xml, which contains the general firewall settings (available when you click Advanced settings in the BD interface).

To restore these settings you should reboot in SafeMode, so that BitDefender won't be active. Otherwise, you will be blocked from copying the files back to their location. Be sure to update BitDefender to the same version you had when you backed up the files before putting them back. This way you should prevent any unwanted compatibility issues (though I tested it and worked fine even when I took the rules from an updated BD TS 2009 EN 12.0.11.5 and put them in a BD IS 2009 RO 12.0.10).

However, if you have Strict automatic rules and/or Monitor changes in processes that match firewall rules turned on, you might have some problems because the process parents (or maybe the processes themselves) might be different and because of this, BitDefender Firewall might generate an alarm about this.

Cris.

earnolmartin

Thanks Cris!

alexcrist

You're welcome, Eric.

fiddler2007

Now about BF 2017? (Win10 Pro 64bit)

C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender 2017\settings\firewall  ?? What files are important?

What i miss is a quick way to block all in and out going traffic as i was used to with Comodo and also Zonealarm free firewalls. Zonealarm especially was a jiffy to set up for particular programs and individual access rules. 

 

Is there anyway to use Comodo or Zonealarm firewalls instead the Bitdefender built in one by uninstalling just the BF firewall?

I am running the 30 trial of Bitdefender 2017 now, but i doubt buying it since the firewall thing is too complicated and time consuming to setup right. Also a 30 day period is just not enough IMO to get it working properly and then decide on buying it ....