Blocking Program I Need?

go to expert mode>firewall>network. under trust level, choose trusted local. stealth mode - off. generic profile - yes. (you shud hav the network connected and working to c these options).

Helo Carl,

Those settings are not very safe to be used in any network. If you have direct access to the Internet (and you're not behind a router that you own), then those settings expose your system to many risks to attacks from the network.

In case you are not behind a router/server that you trust, and you have a public IP, then I strongly suggest that you revert those options to their original values:

Trust Level: Unsafe

Stealth Mode: On

Generic Profile: No

To fix your connectivity problem, read this topic: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=4421

If that doesn't work, change the Network settings (Trust Level, Stealth Mode, Generic profile) one-by-one, and post here what change fixes the issue.

Cris.

santo_wolvie, as I said, it depends on your network configuration. For directly connected systems, it is a security risk. Otherwise, it isn't.

I too have my firewall on my laptop set to Trusted Local and to Remote Stealth Mode. But this is only because I have my own home network, with a properly configured router. Whenever I go to a public network (either an unprotected public HotSpot, or at university), I change the settings to Unsafe and Stealth Mode ON.

Trusted Local means that the firewall will automatically allow all connections (requested or not) coming from IPs in the same subnetwork as you. This means (but not only) File and Printer sharing and NetBIOS protocols (both of which are known security hazards in unknown networks), or any other inbound connection (on any port/protocol).

And Stealth Mode protects the system from being spotted in the network. It blocks, among others, the ICMP protocol (like pings) and port scans both of which are also known security risks in unknown and unprotected networks, because they are used to probbe your system from security holes and access modes. Once an attacker successfully probes your system, it can mount an attack against your system.

Of course, this doesn't mean that if you go with trust settings on a public network, you will get attacked or infected. Assuming that your connection provider has a secured server (so all connections from the Internet are filtered on the Gateway) and that all systems on that network are clean, then there won't be any problems even if you completely turn off the firewall.

Bottom line is that everything depends on the network configuration, on the systems that are inside that network, and on the network itself. And because you can never know all variables in this case, the safest way is to go with the settings that will protect you whatever the case: "Unsafe network" and "Stealth Mode ON".

The Generic Profile has usually no usage on most Desktop computers. It means that the Firewall will apply the same exact rules whatever the network settings are (IP, subnet mask, gateway, etc...). But for laptops (which are frequently moved from one network, to another), or from some Desktops which use specific network configuration (like VPNs), Generic Profile can be used to achieve proper functionality. It's too much to explain about this setting, but the essential is this: if you don't experience any connectivity problems with your network, you should keep Generic Profile disabled.

Also, I just thought of something: how is VMWare connected to the Internet? I mean, what settings did you use on the virtual system? (NAT, Bridged connection)

Cris.

OK, Carl, so you are behind a firewalled router. This means that you are safe with the Trusted local trust level. On the other hand, I'd recommend changing the Stealth Mode from OFF to Remote. Considering the Stealth Mode's role explained above, the difference between it's 3 options are:

- ON: applies Stealth Mode to ALL IPs

- Remote: applies Stealth Mode to all IPs from outside your network (all IPs with different subnet). In your case, all systems behind your firewall (which have IPs starting with 192.168.*) will be able to see and access the system in question, but the systems outside your router (like any other system) won't be able to do so. How could this happen? In case of router breach or, more commonly, in port forwarding situations (either when you manually create port forwarding rules in the router, or in case of UPnP usage which automatically forwards ports). Port forwarding practically links your system directly to the network, so on that particular port (or ports), your system is fully exposed to outside threats.

- OFF: disabled Stealth Mode for all IPs

On the other hand, just for the sake of testing (to see if there's anything wrong in the BitDefender Firewall's compatibility with VMWare), please change the Trust Level back to Unsafe and set the VM to use a NAT Connection, not a bridged one (as in screenshot 3). Let me know if it works.

Also, another change that you should make, is this: in BitDefender Firewall, on the Network tab, change the VMWare Network Adapters to Trusted Local and Stealth Mode Remote. Since these are virtual network cards on your system, then you know that they are safe, so you should set them accordingly.

In the end, you can change the Trust Level of your main network adapter to Trusted local. But, as I said, in case that system is a system that you move from one network to another, especially if another network is not behind a router (or the network behind that router is not safe), keep it set to Unsafe.

Let me know how it goes.

Cris.

One more thing (you probably skipped it in my previous post): also change the Stealth Mode from the main network adapter to Remote (or to ON, if you don't have problems with this setting).

As far as VMWare and NAT goes, I don't know what it might be wrong. In theory, BitDefender shouldn't filter such things. I'm not using VMWare, but I'm constantly using VirtualBox and I also used a lot time Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (before I upgraded to Windows Seven, with which MS VPC isn't compatible). Both of these software work just fine both on Bridged connections and on NAT connections. So it's either something wrong in VMWare's settings, either there's somekind of incompatibility between BitDefender and the way VMWare implements NAT.

Cris.

Thank you for your feedback. I will try to talk to someone about this matter, to see if I can get some additional information.

Because you are behind a router, having Stealth Mode disabled should mean that you are relatively safe, so you shouldn't worry about any possible problems.

Cris.

Hi,

Please try the following:

-If you are using NAT, try to enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in the Advanced Settings dialog.

-If you are using Bridged adapters, disable stealth mode on the VMWare adapters and set stealth mode to Remote on your public adapter.