Kerio Question

I've been using this free firewall for about a year now. When I put it on my new computer over a year ago I just let it happily do it's thing. One day it was telling me it needed something. I figured it was time to upgrade it. I did. I like the new format and they way it looks for updates on its own and blocks adds for me. What I didn't realize was that it was a limited 30 day free edition. My time in now up. Reading the rules about it, I think I can still use it, but there are a few things that it WON'T do any more. My question to you is, do I really need these things that say won't work on my free edition? Here is what they said:

Free (unregistered) editions are limited by the following restrictions:

It is available for personal and/or noncommercial use only.

Web content filtering, including its logs and statistics, is not available (see chapter Web Content Filtering).

It cannot be used at Internet Gateways (refer to chapter Preferences)

Logs cannot be sent to Syslog server (details in chapter Log Options).

Configuration cannot be protected by a password and it is not possible to access and administer the firewall remotely.


WEB FILTERING has to do with the ad blocking. Guess I don't really need that. My google is doing a good job on that.

INTERNET GATEWAYS - I don't network. This is about that, right?

LOGS - Do I really need to send out logs?

PASSWORD - No biggie. Don't need that feature.

I really like this program, but wonder if I should buy the full version, look for something else, or just let my ISP charge me $8 more for firewall protection as well as spam blocker, virus checker and ad blocker. I have all these other areas covered already, but just wonder if I should just let them do it just for the firewall protection.

NEED SOME GOOD FEEDBACK HERE!!!

Thanks.

 

What it will no longer do, you do not need.

So - keep the free version you have now and it will do nicely.

 

Aw c'mon Pete, be a pioneer and be the first to rely on it and give us the reports.

 

Awesome! This is exactly what I thought, but just wanted it confirmed by the experts here. Now, will I still get version updates?

I didn't realize that SP2 will have a better firewall. If it does, then may just go with that one. But, thinking I'll wait until PeteC tests it for us.

Thanks again.

 

Panda - the firewall that comes with XP SP2 may or may not be better for you (or for any user) depending on what you need.

The outstanding features from what we saw at the MVP summit and from what I read are
- stateful packet inspection (not unique since many good firewalls do it) and a nice description from Here

The XP version allows you to enter the name of apps you have that may need outside connection (internet games you host for instance) and when the app is open, so are it's ports. Close the app and the ports slam shut.

- if you have a home network, it is a doodle to set up for all your local/internal PCs to talk to each other.

Some folks don't like the fact that it does not check packets leaving the PC. OTOH, if you have packets trying to leave w/o your knowing, you are infected so .....

 

All those things disabled after the free trial is over is why I kept Kerio 2.1.5. It doesn't have web filtering, but the rest are there.

 

One more question:

Why isn't Kerio loading up when I turn my computer on in the mornings? It used to until I upgraded it to the latest version. My settings say to load on startup, but it won't. I have to physically click the icon to make it run. My poor finger gets a workout every morning. LOL.

 

Sorry....Just wanted to bump this back up. I still need an answer on this last question......If anyone has one.....

Thanks!!

 

Thanks, Pete. Will give that a try and see what happens. Just thought it was weird that it stopped loading after the last upgrade.

WOW!!!!! LOVE THIS NEW LAYOUT!!!!