Peer Guardian question

[CNF666]

Newb here. Have a question for those who have peer guardian. Is there really a difference beteween them and if so, which one would you guys/gals recommend?
Any help would be much appreciated(sp?) thanx.

[_Sin_]

Since the football game is finished now, I should answer your question

Originally Posted by CNF666

Newb here. Have a question for those who have peer guardian. Is there really a difference beteween them and if so, which one would you guys/gals recommend?
Any help would be much appreciated(sp?) thanx.

Difference between what? Between using Peerguardian and not using it? If it's that, then I'd say that Peerguardian will nowhere provide you with 100% protection. It does, however, offer protection whenever some blacklisted company wants to connect to you thorugh a p2p program which does not happen all that often, but it has happened and will happen in the future as well (Note that you won't be able to block camouflaged company IPs (companies using plain normal IPs like you or me)). Bottom line: Use it if you want, it has no disadvantages I know of and offers at least some protection. As to which program to use, I'd recommend to not use the PeerGuardian standalone program, but The Blocklist Manager which downloads blocklists at program start which can be converted to popular p2p filesharing blocklist files (i.e. eMule, Shareaza and others) and popular Firewalls like ZoneAlarm and others. Programs that are not supported by the program itself, might be supported by the more recent Online Block List Converter. Both porgrams are pretty straightforward so I'll skip the instructions on how to use them ^_^
The advantage is that you don't have another process running in the background using up precious system resource or even causing program conflicts.

Note that some BT clients offer a built-in PeerGuardian protection through plugins, for instance Azureus but many others as well. Refer to the link in my signature for instructions on how to setup Azureus, if you want to give it a try, that is.
Sidenote: Since the tracker will always see your IP, regardless of which you are using PeerGuardian or not, the protection with PeerGuardian is even lower than with "normal" p2p programs.

Wow, now that's an exhausting answer, I surprise myself more often than I want me to

Oh, and stay away from warez; they are evil and it's rumoured that they bite the n00bs

[Superchop]

*reads _Sin_'s post* Hmm...i thought he was talking about the different versions but even if he's not...i'll answer the question

right now i'm running version 1.99 pr14 and if i remember correctly this is one of the more stable ones...the older ones before this used up too much resources including cpu usage (although i can't remember if it did or not all to well since i updated to the current version i have only a few days after) and the newer version after this one is an experimental version that they released for reasons i forgot and should only be used if you really want to

[_Sin_]

Originally Posted by Superchop

*reads _Sin_'s post* Hmm...i thought he was talking about the different versions but even if he's not...i'll answer the question

right now i'm running version 1.99 pr14 and if i remember correctly this is one of the more stable ones...the older ones before this used up too much resources including cpu usage (although i can't remember if it did or not all to well since i updated to the current version i have only a few days after) and the newer version after this one is an experimental version that they released for reasons i forgot and should only be used if you really want to

Well, I wasn't sure what he meant with "Is there really a difference beteween them" (them being what?)

Plus I thought I avoided that issue - gracefully I might add - by telling him to use The Blocklist Manager

[Doppelganger]

Originally Posted by Superchop

*reads _Sin_'s post* Hmm...i thought he was talking about the different versions but even if he's not...i'll answer the question

right now i'm running version 1.99 pr14 and if i remember correctly this is one of the more stable ones...the older ones before this used up too much resources including cpu usage (although i can't remember if it did or not all to well since i updated to the current version i have only a few days after) and the newer version after this one is an experimental version that they released for reasons i forgot and should only be used if you really want to

If you are using windows, I know just the thing:
Protowall. Protowall actually consists of two parts, a kernel level driver and an application level interface. It accepts input from the blocklist manager, and is auto-updating. Because the driver runs at the kernel level, it is very fast.("because it's a driver running at the kernel level" is actually pretty redundant, come to think of it ) It can handle hundreds of connections while using minimal CPU and RAM resources. Downside: something in kernel space, when it crashes, is somewhat catastrophic. I have not had an issue with protowall, but this is the price for speed. Another driver just means another driver that could crash.

http://bluetack.co.uk/pw.html (their site is down at this very moment however) if you are interested.

However I wouldn't recommend any sort of blocklists if you are using Bittorrent: they are all but entirely useless.

[CNF666]

Thanx for the replies. I read your Azureus guide Sin, so I am going to give that a shot. Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but I'm used to downloading things on my cousins PC (the one who told me about the PG program in the first place) and not giving a rat's ass about what happens since he can usually fix it. Anyways, thanks for the help guys or gals.

[CNF666]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

If you are using windows, I know just the thing:
Protowall. Protowall actually consists of two parts, a kernel level driver and an application level interface. It accepts input from the blocklist manager, and is auto-updating. Because the driver runs at the kernel level, it is very fast.("because it's a driver running at the kernel level" is actually pretty redundant, come to think of it ) It can handle hundreds of connections while using minimal CPU and RAM resources. Downside: something in kernel space, when it crashes, is somewhat catastrophic. I have not had an issue with protowall, but this is the price for speed. Another driver just means another driver that could crash.

http://bluetack.co.uk/pw.html (their site is down at this very moment however) if you are interested.

However I wouldn't recommend any sort of blocklists if you are using Bittorrent: they are all but entirely useless.

Cool, just saw this post after I did my post. Thanx.

[CNF666]

BTW your right Superchop I was wondering about the different versions.

[Superchop]

Originally Posted by CNF666

BTW your right Superchop I was wondering about the different versions.

Superchop - 1
_Sin_ - 1...2......3...4..5...6....umm....never mind

but if you want a more detailed answer for version difference i suggest you look through their forum...you should find the link under "Help" pull down menu

[_Sin_]

I still fail to see the advantage of another process running in the background, but it's your choice

[CNF666]

I posted a question in your Azureus guide since I decided on that one, but more newbish questions follow.

[_Sin_]

Originally Posted by CNF666

I posted a question in your Azureus guide since I decided on that one, but more newbish questions follow.

I just logged on and answered it.

[Doppelganger]

Originally Posted by _Sin_

I still fail to see the advantage of another process running in the background, but it's your choice

Actually, if you are running something like Protowall, there is a large advantage in terms of speed: kernel level driver. Plus you don't have to run a blocklist for every P2P application, if you're paranoid, so there's a convenience factor. It's pretty small in memory, too, at least compared to the rather behemoth sized Azureus at times.