Fort Firewall

Fort is a simple firewall for Windows 7+.

Features

• Filter by network addresses, application groups
• Filter by SvcHost.exe service names
• Support wildcards in program path names
• Application group speed limits
• Blocklists via "Zones"
• Stores traffic statistics
• Graphical display of bandwidth
• Has own kernel driver, based on Windows Filtering Platform (WFP)

Supported OS versions

Asset	OS	Version	Architectures	Description
*-windows-x86.*	Windows	7 SP1 and later	x86, x64	32/64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11
*-windows-x86.*	Windows	10 and later	ARM64	ARM64 Windows 10, 11
*-windows10-x86_64.*	Windows	10 2004 and later	x64	64-bit Windows 10 2004-21H2, 11

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Restrictions

"Apply same rules to child processes" option

The "Apply same rules to child processes" option affects only new processes.

Fort Firewall checks the whole tree of parent processes at first attempt of any (child) process to connect. So the parent process with the checked "Apply same rules to child processes" option should be alive, when (child) process connects to Internet.

FAQ

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit fails to install not digitally signed drivers

See "SHA-2 Code Signing Support for Windows 7".

Fort Firewall's 32-bit version fails to install due a missing "msvcp*.dll" or "api-ms-*.dll"

Install the latest Visual C++ x86 (32-bit!) redistributable.

What the difference is between "Internet Addresses" and "Allowed Internet Addresses" on the IPV4 Addresses tab?

1. All FW rules act on "Internet Addresses" only. LAN addresses are immediately allowed by FW and not checked by app groups or speed limiter.

For example here you can describe Internet addresses as:

• "Include All" addresses,
• but exclude 127.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16.

2. "Allowed Internet Addresses" may be used for example:

• to block only some addresses:
  • "Include All" addresses,
  • but exclude facebook.com: "31.13.72.36".
• to allow only some addresses:
  • "Exclude All" addresses,
  • but include wikipedia.com: "91.198.174.192".

Do the App rules take precedence over the Allowed Internet rules?

Filtering steps:

1. If address is 127.* or 255.255.255.255 and "Filter Local Addresses" is turned off, then PERMIT
2. If "Filter Enabled" is turned off, then PERMIT
3. If "Stop Traffic" is turned on, then BLOCK
4. If address is not from "Internet Addresses", then PERMIT
5. If "Stop Internet Traffic" is turned on, then BLOCK
6. If address is not from "Allowed Internet Addresses", then BLOCK
7. If app path is allowed, then PERMIT
8. BLOCK or PERMIT due to default App Groups settings (Block/Allow All)

What does the "Make trackable" button do in Services?

It modifies the selected Service's settings in the registry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<SERVICE-NAME>":

• changes the "Type" value to "16" (Own Process),
• adds "-s <SERVICE-NAME>" argument to "ImagePath" value,
• stores old "Type" & "ImagePath" values into "_Fort*" values.

For the new values to take effect, you must restart the changed services or restart the computer.

(Some services already run with "-s <SERVICE-NAME>" argument by SvcHost.exe, so it's not necessary to explicitly make them trackable.)

Code Quality Monitor

-- Nodir Temirkhodjaev, nodir.temir@gmail.com