Free Firewall to prevent IP-leaking when Relakks crashes?

Hello there and greetings to Sweden!



It seems that Relakks disconnects sometimes, revealing your true IP address while running p2p applications, which spoils the concept of anonymity and worries a lot of users. As I can see some guys have already written little programs that ping the Relakks servers every 500 ms and shut down your p2p applications in case Relakks has crashed, but they are quite buggy and even during those 500 ms your true IP can also be revealed.



Hasn't there been found an elegant solution to the problem yet?

Isn't there a free software Firewall you can install and configure some rules like:



"don't allow eMule to use my regular internet connection"

"allow eMule to use the VPN connection only"



The Relakks FAQ mentions a "trusted zone" that you have to configure if you are using Relakks with Zonealarm Personal Firewall and according to the FAQ you have to install a software Firewall anyway, since the VPN will tunnel your router's hardware firewall.



Best Wishes

You answered your own question, the way to do it is pretty much as you described .

Any decent firewall should allow something like that .

Also, some p2p-apps allow you to bind to a specified IP/NIC, however this is sometimes buggy so you still

need to make rules in your firewall that prevents your p2p-apps from using your "real" NIC .

Personally I use Comodo v2.4 .. very good free firewall, in fact it may be to good for the non-technical users.

[NoName111]

Thanks for your reply. I also ended up using Comodo v2.4 on my Windows 2000 machine, but to set it up the way that only VPN traffic is allowed is pretty complicated with v2.4 and I haven’t found a way to force only certain (and not all) applications to use the VPN tunnel, since the application rules of v2.4 lack the “Source IP” tab only v3 has.



Anyway, for all Relakks/IPREDator users who are scared of disconnects here’s a little Tutorial for Comodo v4 to force a specific application to exclusively use the Relakks/IPREDator VPN connection:



1. Go to http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html and download and install Comodo Personal Firewall version 4.
(You only need the firewall part, the new Anti-Virus and Proactive-Security stuff included in the package is not necessary.)


2. In the Firewall’s “Advanced” section open the “Network Security Policy” window, change to the “My Network Zones” tab, add a new network zone, call it “Relakks” and define it as “a range of IP addresses” where you put in the address range of Relakks (93.182.128.0 - 93.182.191.255).

(My Network Zones => Add => A New Network Zone => Name: Relakks; Select “Relakks” => Add => A New Address => A range of IP addresses: 93.182.128.0 - 93.182.191.255)


3. Then choose the specific application you want to force to exclusively use Relakks in the Firewall's “Network Security Policy’s” “Application Rules” tab, remove all old rules which are assigned to this application and add three new rules:

First right-click and add this rule:
Action: Allow; Protocol: IP; Direction: In; Source Address: Any; Destination Address: Zone: “Relakks”; Protocol: Any;

Second add this rule below the first one:
Action: Allow; Protocol: IP; Direction: Out; Source Address: Zone: “Relakks”; Destination Address: Any; Protocol: Any;

Third add this rule below the second one:
Action: Block; Protocol: IP; Direction: In/Out; Source Address: Any; Destination Address: Any; Protocol: Any;

Note: The order in which the rules are placed upon another is important!!


So, there should now be three rules (and only these three) listed below your application:

Application name (for example “Firefox”)
Top: Allow IP In From IP Any To In [Relakks] Where Protocol Is Any
Middle: Allow IP Out From In [Relakks] To IP Any Where Protocol Is Any
Bottom: Block IP In/Out From IP Any To IP Any Where Protocol Is Any


Note: The “Allow IP In/Out ... Where Protocol Is Any” settings will allow your application to establish any kind of connection. You can limit those rules to specific ports/protocols in case you want to tighten up you security additionally.

If you got connection problems, make sure you haven't configured any global rule that's blocking your connections.


EDIT: Updated Relakks IP-Range
EDIT 2: Ported tutorial from Comodo v3 to Comodo v4

try vpnetmon, you don't have to set up complicated firewall rules. it just closes your programs if the vpn is down. just google for "vpnetmon". it's not a perfect solution but far more easy to use than to set up that complicated firewall rules.

[Kurnaz]

You real IP might be unhidden with Vpnetmon or whatever for several seconds! But you don't have to become an expert in firewall programming...



And it logs disconnect times in a small window.

Kurnaz (2008-Jan-04)You real IP might be unhidden with Vpnetmon or whatever for several seconds! But you don't have to become an expert in firewall programming...



And it logs disconnect times in a small window.

It's just setting up a few rules. I wouldn't call this "to become an expert in firewall programming".

But your right, this "VPNetMon" and other relakks-connection-watch tools aren't reliable and can't guarantee that data packets aren't send with your regular IP in case relakks crashes and Windows switches to your regular internet connection. Using a firewall is the only proper solution to prevent IP-leaking! (You need a software firewall anyway if you use relakks, since the VPN will tunnel your router's hardware firewall.)



Oh - and activate Window's "redial in case the connection is lost" feature for your relakks-connection (also use "remember password", "wait 10 seconds between redials" and "redial up to 999 times").

Then relakks will run without any problems for day and night!

Tip!



I was force to restart my computer before the new firewall ruls was applied!

Does anyone know how to configure Outpost firewall to stop a p2p program when Relakks is disconnected unexpectedly?

dont get the comodo method to work, however the adress i get from relakks does not start with 83. What should i do`?

I use relakks and mine did not start with 83 but instead uses 93. I used the following ip range in comodo after observing the different ip numbers relakks assigned me: 93.182.130.0 - 93.182.190.255. Note that this range is a little on the safe side but works for me.