Looks like a Chinese copy of Partition Magic.

FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY........You can rename mfc80.dll, mfc80u.dll, mfcm80.dll, mfcmu80.dll, msvcm80.dll, and msvcp80.dll

Example msvcm80.dll

Run the executable and verify it runs OK.

To remove rge popup window, you cam use Reshacker to delete dialog 885. You need to delete pa-gotd.html two times for it to disappear

Unfortunately, the program isn't compatible on Windows XP Home SP3 German with Magnifier (german: Bildschirmlupe) (Magnify.exe) (Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> Accessibility) (if path not correctly translated, german: Start->Alle Programme->Zubehör->Eingabehilfen) for visually impaired users. If the firewall will start crashes both programs. The manufacturer should urgently repair this program to make it really Windows compatible.

Ay, ay, ay, yet another Old VB app. The old VB runtimes are incredibly inefficient, and more than likely insecure. Better to write C/C++ programs that's actually portable across systems and platforms.

The installer installs a shared DLL (COMCTL32.OCX), which clearly is not a portable app practice.

(BTW, where do people even buy the old versions of VB? I'm guessing the only versions you can get these days are the .NET versions.)

Thanks, i'll try it!

Honestly I don't approve degrading the software products especially from people who have not tried it. My advice to you would be TRY IT and if you don't like it then delete it. You might be very impressed with this product if you know what you are doing and ALWAYS respect the effort of developers who want to give something for free. If you want to criticize then do a constructive critics and don't show your personal frustrations for something that others don't deserve.
Respect to GOTD and all small independent developers!

Glen #44
Certainly 10 years ago VB was deemed one of the most difficult languages to hack, in fact considered impossible by some of the best hackers.

On reading the programs web site, they appear be offering protection under certain conditions not as a substitute for normal protection, possibly better than nothing.

Few cons with this one:
~Not truly a portable program
~On list refresh it jumps the viewport to the top of the list, even when you are trying to view something somewhere else in the list
~Some of the menus are not responsive - you have to click in a certain spot for them to actually register the click event [open]
~Needs to have a config file [.ini] for a list of programs that are trusted, so that every time someone opens the program they dont have to re-trust the same apps over and over again

Sorry but I'm uninstalling this one - it would've been nice on my older pc, but if it's hard to navigate, it's not useful. Sorry.

-Robert
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP1
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1GHz
Patriot Memory 8GB DDR2 @ 400MHz
-
Windows XP Professional x86 SP3
Mobile Intel Pentium IV @ 1.7GHz
256 MB DDR @ 100MHz

Thanks Sterjo and GAOTD , I'm going to give this a try despite all of the negative comments and give the Software a chance to speak for itself .

Not too easy to decide the usefulness of this tool. One face is:

+ nice to have it allmost fully portable
+ enough for most occasionally session on foreign computers (to be maintained)
+ very(!) small
+ easily shows up some useful information

BUT the other face:

- Did no one realize(?!), that this firewall can EASILY be kicked out of memory? - even the windows taskmanager can do!
(this means, you might not even realize when this watchdog has fallen asleep - which might be more dangerous than having no firewall...)
- very litte configurable
- is often NOT able to terminate processes whilst showing up and offering to do so...

This is not the protection I would trust and would like to have.

Aanyway: for now I will keep it and decide later.

Win Xp SP 3.

Installed ok . Passed grc.com shields up test with flying colours, full stealth.

I have tried lots of other firewalls in the past. Years ago I used to swear by Zone Alarm , then they upgraded it one day and it was nothing but trouble. Tried Comodo and that was just as bad.

What you need is something that is not bloated , that just does the job and asks you when something requires permission. So far Sterjo ticks all the boxes , I would recommend downloading it now and well worth trying it out.

I suggest Sterjo install a feed back button or suggestion box within the prog itself .

XP SP3
v2.8

CHM Help file

program is essentially one file, 700 KB, plus a couple "rules" files

as noted, requires COMCTL32.OCX, included if missing, & gets copied
into /windows/system32/

had to create a rule for cZ (chatzilla)
had to create a rule for LAN

on initial startup i'm told of two processes that want internet
access. my only option is to Trust *BOTH* or to Kill? why not
allow me to Trust one & not the other?

TRUSTED various apps: SeaMonkey, FF, Salamander (FTP)

*assume* it is better (more feedback) compared to Windows Firewall,
but the biggest issue I see is that it is up to me to know when i
should be creating a rule & how to create a rule

like it blocked some sort of NETBIOS service, like what is that &
what is it for, & ??? do i need it, not need it ??? it's presenting
raw data that many times i may not know what to do with?

Log, should have lookup functions

does a simple address accept wildcards?
like, 192.168.1.* so that i can allow my LAN?
no, i don't think so?

appears that some MICROSOFT_DS service will also be need for my LAN?

so here we are, a program that is likely to be too "raw" for most,
not enough information given for a user to make an intelligent
decision? too much for an average user to learn in order for them to
make an intelligent decision.

are there some pointers, FAQ somewhere (on the SterJo website)?

perhaps this could be used to augment another firewall (like Windows
Firewall), with this set up is a blacklist mode? but then a blacklist
is just what you do NOT want to be using. a whitelist is what you
want, but without study, not going to be easy enough for the average
user.

to 3 'comment by Paul' – heard this one before and I have to say, I don’t quite understand what you are saying. If a product is bad, how can we leave ‘positive’ feedbacks?. If you want ‘positive’ feedbacks, how will it help the vendor developing better products? Don't understand me wrong, I appreciate the free offering, but it doesn't mean I have to bow to each one. Maybe I have mistaken the purpose of this site, the site is called ‘Giveaway of the Day’ in my book it means just that, if the purpose of the site is to let vendors have input into their products, there are many such sites, call it ‘User experience Forum’. Currently it gives plenty of new users to vendors. If the product is good, than each of us is a potential future customer (I have purchased 3 applications upgrades during the last year). If the product is bad, if there are better alternative and for free, Users voice should be heard, (especially negative feedbacks). This is the only thing that will force vendors to improvement. Peace

When did "constructive" cease to mean "helpful" and come to mean "positive"?

"This costs too much" helps the developer improve his product.

How does "Thanks for the great program" help him?

FYI, Comodo's firewall is currently rated by Windows' Secrets as the best free firewall available. I've used it for years and had no problems with it.

I have no need for another software firewall at this time, but thanks to GAOTD for offering one to those who need it.

#52, Carl LaFong, how do businesses exist? They make enough money to turn a profit, or they disappear. Have you actually bought anything offered here? If not, then you are just a freeloader. I've bought some offerings, I've bought competitive products based on recommendations here. I find that people who actually support developers are consistently voted down. Incidentally, I just needed to recover nearly a terabyte of data which Windows Media Center decided to delete for no good reason (after it deleted and overwrote a bunch of other files). Recuva currently has some bug which makes it incompatible with the drive in question (I also tried an earlier version). Recuva has also begun charging, although you can still use free versions. It was far too much data to risk using questionable software, so I bought some software from a developer whose products I know to be good quality, and not willing to spend much, a compromise on price and features (I tried the demo version first). Actually, I buy a fair amount of software, it's rare to find high-quality products here precisely because GOTD users are so rarely willing to purchase anything.

#49, VorteX: first time I have ever heard STEALTH used to refer to something other than rootkit protected malware or a fully invisible firewalled Internet connection.

Portable means it includes ALL of its dependancies that are not pre-installed on target OS's by default e.g. the correct version of visual basic runtimes in its OWN folder, never written to the System32 folder since it's not windows Side by Side system aware, plus any OCX files hosted in its own directory and called directly and not by registering them into the systems COM server heirachy... and they should store ALL their settings in an INI file of their own in their own folder and not in the systems registry, unless they have a portable app shell that knows the regstry entry the portable app makes and backs up any pre-existing values and restores original state after the portable app terminates. That shell could backup the sessions registry settings in the portable apps folders to allow the settings to survive from one machine to another.

The term STEALTH simply does not apply for a portable application that cleans up after itself as the portable application does not hide itself while running as STEALTH implies, it just leaves no mess behind after it's gone, more Neat and Tidy not Stealthy IMHO.

This program should have been statically linked rather than dynamically linked requiring specific DLL's and OCX's not present on most modern (read 21st Centurary) computers unless some other developer installed them previously.

I already have a firewall that I am satisfied with but the Sterjo Keyfinder listed above these comments is fnatastic. To bad it doesn't work on all programs

#27, rg: You said "I’ve even bought a license now, for $1.99 it’s well worth it to be able to reinstall it later. Thanks Sterjo."

Um it claims to be portable... What's to re-install later, just backup the instalation folder and restore from that in the future save yourself $1.99 LOL

@ fubar post #44:

While your posts are generally very helful and informative, your ocassional insults are distracting and unnecessary.

"...you could quit being a worthless freeloader and actually support a developer..."

Many developers voluntarily offer free versions of their programs to provide quick and easy exposure to their offerings to a larger population, and to receive (hopefully) constructive input, and to incentivise users to upgrade, among other reasons.

To refer to those that utilize such voluntarily offered free versions as "...worthless freeloaders..." devalues your otherwise informative postings.

@ The_Mick #37

Simple answer, The_Mick, comodo and other great appys exist ONLY because developers are constantly putting out new mousetraps. If something works why try another attempt to produce a better mousetrap? Because that is called "Innovation" and means, eventually, better.

Pause a moment, if you will, why invent a different light bulb? The one that exists is great and does the job perfectly....hmmm... then we wouldn't have or need compact fluros...great for reducing greenhouse gases, or the increasingly available LED bulbs.

Now focusing on the offer today, maybe they haven't got it just right yet, but I will take it and if I can really buy it for 1.99 I will (can't see that offer in the promo anywhere so I assume that the offer is made after dl'ing and installing.

Hell why not, you can't even buy a cheeseburger for that anymore.

Think positive - and as someone here more notorious that me often says "peace" ;

I've seen some comments and sorry I have to give more brief description. People this is a portable software and the main use is when it's needed to log in from someone else PC where you are not allow to install anything. Before using your sensitive data, run the software to check the suspicious processes and monitor if any trojan/spyware might try to connect to remote host and steal your information when you open a browser for example. Make a good examination of all connections and if you believe the system is clean then log with your details, if not just close those unknown processes/trojan/spyware or just block their connection with the port or ip address. How simple that can be?!

I think some of you are confusing terms... this software is PORTABLE, not STEALTH.

Portable: Can be run from an external thumbdrive/directory without needing to be installed into the computer first.

Stealth: Leaves no traces on the host computer, such as directories being written in the users profile directories or leaving entries into the computer's registry.

to 3Paul - You're an educator, so you should appreciate that about the only time learning happens in a human brain is when it encounters disequilibrium. "Good dog" only works on dogs. Criticisms of the programs offered here are the ONLY help they will get. Tell me how "OH I love your program" helps them to improve it? While a "you used the wrong version of VB" WILL help.
To authors: I admire anyone who tries to develop software in any already-glutted area of software, I just cannot see the logic in it; I would suggest they focus their programming skills in areas not already over-stocked. So far the MS built-in security alone in WIN7 has offered perfect protection - I peek at it every so often with several programs - so with that, plus all the free firewalls, plus all the famous paid ones, I cannot see the value in trying to market a program like this. My feedback would be sell it or retire it. Also you can consider the impression your GOTD "offer" will leave potential users with - show them old/marginal/common software and what do you think they will assume the rest of your programs are? Offer them a really powerful gem, and suddenly you are a "gem" of a company. First impressions are life/death on the Internet because there is so much of everything, if you bump into even the tiniest objection from a potential customer, you can lose them, and forever. If this is your best, where can you go with it, in such a saturated market? Small is good, but small and common will not be viewed with much marketable return.

@ Giovanni post #20

I disagree.

A firewall is NOT responsible for malware already present.
Its duty main is to stop malware from entering once the system connects to the Internet.

It is only a secondary duty that is accepted by many, but shirked by Microsoft, to block keyloggers etc from phoning home.

I would love to see DP Animation re-offered..got a new computer, but will not allow me to save and put on this one. I loved this little program.

This software can never stop any hacks or breaches, because is running on the top of all previously loaded programs and can never see any connections already running.
It is pointless using VB as core for hack avoidance, since most of the hacks are hidden in assembly language, HTTP secondary calls, viruses, JavaScripts and so on.
This software is not aware of any other means to look for hacks but the pre programmed HTTP addresses. Any rouge HTTPS can bypass this software with ease.
Uninstalled.

I'm concerned from the comments so far (40 as I write this) that people will think that SterJo Portable Firewall Pro actually provides security, when it doesn't. In newer versions of Windows, Windows Firewall is much more sophisticated, and it doesn't even rate in the matousec Proactive Security Challenge. Sterjo has rules per protocol/address/port, but not by direction, and by far most importantly, not per application. If you're using 64-bit Windows, only 2 utilities pass matousec, Comodo and Agnitum Outpost. Free versions are available for both, but Outpost is up to 7.5 while the free version is only 7.1 (of course, you could quit being a worthless freeloader and actually support a developer). Comodo offers support for only $5 per year. "But, if we provide worthless comments, the developer might turn this into something useful someday!" R-i-g-h-t. While you can't always compare code sizes, in this case you can. After removing the GOTD wrapper, SterJo will be less than a megabyte. Outpost Security Suite is 126 MB, and while some very small portion of that will be language files, most of it is solid code, not different versions or ISO files like some products.

The "non-existent" vote manipulator will vote this comment down all day. "I'm Mr. Super-Genius and it would take a quantum physicist to manipulate GOTD votes." If you can't figure out a half-dozen ways to do it super easily, then you don't know anything about the Internet. Not obsessed with me? Our resident psychopath went totally bonkers when I posted comments during the Genie Timeline giveaway. This has been going on for nearly a year, and I've warned and warned and warned GOTD that if they don't get the voting under control, I'll do it myself.

A firewall needs to be something you can set and forget, i.e. that you can depend on to keep out intruders without messing up the programs you are trying to run on your computer. It appears from some of the above comments that this software fails the test and thus cannot be trusted. I'm not about to run it myself and risk the sort of problems described above, so all I can say is use it at your own risk. It seems apparent that the developer still has some heavy lifting to do on this particular piece of bits and bytes, so at the risk of repeating myself, I recommend against turning it loose on any computer that you cannot afford to have messed up, a/k/a a "production" computer. Maybe some brave souls with "test" computers will evaluate future versions.

"Run-time error 13′. Type mismatch" is a programming error.
It typically means you are using a numerical set of characters where an alpha should be, or the reverse. Meaning you used the wrong format.

Hopefully the developers will see those comments and be able to re-write some of the code to resolve it, if they realize the criteria that creates it. But that would usually mean a patch or the release of a new version. Seems it doesn't happen in every case though, from what we see here in the comments.

Eventually we all may.

I wouldn't use SterJo as my only line of defence. I also have a Network Router which is plenty good enough - so I haven't got stuff from outside coming into my network (uninvited), as the router works as a proper hardware firewall. So effectively everything on the inner side of my network (this side of the router) is clear from outside attacks (The modem/router blocks stuff). What I don't have is a quick and simple ad-hoc firewall I can run on my PC when testing new software that can block outgoing traffic from affecting other PCs on my network - or from reaching the internet.

When I'm finished - I can just close the firewall and remove the USB stick - and my PC is clean (apart from a few harmless registry keys). I can create multiple policy files and just change between them - and when I'm finished their impact on my pc is zero.

I don't have to worry about installing some large and more intrusive firewall that will remain on my PC after I'm finished.

As an adhoc (and convenient) firewall - I think SterJo will be handy to keep on my USB.

Thanks GOTD & SterJo.

@Paul,

This is the real world. If someone can't handle negative criticism they shouldn't be in business. If a company doesn't know what's wrong with a program they can't fix it. And many companies use GAotD to find out why their program isn't selling. Of course just being negative without giving cause doesn't do much good, but it's just as useless to be positive without reason. And those who have the biggest success are those who can deal with failure.

The two biggest ones I find tend to be a selling price that's way too high and programs that "re-invent the wheel" or produce something that's completely redundant. Often there's freeware that does the same thing or more. If someone wants to sell the software they have to do better than what someone can get for free.

And the criticism over price has nothing to do with how much someone paid to get it here but how much the market is willing to bear. Maybe the program isn't selling because the price is too high. In this case the program does something that Windows already offers (although a Windows update may be necessary) so it needs to do better than what Windows offers. There are also other free firewall programs available.

---

This program gives a bare-bones to displaying connections, similar to the display of Windows task manager. This makes it easier to find whatever programs could be causing trouble. Although it doesn't seem to show the activity level of a connection, thus it doesn't seem useful in determining what program might be hogging bandwidth. It appears to display both internal (things like TV cards) and external port activity.

Since this is a "portable" program I'm assuming it's really meant more for laptops and notepads. It also seems to be a bit less demanding on the system than other firewalls. It's one of those programs that takes time to fully assess but I'll probably keep it around for a while.

I was always told that you can't use more than one firewall. Has this changed? Why do I need this?

The program is very lightweight, fairly user friendly, provides (most) of the data I need, and seems to work very well out of the box. Since I use a router and an av, I don't really have a need for an extensive firewall so this works nicely. Once again, thanks GAOTD!

one more comment about the tone here: (If you haven't figured it out by now), MOSTLY you should ignore the comments here when deciding to try an offering. Make up your own mind.

Thanks for the offer, but I can't imagine why this offer would be used when the world's top-rated firewall, Comodo, is free.

This post contains a 'heads up' for the developer.

Regarding the MSVBVM60.DLL problem mentioned by post 6
That is (I believe) the VB6 runtime (for SP6)
The developer should be an 'old woman' like me, and try to keep things simple, and also avoid installation problems.

MS has pre-loaded the VB6 runtime into every version of Windows since Win 98 SE (Though I am unsure about Windows 8)
What the developer should have done is stuck with VB6 SP5 on his development machine, as that is the version of the VB6 runtime that MS pre-loads for everybody.

If he had done that, Post 6 would not have had a problem

Yea, Norton says that Brothersoft.com is a known malicious site, but some other software report the same thing. Do not know if it is or not but apparently once something gets out there it is parroted forever.

spent several minutes trying to find the answer on their site and here but to no avail... Does this firewall employ stateful packet inspection (SPI) to prevent the policy rules being abused to allow leaks? Only the very earliest generations of firewalls failed to include SPI, without it one can fool the firewall into thinking an outgoing connection happened using a specially crafted inbound SYN_ACK packet which matched an outbound activity policy rule and the non-SPI firewall would then allow the resumption of connection attempts from the end-points. If the app is malicious and able to it can then act as a server even though the policy permits outbound connections only.

With SPI the firewall knows no SYN packet went out from local end-point port to the remote end-point port so drops any inbound packets relating to a conection that has no pre-existing outbound state as it does not exist yet.

I didn't work for me. I installed it and it opened fine. I created a rule to allow traffic from a specific IP on all ports and made sure it was enabled and set to accept. Traffic continued to be filtered. I closed and reopened the app but it still filtered from that IP. POS.

By the time I made it to the 6th post, I decided not to download and install this software. I'm happy with my windows/nortons settings. Running Gibsons Research SheildsUp https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2, I'm good.

When starting this it didn't close existing connections by for example firefox as this fitted one of the pre-approved categories which are HTTP, Secure HTTP, Windows Live Messenger, Incoming and Outgoing Mail and FTP. Giovanni makes a good point about boot time but the only time you would use a portable firewall would be on a computer that was NOT your own to install what you liked on. It would be an added measure for your own protection and not to protect the machine you were using. You probably wouldn't be worried if it left registry entries on a public machine but would need to leak test it to see how well it did the job. For home use Giovanni's choice Comodo or Online Armour are good and free.

Installed w/o problems on an external usb hdd attached to a Samsung notebook (1Gig mem, Win7 32bit starter Ed). At once it presented a tabbed list of configurable (allowed/blocked) connections. I assume this information was obtained from windows firewall rules; thus i did not have to bother with setting it up-this was the best part! it asked before blocking/ allowing new connections. It worked alongside SecurityKiss, a previous GOTD offer. Some portable apps will leave a registry traces-such as the HKCU:Run value some portable apps leave behind when the user chooses to have their portable app "start with windows". you DO Want the app to start with windows and BEFORE other programs that would connect to the web on star-tup. Except for Antivirus apps,these autorun apps,ie. browser,should be placed on Delayed Start by using the start>Admin_Tool>Services. Tkz for this gem of a program!

#6 & #8 - Theo Faraday

I have Windows XP, I'm admin on my system and it doesn't work for me. When I try to kill the process: "Run-time error ’13′. Type mismatch.". I'm disappointed because I was interested in portable firewall and thought that SterJo might be exactly what I was looking for.

GAOTD & SterJo Excellent Software thank you very much .

Pros :
Already Portable
No registration hassles
Works efficiently (for me on 3 OSes at least)
Great Price.

Cons:
Uninstaller needs to be cleaner (minor point - log and history)


SterJo |Paul here's SOME of your Awards sites links (I just did the Pro):
http://www.downloadsarea.com/SterJo-Portable-Firewall-PRO/
http://www.soft82.com/download/windows/sterjo-firewall-pro-portable/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Firewall/SterJo-Portable-Firewall-PRO.shtml
http://www.brothersoft.com/sterjo-portable-firewall-pro-382803.html

Another Clean Award :
http://www.opensourcedownload.net/windows/network-internet/network-monitoring/virus-report/sterjo-portable-firewall-free/


Disclaimer: I don't work for anyone but myself.
"Thank you, *********
Your order has been successfully completed" (and I rarely buy).
9/10 cost, use, design, stability, portability.

This is great, I had a look at it a while ago and thought it might be handy to have in my portable apps collection. I like simple firewalls that do what they're told.
I've even bought a license now, for $1.99 it's well worth it to be able to reinstall it later. Thanks Sterjo.

# 3 said "If we work together as a team, we will draw developers towards GOTD instead of push them away."

OK I'll give this a good reveiw to help out the school...but is this better then Windows firewall?

It's great that a portable firewall is being offered. I run Windows XP, but with as few installed programs as possible. I have found it very hard to find good portable security programs such as an antivirus and firewall. Ster Jo seems to work fine in initial testing. It can block both incoming and outgoing requests. It has been prompting me on each program I start wanting internet access. I think portable Ster Jo can replace my installed Comodo firewall, which has become bloated and accesses the internet too much itself. Thanks GOTD, this may be the best portable find of the year so far for me.

@5: I've downloaded lots of software from brothersoft.com and never had a problem. OTOH, I've had lots of problems with Norton and Symantec software.

The name why this software is called PORTABLE is because it doesn't require installation. The registry thing is nothing compared to this feature and it has the configuration entries only. To be honest I've never seen such a software and so effective until know. Maybe not the best software but the best portable firewall if you can call it that way. I agree there should be a negative comments to improve this product but also there should be some positive inspiring comments for further developing. Personally I do like this software and I hope the comments here will make developers to improve it more. Thanks GOTD and SterJo Software,

Portable apps often write to the registry even though none of the app code does this write, Windows does it!
All of my apps are portable yet I still see them leave stuff in the registry.

I guess I need a more helpful troubleshooter before I trust leaving this firewall on.

I want to be able to see everything that's happening, including all links to internal and external targets, and then I want to right click on any item or line and cut and paste it, and then investigate it further within the program, and know what's what.

There is way too much is getting blocked or let through without the firewall helping me understand why or allowing me control it intelligently -- it's not helping me make informed decisions.

Yet.

Next version?