Avira Free Firewall

[Aliza Pointon]

Afirewall can either be a combination of a hardware and software solution or a purely software solution on a computer or network. A firewall is used to allow or deny the transfer of data between different networks based on predefined rules.

Firewalls sit at the interfaces between individual networks or computer systems. They control data traffic, for example, between the internet and private or corporate networks which contain areas with particularly sensitive data. In this regard, it must be ensured that all incoming and outgoing requests in the form of data packets are only let in and delivered where they are permitted. To do so, a firewall works according to predefined rules to open, block, and monitor the inputs and outputs (ports).

The more ports are open, the easier it is for intruders to gain access to the system. Unsecured communication channels, such as email settings and internet downloads, can become a gateway for attackers who can gain access to the system and install malware.

When you purchase a Windows PC, laptop, or Mac, the operating system already comes with a pre-configured firewall to give you effective protection. These types of firewall are also called personal firewalls because they protect individual devices.

If you connect your new device to your Wi-Fi network, for example, the rules are set governing which computers your computer may communicate with and in which language. Firewalls have a reminder function, which means that they remember previous communication confirmations. For example, if you connect your computer to a familiar Wi-Fi network, it will be detected immediately and the corresponding rules will be applied automatically.

External firewalls are often used in companies or households with multiple devices. They are usually installed on a server that connects and protects the devices belonging to the network with the help of firewall software.

Proxies represent a kind of buffer from the local network to the internet. When you access a web page, your request is first directed to the proxy which executes it on your behalf and then provides you with the page.

A stateful packet inspection firewall (SPI) uses a dynamic packet filtering technique that takes the state of a data connection into account when inspecting packets. For example, it detects active TCP sessions and can allow or block data packets based on the session status.

SPI offers greater security because with this technology every internet session is inspected from start to finish with regard to the protocol, port as well as source and destination address. At the same time, this reduces the number of rules to be defined within the firewall. Unlike packet filtering and connection gateways, a stateful packet inspection firewall places a greater load on network performance because queries are made continuously.

Whether spam protection, virus protection, content filtering, internet or VPN gateway, or two-factor authentication: A UTM firewall is certainly one of the more innovative solutions when it comes to a firewall that protects against the most diverse threat situations.

If a firewall or proxy is active in the network and there are problems updating Avira Antivirus Pro or Avira Antivirus Server, as well as the Avira Mirror, certain exceptions should be set.

Assuming this AV scanner is able to work with and through a HTTP proxy - which may or may not be true -, you could set up a user group for this client, whitelist those desired FQDNs, and deny access to the rest. Please refer to the web proxy documentation for further information on how to do this.

This is unfortunately true, but I strongly recommend against this. Even if the domain in question is DNSSEC-signed, this does not protect against malicious DNS replies coming from the (hacked?) domain owner.

I was going to mention this in the RC1 thread but it is not really firmware related. Before Sophos got into the UTM business, I had always thought of them as an AV company but mostly for Macs. I have noticed an alarming trend lately, Avira catches more viruses than Sophos, however sophos is the recommended engine in XG and UTM9 (due to PUA detection) and sandstorm functionality.

I got a couple of random files from virustotal and tried them on UTM9 and sophos XG v16.0.5... In both cases sophos passes the virus. Sad part is that even windows defender catches these files as Trojan:Win32/Spursint.F!cl[:(]

Great answer as always Luk, dual scan makes the surfing speed a little slower so I do like you and use sophos endpoints with avira on the gateway. I am not trying to point out the shortcomings of Sophos because like you said, threats appear so fast these days that protection in layers is the best protection. I am sure there are viruses that are in Sophos database that avira is not aware of.

I know this is an old thread but I too would like to know what the users around here do in regards to single/dual engine and which they select as default? Right now I have single engine scanning on, and the engine set to Sophos, but I am starting to feel more and more that having dual engine scanning is worth a small tradeoff in speed.

i am trying to block the Avira Phantom VPN using utm but it keep getting connected, also on utm log i found that avira-vpn.com usage is 85 GB, so i try block using domain but not work, using app filter this name not appear in the list, need your suggestion to block the vpn.

I noted that Avira is only listed in Application Control as a File Transfer tool. Apparently Sophos has never profiled their VPN tool, which means that you will have to profile it and create your own rules. Since Sophos does not block the VPN program successfully, one has to wonder if the usage metric can be trusted, or if it represents something else.

It is probably appropriate to block both the DNS lookup and the IP addresses to which it is known to resolve. The DNS list may change in the future, but at least you have created obstacles for someone trying to workaround your DNS blocks.

My TV14 app wont start complaining that "Avira Premium Security has been found on this computer and may be blocking TVs access to the internet". But my Avira Firewall is disabled and so is windows defender firewall. I did not see any application log events in the windows event viewer either to help see what is the problem.

I tried that. Avira firewall is pointing to windows firewalls exclusion list somehow and Teamviewer is already on that list. To top that of, it seems like its a hit or miss. Sometimes when i restart the machine teamviewer seems to have no problem starting up; and sometimes it gets struck with that error message.

You can try completely disabling Avira for a short period of time to see if this resolves the issue. If it does work, then unfortunately Avira is the cause and we can only advise that TeamViewer needs to be added as an exception.

I was able to solve the failed virus pattern updates on my XG firewall. The problem seems to be that the firewall gets wrong file size and hash informations for Avira AV pattern v1.0.12965 and Sophos AV pattern v1.0.8492. After I filled in the correct values the firewall software installed these pattern files and downloaded and installed another set of pattern files (the latest ones) from the download server. Now my firewall is using v1.0.13096 of Avira AV pattern and v1.0.8522 of Sophos AV pattern.

Disclaimer:

I shall not be held liable for any damages or problems incurred as a consequence of executing one or all of the following steps. The use of this information is at your own risk.

The information for the pattern files is stored in the file pattern under /content/u2d. I don't know if the AV engines of the firewall need to be updated sequentially. As there are more recent pattern files than the ones that got stucked it might be sufficient to get the latest one.

1. So you could rename the file pattern in /content/u2d (mv /content/u2d/pattern /content/ud2/pattern.org) and try to update the pattern files with the GUI using System > Administration > Updates.

Give the firewall about 10 minutes for the update process. The pattern files are each more than 130MB in size.

If the update was successfull you will see an update message in System > Diagnostics > Log Viewer 'View Log for System'.

You can stop here.

2. What I did to get the stucked update for pattern files v1.0.12965 and v1.0.8492 running was to change the values in /content/u2d/pattern. Before doing this please make a copy of the pattern file.

Before editing my pattern file looked like this:

There are a few industries that require either dual scanning or separate engines on the perimeter (firewall) and endpoints, having Avira as a second or primary option on the firewalls allow companies to keep Sophos on the edge and endpoint to make use of their synchronized security benefits while still adhering to their compliances and regulations.

Some of Avira Prime is more useful than other parts, but the core technology is robust, and the VPN alone might be worth the asking price. Curious users should be careful about the 30-day trial, and the stealth installation of Opera.

Prime, reviewed here, offers licensing for five or twenty-five devices, VIP customer support, and free upgrades. It includes Avira's Antivirus Pro, Password Manager Pro, Phantom VPN Pro and Software Updater Pro.

Tools like these previously were available for download individually, but as of December 2021 Avira retired support for these and other Avira Business products, pointing out that these features were incorporated into Avira Prime subscriptions. The company also promises to provide at least one year's notice before discontinuing supports for products or operating systems. This is an important heads up, as Avira Prime isn't compatible with Windows Server, whereas previous products were.

While we're talking operating systems, if you want to run the version of Avira Prime for Microsoft Users, you'll need Windows 7 SP1 or higher. If you're an Apple user, any version of MacOS from 10.15 (Catalina) is compatible.

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