Hello,
I’ve recently started using GW and liked it enough to upgrade to basic today after my ESET Smart Security (and its annoying firewall) expired. I am now using AVIRA and it seems good.
While the ESET frontend for Windows firewall was annoying and draconian, there are a couple features shared by other firewalls I have used in the past which I think would really enhance GW (even if they are just optional as an ‘advanced mode’ or similar):
More app-directed behaviours: Allow, deny; Allow/Deny now, for 15 mins, until restart, indefinitely.
Rules for routes: Can the app connect to any IP on any port, or just the IP, port, combination it’s attempting now?
Pick your own colors: Considering this is one of the most stand-out features, I think you should let users embrace it. The default color scheme is cool, but even with the paid skins I can’t find a scheme which I love. It would also be nice to be able to change the background colour (esp for the mini-graph - which also needs a ‘not always on top’ setting as has been discussed here.)
I hope I have conveyed my interest for GW, I like it and I want to continue using it. That said, I think there is a broad spectrum of desired control between draconian iron curtain border control and yes/no ‘click and forget’. I think that the ability to add control or behaviours to suit the user (according to how much control they want) in an almost modular or opt-in way would dramatically enhance the user experience and potentially even system security.
In terms of constructive criticism I will say that I thought there would be more control and rule-setting ability from the “firewall” tab (I bought GW so I WOULDN’T have to go digging through that ridiculous Windows firewall config panel). The memory usage is also significantly higher than I would have imagined (150mb after about two days, I have read that this is being addressed but still pretty surprising) and the paid skins were a bit unsatisfactory and few in number. I really like your overall aesthetic and design choices, but I’m picky.
Anyway, don’t let that overshadow my feeling that this is a solid and good looking app.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
ghsty