Firewall Status Screen
Video
The firewall status screen shows you which programs on your computer are using the internet, how much data they are transferring, and to where. You can access the status screen by double-clicking the icon in your system tray, the area next to the clock in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, that looks like an LED meter.
This icon shows how much network activity is occurring in real-time. The red bar indicates the level of traffic leaving your computer (outgoing), and the green bar indicates the level of traffic entering your computer (incoming). For example, when you go to a website you will see a blip of "red" activity as the data is requested, followed by some sustained "green" activity as the data is downloaded.
Graphs
The status screen shows three graphs at the top that give you a more detailed visual indication of incoming and outgoing traffic, with details of the connections below the graphs.
The graphs show how much bandwidth is being used, both as a graph and the actual rate. The graphs show Allowed traffic in green and Denied traffic in red.
The Connections graph shows you how many connections are being made to and from your computer at any given time.
You will notice that the range of bandwidth that each graph shows will vary depending on the largest amount of bandwidth seen being used. You can right-click the graphs to synchronize scaling, so each graph shows the same range of bandwidth. If your internet connection has very different upload and download rates, you may not wish to have these graphs synchronized.
Tables
Both tables are color coded to indicate whether the program is Trusted (green) or Unknown (red).
The table in the middle of the status panel shows the programs that have created connections on your computer. The table shows the following information:
- Program – Shows the filename of the program that has created a connection.
- PID – The Process Identification Number of the program.
- Downloaded – The total amount of data that has been received (downloaded) by the program.
- Uploaded – The total amount of data that has been sent (uploaded) by the program.
- Down Speed – The rate at which the program has downloaded data.
- Up Speed – The rate at which the program has uploaded data.
The Active Connections table shows connections that are currently in use.
Above the table are two options:
- Show only connected endpoints – Only shows connections established between two computers. When this option is selected, any listening servers will be hidden from view. Since Windows often waits for various connections, enabling this option keeps the list more manageable.
- Resolve addresses – Changes whether the table shows addresses as numerical IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.0.1) or text addresses (e.g. www.tallemu.com).
The Active Connections table shows the following information:
- Program – Shows the filename of the program that has created a connection.
- Local Address – Shows the address and port (address:port) your computer is using for that connection.
- Remote Address – Shows the address and port (address:port) of the computer at the other end of the connection.
- Country – Shows what country the remote computer is in.
- State – Shows whether the connection is in the process of connecting, accepted, and so on.
At the bottom of the status screen you can select Always on Top to keep the status screen on top of all other windows that are open on your screen.
Table Context Menus
You can right-click on any item in the tables to access the following options:
- Kill Process – Forcibly closes the selected program.
- Filter by process – Shows only the selected program in the Active Connections table.
- Clear Filter – Clears a filter you have previously set by clicking “Filter by process.”
- Goto Rules – Takes you to the Rules list, automatically highlighting the rule for the selected program.
- View Firewall Log Info – Opens the Firewall Log.
When you right-click on the Active Connections table, you will have all of the same options above, with the following additional options:
- Close Connection – Forcibly closes the selected connection.