Kerio Personal Firewall's shield-shaped icon is displayed on the System Tray whenever thePersonal Firewall GUI component is running. This component is started automatically by the Personal Firewall Engine.
The Kerio Personal Firewall icon also represents network activity of the computer on which the firewall is installed. Network traffic is represented by little colored bars at the bottom of the icon:
green bar — outgoing traffic
red bar — incoming traffic
Double-click on the icon with the left mouse button to open the Kerio Personal Firewall configuration dialog (for details on firewall configuration see chapter 6. Firewall Configuration). Right-click on the icon to open a menu providing the following options:
- Disable Firewall
This option disables the firewall. Use this option to disable all Kerio Personal Firewall modules (network communication filtering, monitoring of launched applications, intrusions detection and Web content filtering).
This option disables the firewall for certain necessary periods, such as during tests or debugging (i.e. network connection failures). We do not recommend you to use the Disable Firewall for long — the firewall would not function and your computer would not be protected.
When Kerio Personal Firewall is disabled, the icon striked-through.
This option disables the firewall and switches into the Enable Firewall mode. The Enable Firewall option can then be used for the firewall recovery.
Note: In Windows XP Service Pack 2, the current status of the Kerio Personal Firewall is reported to the Windows Security Center.
- Stop all traffic
This option blocks all network traffic (network lock).
If this option is enabled, the “do not enter” sign is displayed on the Kerio Personal Firewall shield icon.
This option in the menu changes to the Enable traffic option — it can be used to refresh the traffic applying the current firewall settings and rules.
HINT: In case that a network traffic that should have been denied was permitted by mistake. Use the Stop all traffic option to stop all active connections and to prohibit its recovery. If a traffic rule has been created (using the Create a rule for this communication option), it can be removed (see chapters 7.2. Rules for Applications and 8. Advanced Packet Filter) and the traffic can be enabled again.
Note: Anytime the Personal Firewall Engine service is started up, the Disable Firewall and Stop all traffic options are set to default modes. For security reasons it is not recommended to leave the firewall disabled after the system startup. Stopping all traffic might cause problems for example during user login.
- Configuration
Use this option to open the Kerio Personal Firewall configuration dialog. Go to the chapter 6. Firewall Configuration to get more details on the firewall configuration.
- Register
This option runs registration wizard (for details refer to chapter 3.2. Product registration). If Kerio Personal Firewall has been already registered, the option will not be available in the menu.
- About
The “About” window provides information on versions of individual Kerio Personal Firewall components as well as links to corersponding Web pages.
- Exit
Use this option to stop the Personal Firewall Engine service and to close the Personal Firewall GUI (all open windows and application dialogs will be closed and the icon on the Systray will be hidden).
Kerio Personal Firewall can be reactivated by choosing the Firewall Engine option from the Start → Programs → Kerio → Personal Firewall 4 menu, or by running the service in the Administrative Tools / Services control panel.
Warning: When Kerio Personal Firewall is closed, the low-level driver starts to allow all outgoing and incoming traffic — the computer is not protected any longer. For details, refer to chapter 4.1. Kerio Personal Firewall Components.
If access to the firewall administration requires a password and the user is authenticated, the Logout item is also available in the context menu. For detailed information, refer to chapter 6.2. Remote Administration.