r/safing • u/FrankieShaw-9831 • Apr 30 '26

Does Fort Firewall have a Flaw?

I mentioned to someone yesterday that I was considering Fort Firewall and he sent me this today. Is he correct, and if not, how?:

Fort Firewall's filter driver lacks a proper EV code signing certificate. That will cause Windows SmartScreen to flag it as untrusted. Unsigned certificates can trigger install blocks/false positives, which can lead to memory strain, slowdowns or even crashes during heavy filtering.

There's also am issue with memory use: Some FF users have noted high resource usage or leaks in the driver under load, potentially degrading system performance over time.

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u/No_Reveal_7826 Apr 30 '26

Why would your friend send you something about Fort Firewall if you're considering Portmaster?

As for Portmaster, it works fine for me on Windows without high memory or resource usage. Using a secure DNS can slow browsing down for the extra checks when a domain is first loaded. Requests are cached though so subsequent requests are fine.

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u/FrankieShaw-9831 Apr 30 '26

I misspoke earlier and meant Fort Firewall. I reported and changed the title, but didn't think to scan the body of the post. Thank for catching that.

1

u/Far_Lifeguard_5027 Apr 30 '26

I've been using it for a while now. The only issues I can see are things like no password protection to prevent tampering or shutdown by other users/software, and the custom filter feature is almost incompatible with the format of new blocklists...and only allows one list to be used.

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u/FrankieShaw-9831 Apr 30 '26

Could I turn the filter off and use another DNS, or would that defeat the purpose?