PeerBlock is a
free and open-source personal firewall
A personal firewall is an application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy. Typically it works as an application layer firewall.
A personal firewall differs from ...
that blocks packets coming from, or going to, a maintained list of black listed hosts. PeerBlock is the Windows successor to the software
PeerGuardian (which is currently maintained only for Linux).
It blocks incoming and outgoing connections to
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es that are included on
blacklists (made available on the Internet), and to addresses specified by the user.
PeerBlock mainly uses blacklists provided by iblocklist.com.
Development
PeerBlock 1.0 is based on the same code as PeerGuardian 2 RC1 Test3 Vista version.
It adds support for 32- and 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. When the PeerGuardian project ended, its developer
Phoenix Labs
Phoenix Labs is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, British-Columbia. The company was founded in April 2014 by former Riot Games developers Jesse Houston, Sean Bender, and Robin Mayne. The studio's first project, Dauntless (video ...
encouraged current PeerGuardian users to migrate to PeerBlock.
PeerBlock is under development by a small team of developers led by Mark Bulas. Hosting, as well as the signed driver, is funded by donations from the public. Future donations are intended to contribute to future signed drivers, hosting and to possibly rent a
virtual private server
A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service. The virtual dedicated server (VDS) also has a similar meaning.
A virtual private server runs its own copy of an operating system (OS), and cus ...
on which the team should be able to build a "real" online-update feature for future releases of PeerBlock.
Features
PeerBlock has added multiple features in the latest version of the program. Such as a constantly updating blocklist managed by the home site and a manager that lets you choose which lists to include in the block. The program allows for a user to turn on and off both IP and HTTP trackers as well as including a log showing the time, source, IP address, destination, and protocol of the tracker. A list of settings allows users to both customize their program's interface as well as its operations.
Until September 2013, I-Blocklist, the supplier of the blocking lists PeerBlock uses, supported unlimited free list updating. Since September 2013 updates were limited to once weekly, except to paid subscribers. PeerBlock is hard-coded to use I-Blocklist lists and has entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with I-Blocklist. In late 2015 blocklists were no longer available without payment of a subscription.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peerblock
Firewall software
Peer-to-peer file sharing
Windows-only freeware
Free software programmed in C++
Internet privacy software
de:PeerGuardian#PeerBlock