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OS X Version/Alternatives

friggin
2012-07-29
2014-10-11
  • friggin

    friggin - 2012-07-29

    I am running PeerGuardian for Mac OS X Version 1.6b2 (721) on OS X 10.6

    For some time I have been getting an error upon opening PG: "Version Data
    Error" "The version data file appears corrupt".
    This seems to be because the update server does not work anymore. If you
    disable automatic updates, you won't get this error any longer.

    I have seen users having problems with the PG versions on newer versions of OS
    X. I have not tried the newer PG version 1.7b1 which can be downloaded here.
    What is more, I have found a 1.7b2 version online.

    I am wondering whether this one was originally offered as a download be
    PhoenixLabs, and why it is not available here.

    Obviously, I would like to keep using PG, also when updating my OS, or find an
    alternative. Now, 1.6b2 works fine for me (with the usual bugs that can be
    handled).

    We need a list on which PG version works on which OS version.

    Also, there has been valuable discussion on the PhoenixLabs OS X forum with
    helpful explanations on how to handle PG. What happened to the PhoenixLabs
    site? Can someone migrate the forum posts?

    Is there an alternative for OS X?

    There is some effort at PeerBlock to do this in the future (their thread on
    this is at http://code.google.com/p/peerblock/issues/detail?id=161), but if that happens
    it won't be any time soon.

    Basically, since PG is an interface to ipfw, would it be possible to use ipfw
    directly, and configure it so that it would do the same job PG does?

     
  • jre-phoenix

    jre-phoenix - 2012-07-29

    First off, currently only the Linux branch here is active. I have no contact
    to the old OS X developer (QNation), nore am I really familliar with PGOSX,
    or OS X at all.

    For some time I have been getting an error upon opening PG: "Version Data
    Error" "The version data file appears corrupt". This seems to be because the
    update server does not work anymore. If you disable automatic updates, you
    won't get this error any longer.

    Which list URLs are used in this version?
    Generally you should NOT run without list updates. I'd recommend to use the
    URLs from iblocklist.com. There you'll find nearly all currently available
    blocklists.

    What is more, I have found a 1.7b2 version online.

    I am wondering whether this one was originally offered as a download be
    PhoenixLabs, and why it is not available here.

    Where did you find 1.7b2? If it is a version from QNation, I will add it to
    the download section here.
    QNation recently only made beta releases and just announced them on
    phoenixlabs, while publishing them on his homepage
    http://www.bergstrand.org. I just uploaded these file releases here
    recently.

    Obviously, I would like to keep using PG, also when updating my OS, or find
    an alternative. Now, 1.6b2 works fine for me (with the usual bugs that can be
    handled). We need a list on which PG version works on which OS version.

    I'd recommend/try to use 1.7b1 (or b2) with the iblocklist list URLs. I'd
    guess this works for all OS X versions (older PGOSX versions had problems
    with newer OS X).
    If not please tell the results and we might add this list to the wiki (see
    below).

    Also, there has been valuable discussion on the PhoenixLabs OS X forum with
    helpful explanations on how to handle PG. What happened to the PhoenixLabs
    site? Can someone migrate the forum posts?

    You can use archive.org to browse the old phoenixlabs.org:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20110526212540/http://phoenixlabs.org/
    We just lost (contact to) the old server maintainer and sometime
    phoenixlabs.org went down. I don't have access to the original data from
    phoenixlabs, just archive.org.
    I'm working (as real life time permits), on building up the site here at
    sourceforge. I'll add a wiki, where PGOSX content might be placed (if you
    want to offer content I'll gladly help to get it there). I don't plan to
    migrate the old forums, but would love to see someone doing this.

    There is some effort at PeerBlock to do this in the future (their thread on
    this is at http://code.google.com/p/peerblock/issues/detail?id=161), but if that happens
    it won't be any time soon.

    Last time I had the impression that the peerblock project faces the same
    problems like ours. I'll happily support any kind of collaboration.

    Basically, since PG is an interface to ipfw, would it be possible to use
    ipfw directly, and configure it so that it would do the same job PG does?

    No idea.
    But I guess the better way is to start with the last published source
    (1.5.1) (or even better try to get newer source from QNation), and fix the
    issues there (if there are really any), instead of starting from scratch.
    I guess ipfw is similar to netfilter/iptables in Linux. There you also could
    write probably a script of less than 100 lines to get the blocklists and add
    their ipranges to iptables, but you'd miss some speed improvements (not
    totally sure of that, because as I understand it, netfilter/iptables received
    some improvement in this area) and additional features.

     
  • friggin

    friggin - 2012-07-30

    Thanks for your comprehensive reply.

    —Updates: I was not referring to list updates, but to the update function of
    the software itself. My impression is that the mentioned error message does
    not affect list functionality, and I just wanted to document this issue.

    —Version 1.7b2: Can be found here:
    http://bergstrand.org/brian/software/bin/PeerGuardian_170b2.zip

    —Old PL site: Thank you for the archive link. However, the OS X Version thread
    is not accessible. I mentioned this because often users are irritated by PGs
    mildly buggy behaviour, and there were helpful explanations. However, I will
    try the newer version, maybe those issues are gone anyway.

    —ipfw: Thanks for your impression. I do not know much about software
    development of performance. I have basic insight into programming, but I am
    not a coder at all. I might be good for thinking some things through, but I
    could not seriously dive into the PG code, I think. (But then, you never
    know.) That's the reason why I was thinking along the lines of a shell
    script.
    To expand on this point, however, I have seen that PfSense
    (http://www.pfsense.org/) is based on FreeBSD
    (which OS X is based on), and it makes use of PF (http://en.wikipedia.org/
    wiki/PF_(firewall)),
    which happens to be included in the new OS X version Mountain Lion.

    Has not fakhir been working on the more recent PG for OS X versions as well? I
    just would love to see some more development with this unique piece of
    software. I'll contribute if anything happens here (and be it just
    documentation).

    I will have to see for myself whether PG still works in OS X 10.8 Mountain
    Lion (there have been mixed reports) as soon as I update (which can still
    be a while). Other's impressions on which PG version works with which OS X
    version are welcome, of course.

     
  • jre-phoenix

    jre-phoenix - 2012-10-28

    I finally uploaded the mentioned 1.7b2 to a staged folder (to be released in
    3 days). Thanks for your input.
    I still have no contct to the OSX developer. Said version is from August 2011.

     
  • friggin

    friggin - 2014-10-11

    This is what we have been looking for: www.hanynet.com/icefloor/

    Icefloor is a current alternative to the outdated (yet still functionable) PeerGuardian if you are using OS X.

    It is a frontend for the pf firewall/packet filter, which is meant replace ipfw (which PG uses) in newer versions of OS X.

    The programmer of Icefloor is working on a new software that also supports OS x 10.10.

    However, in Icefloor, ip lists can only be loaded from files, not via the web.

     
  • jre-phoenix

    jre-phoenix - 2014-10-11

    Thanks.

    For downloading blocklists pglcmd (from PeerGuardian Linux) may be working. pglcmd is a (nearly) POSIX compliant shell script, I don't know how difficult it is to split out the blocklist part for OS X.

    Of course merging icefloor and pgl (there replacing pgld on OS X) would be awesome.

     

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