PeerGuardian 2:Manual
From Phoenix Labs Wiki
Copyright © 2006 by Phoenix Labs
Windows Edition
Edited by Joseph Farthing, Cory Nelson, Fox, and FuRiOuS1
Manual Version 2.3.6
(intended for use with Release Candidate One final)
Phoenix Labs 2006
Preface
Using This Text
This text is presented in a way which is intended to be as easy to use as possible. Each topic is split into it's own individual chapter to allow you to jump straight to where you want to go. Every individual issue or “subtopic” of a chapter is individually labelled and numbered, so you should be able to find out exactly what you want to know.
Conventions and Styles
All body text is written in size 10 Arial for ease of reading. Important words are emboldened to make them easier to spot. Website addresses are underlined. Parts of the application (such as the System Tray Icon) are made italic.
Help Boxes
Various help boxes are used to highlight key points and ideas within the text.
| A | This box is an advice box. It contains a short tip that can help improve your usage of the application. |
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| ! | This box is a warning box. It is designed to highlight a situation where something could easily go wrong. Make sure you don't avoid these messages - they could be important. |
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About Phoenix Labs
Phoenix Labs (formerly Methlabs) is a community of developers and users who intend to help protect the privacy of Internet users. Phoenix Labs has published a number of privacy and anonymity systems, including a peer-to-peer transfer and communication system XS, a secure file shredder DeepDelete and the PeerGuardian IP blocker.
If you want to know more about Phoenix Labs, visit our homepage.
For the latest development news and discussion, visit the Phoenix Labs forums.
Contact Phoenix Labs Community
If you wish to talk to members of the Phoenix Labs community, either to discuss Phoenix Labs applications or to talk about general security and privacy concerns, visit the Labs forums.
| A | Advice: We don't have time to answer lots of email. Please do not contact us for technical assistance - search or post at our forums. |
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Support Phoenix Labs
If you enjoy using Phoenix Labs products, or want to keep PeerGuardian and other applications free and open source, consider donating. A small donation will help to pay for our increasing server and bandwidth costs, and a larger donation can ensure that we stay here for a long time. If you wish to donate more money, then you can become a supporter by subscribing to one of our services, which for a very small amount of money can allow you to browse our website without adverts (which are used to help pay for hosting) and receive extra betas and support.
| ! | Warning: Currently the Phoenix Labs donation page only supports US dollars. If you are not American, make sure you check international currency rates to ensure you understand how much you are donating! |
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If you want to donate to Phoenix Labs and would like something in return see our shop:
Purchasing Phoenix Labs Products
If you wish to purchase this manual in a printed form, or a CD of PeerGuardian and other useful applications, visit our cafepress when it is up and running for our full selection of products. Most items are equivalent to a $5 dollar donation to Phoenix Labs, the extra money going to purchase something good!
TBA when cafepress is up and running.
Other than the CD and Manual, you can also purchase a number of T-Shirts, Mugs, Stickers etc, featuring the Phoenix Labs or PeerGuardian logo.
Authors And Translators
The following people contributed to the making of the PeerGuardian manuals:
- FuRiOuS1
- Fox
- Joseph Farthing
- Cory Nelson
- D3F
Also participated at various degrees: Ake, gamelkorv
Note From The Editors
As you may notice as you go between chapters, this text is a compilation of writings by many authors. Even though much care has been taken in insuring technical and vocabulary constancy, the style of each author is obviously preserved.
Some of the authors write in English even though it is not their native language. Therefore, you may notice some strange sentence constructions. If you find any mistakes in this text please contact us.
Contributing To This Manual
Contributions are welcomed by Phoenix Labs! Provided you are willing to agree with our license agreement, you may submit work to this text. You're contributions will be acknowledged in section 1.3.
We are also willing to hear from people who wish to translate this text into different languages.
To submit work or translate work: please post it on the Phoenix Labs forums in the either the Submissions or Translations folder of the Articles, Guides and Documentation forum. If you find a mistake within the manual, please post in the Corrections section.
About PeerGuardian
Introduction
This chapter will tell you some things about PeerGuardian.
How PeerGuardian Works
PeerGuardian is an open source IP filter that is designed to block the IP addresses of certain organizations and corporations that may wish to harm a users privacy while using the Internet and peer-to-peer networks.
PeerGuardian 2 requires no driver installation, yet blocks IP addresses at a far higher speed than was previously available - never above 1% CPU on most test systems. On Windows 2000 and greater PeerGuardian 2 blocks at a kernel level, acting against every protocol used within the windows system. On Windows 98 or Me it blocks TCP only (due to technical reasons, kernel blocking in 98/ME is not feasible) with the same high performance of the Windows 2000 version.
PeerGuardian blocks IP addresses based upon a list of IP addresses collected by many methods. By default, PeerGuardian 2 collects IP addresses from the Blocklist.org website. Blocklist.org is a website designed to allow users to interactively manage and block the IP addresses of certain organisations and companies. Founded in early 2005 by phoenixlabs.org, it is intended to be a platform agnostic database that utilises published open formats. Blocklist.org is still under construction, and more detail about how to use the database to submit new ranges, and report bad ranges will be added to a later version of this manual.
What's New In PeerGuardian 2?
PeerGuardian 2 is now totally automatic. You do not need to install a driver, simply run the program without any visits to the control panel. The new start-up wizard makes things easier than ever.
Also kernel level blocking make the system far more efficient and powerful than any previous version.
How safe is PeerGuardian, really?
Well, it is accurate in the sense that it blocks everything on your blocklist. It is impossible to know all the addresses to block, so while it will increase your safety to a good extent, it can never be perfect.
What the Media say?
Awards are given to products that we think are excellent and above average in their category. Awards are given based on our experience and judgement, and only to products which the majority of our reviewers agree deserve it.
So to round it all up, I think PeerGuardian 2 is worth the wait. Its very flexible and powerful.. 4.7/5 - P2Private
PG2 definitely gets my vote and I will suggest that as soon as a public beta or full version is available, that you download and try it out. - Afterdawn
The real trouble for media companies, though, could come if file-sharing networks begin to integrate personal firewall applications into their latest versions and create auto-updates, said David Weekly, a computer programmer who came to prominence for reverse-engineering the Napster software.
"If you built PeerGuardian into a next-generation Kazaa, for instance, everyone in the network could be blocking the RIAA," Weekly said. - Wired
A coder known on-line as "Method" has gone even further, creating a custom freeware application called PeerGuardian just for p2p users. PeerGuardian began life as an anti-spyware utility, but now also protects users from the prying eyes of anti-p2p police, using an IP blacklist that's updated periodically like a virus signature file.
"Right now only the top level p2p users are using that application," says Gonzalez. But he expects that to change as an unintended consequence of the RIAA's messaging campaign. Users may be frightened by the association's threats, but they'll respond by cloaking, instead of unplugging. "I would expect that next generation applications will start having these capabilities built in."
Music fans swapping songs on-line are fighting industry efforts to watch and police what they do. - BBC
Installation Guide
Introduction
This section will cover the download and installation of PeerGuardian 2 on a Windows computer.
Prepare Your Computer
First you need to make sure that any IP blocking applications similar to PeerGuardian are removed or disabled. This table will give you an idea about the possibility of conflicts that may arise within your system.
This is merely a precautionary step to avoid conflicts within the system.
| A | Advice: You can get information about how to uninstall some programs from the developers who made them. Check the documentation that came with the software. |
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We advise you remove the following pieces of software:
| Software name | Software function | Possibility of conflict |
|---|---|---|
| McAfee Personal Firewall | Software Firewall | Confirmed conflict |
| BlackICE Firewall | Software Firewall | Likely |
IF YOU FIND YOUR FIREWALL DOESN'T WORK WITH PEERGUARDIAN, THEN WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU TRY SWITCHING TO OUTPOST
Download Outpost here OR Download Sygate here
WHICH BOTH HAVE GOOD FREE VERSIONS. THESE FIREWALLS ARE EXCELLENT AND OUR USERS GENERALLY AGREE THAT THEY ARE AS GOOD AS OR BETTER THAN THE FIREWALLS MENTIONED ABOVE.
Download PeerGuardian 2
You now need to download PeerGuardian 2.
1. Visit the web page. PeerGuardian2 windows version download
2. Click on the file that is appropriate for your operating system.
- Choose pg2-9x.exe for Windows 98/ME computers.
- Choose pg2-nt.exe for Windows 2000/XP/2003+ computers.
- Choose pg2-x64.exe for Windows 64-bit edition.
- Choose pg2-src.zip if you want to view the source code rather than install the software.
3. Once you've chosen the correct file, you will be brought to another screen.
Here you must select a mirror to download the file from. Simply choose the one on the continent nearest to you and click the link that says “download”.
4. After a short download, the file will be saved onto your computer. If you chose to “open” the file, the installation process will begin. If not, go to the place where you saved the file and double click it.
5. The installation process will now begin.
| A | Advice: Use the correct version for your operating system. PeerGuardian for Windows 2000/XP doesn't work at all on Windows 98/ME, and the Windows 98/ME version is not very effective on Windows 2000/XP. |
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Installing PeerGuardian 2
The installation process of PeerGuardian 2 is very simple.
1. Click next here.
2. If you agree with the following license select “I accept the agreement”.
You must agree to continue.
Click next at the information screen.
3. Now select where you want to install PeerGuardian 2.
The default is usually fine. Click next to continue.
4. Choose a place in the Windows start menu to put PeerGuardian 2.
The default is usually fine. Click next to continue.
5. Your choices are presented to you.
Click install when you are ready to install.
6.The program now installs...
7. Now choose “Launch PeerGuardian 2” and we'll reach the start-up Wizard.
Running PeerGuardian 2 For The First Time
On running PeerGuardian 2 for the first time, you will be presented with a short wizard that talks you through the process of configuring PeerGuardian 2.
1. Click next on the following screen:
2. You will now be presented with this screen:
Select which lists you wish to use. The bare minimum we recommend you use is 'P2P', however you can select more based upon personal preferences.
The lists are split into the following categories:
P2P
The addresses of corporations and organisations that scan or monitor peer-to-peer networks.
Ads
Advertising agencies such as Doubleclick.
| A | Advice: There are better ways to block ads than an IP blocker. See the Adblock extension for Firefox. |
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Spyware
Companies that distribute ad or spyware applications, such as Cydoor or Gator.
Government
Government addresses, including police, from all over the world. You can never be too careful.
Education
The addresses of educational institutions.
If you have your own lists you can add them now or wait until later. For details on how to do this see chapter ##, “List Management”. PG2 will automatically handle zip and gzip files. When you are done selecting your lists, click on next to continue.
3. See the following screen.
“Automatic Updates” are very important; please select how often you wish to update PG2: you can update the program and/or the lists please select next to continue installation.
We recommend as a bare minimum updating the lists every week. However, checking more frequently keeps the lists of IP addresses up to date, and checking for new versions of the program means that you will never miss a new version of PeerGuardian 2.
4. Everything is now complete:
Your First Update
If you ever receive this message, please click Check Updates.
Once you click this button the updating window will popup and update peerguardian lists for you automatically.
This is your first introduction to the update process. A window will be shown as the program downloads and configures the lists that are required for successful operation. When the lists are done downloading click on close.
The next window is automatic and can take a few minutes depending on how fast your computer is.
Using PeerGuardian
Introduction
After the start-up screen, you will be presented with the PeerGuardian 2 interface, which is explained below.
The Basics
This section describes the visual features of the PeerGuardian 2 user interface. The view is split into two tabs: “Protection” and “Settings”. Simply click the tab to move to the different page.
We will look at the “Protection” tab first.
The Protection Screen
There are 5 features to this screen:
Connection Log
The white table that takes up most of this screen is the connection log. It logs whenever a packet is blocked from accessing your computer. You can use this to discover when you are being hit the most, or as a method of removing bad IP ranges.
To allow a range (for example a website that you visit that you know is not bad), simply right-click upon it's message in the connection log, and select a period of time to allow it for.
This means that the range will not be blocked for the selected time period. Choosing “Allow Permanently” means that it will never be blocked again!
Temporary allows are flushed when the program exits.
Status Display
| ! | Warning: Leaving PeerGuardian disabled or out of date will counteract any protection you might have! You should always update frequently, or turn on auto-update. |
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Common Problem: “Blocking 0 IPs”
When viewing the protection page and you see that you are blocking 0 IPs as in above all you have to do is click on the check updates button , this should correct this problem.
Common Problem: “My favourite webpage is blocked!”
There are two solutions to this problem:
Solution 1: Allow All Webpages (Unblock HTTP)
If a website you trust is not loading, the chances are that PeerGuardian 2 is blocking it, if you are confident that none of your peer-to-peer or insecure applications operate via HTTP on port 80 or 433 then you can simply allow all connections on these ports.
This means that all traffic on these ports will not be checked by PeerGuardian.
The status screen allows HTTP blocking to be turned on and off via the button shown above. The status text next to it says what is currently happening.
If you right click on the system tray icon, then you are able to select or deselect “Block HTTP”. This performs exactly the same task, but may be slightly more convenient.
| ! | Warning: Simply allowing all HTTP connections is an insecure way of solving this problem. We recommend keeping HTTP blocked, and instead allowing specific IPs, as shown below. |
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Solution 2: Allow a Specific IP Address
If an IP address that you trust is blocked, then the easiest way to enable access to it is via the right click menu.
Simply right click in the log window and allow the IP manually, PeerGuardian 2 will automatically create a new list for you. Can allow the IP for 15 minutes, 1 hour or permanently. You also have the option to copy the IP range to your clipboard and record the IP manually.
In the example below Apple Computer has been blocked. If you wish to view the Apple computer website, or connect to any Apple Computer IP you must allow them from the right click menu as illustrated.
| A | Advice: IP addresses in our block lists are there for a reason. Many IPs could be safely allowed, but it is a good idea to research an IP that you are going to permanently allow. |
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List Management
The manage lists button is located above the “Check Updates” button on your left hand side of PG2.
List Manager
Once you click on it a new screen will open.
You can click “Open List” to view a list that is already installed, and “Add” to add a new list.
“Edit” edits the settings of a list, while “Remove” removes it from the list.
There are two types of lists
- Blocked
- Allowed
Well PG2 is designed for blocking, but if you come across a site or IP address that you 100% trust you can add it to your allowed list.
The check boxes next to lists can be used to enable/disable each list
Add a List
Here you can add a URL (i.e. an on line list) or a local file to be included in the PeerGuardian 2 lists. You can select to block or allow. PG2 will automatically handle zip and gzip files.
Exporting Lists
You can export a list to either P2P or P2B format by right clicking on the list in the list manager and selecting either “Export to p2p” or “Export to p2b”. Selecting multiple lists will cause them to be merged together.
List Editing
In this part you can create your very own lists. This section takes place in the List Management review, as previously described, but now instead of managing our lists we are actively creating and editing them.
Open a List
This button opens the lists you have selected. When you open a list a loading box will appear.
There are three kinds of lists you can open:
- Personal lists (block or allow)
- Permanent allows lists
- Blocklist.org lists
When you open a list you can add and remove IP addresses, as well as edit IPs that are already in the list.
URL-based lists may not be edited, but it possible to turn them into a static list by pressing the right mouse button and selecting “Make static”.
| ! | WARNING: MAKING A LIST STATIC WILL DISABLE UPDATES FROM THAT LIST! |
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Create a List
Press the “Create List” button to start making your own lists.
Description
What you are going to do is create a name for your list. Here in the example we are using a company name called the RIAA in side the description box you would type in the name of your list, so you know what it is.
Location
This is where you will create a file or give a location of where you want to add. To make a file click on the button “browse” and save your list to a specific directory you wish so you can keep track of your personal list.
Type
This will determine if the connections in your personal list is blocked or allowed, please be careful which one you select.
Once you make a new list you must add IP ranges to the list manually. This is a relatively simple process, but we will walk through it carefully.
Adding a Range
An IP range is a series of IP addresses. An IP address is the basic “phone number” of any particular computer, and PeerGuardian is designed to block these IP addresses from a certain blocklist. However you may decide you wish to block some ranges that you have chosen yourself.
IP addresses are usually bought in selections – starting at one IP address and finishing at another. Thus 1.0.0.1 – 1.0.0.5 is five separate IP addresses.
This is called an IP range, and it means that IP addresses from 1.0.0.1 to 1.0.0.5 inclusive will be added into the list.
To add a range click the “Add” button and a new range will appear in the table.
First enter the name you wish to give the range, for example “Test” or “Microsoft” - try to make the name descriptive so you can remember the range later if it is blocked.
Next, click once in the Starting IP column and type in the first IP in your range.
Click the Ending IP column and enter in the last IP in your range.
| A | ADVICE: IF YOU ONLY WANT TO BLOCK ONE IP THEN SIMPLY ENTER THE SAME IP FOR BOTH THE STARTING AND ENDING IP. |
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Once you have finished your list, press save and the list will be stored.
History Viewing
To view the history of your PG2 logs click on the “View History” button.
To view your history of blockage and acceptance, you can click on three pages
- ALL
- BLOCKED
- ALLOWED
In the pictures viewing the history above, under source the IP’s have been removed but in this column it would be your IP or the source of the IP.
Under History > Blocked you can view all of the blocked ranges that PG2 has blocked for you.
Under History > Allowed you can view all connections to and from your PC. If you select under Settings > Log Window > and have checked “Show Allowed Connections”.
This helps you keep track of what is being blocked or allowed into your system.
Using Whois With List Management
Finding Information About An IP
If you want to find out who owns an IP address, you can use a WHOIS search. Using a tool like a simple domain/IP address search it is possible to find information about any given IP range.
Simply type in the IP address you wish to search, and the page will display information about the IP's owners.
Finding An Entire Range
IP addresses are sold in ranges. If you want to block all the IP addresses from a particular company, perhaps Doubleclick or Gator then it is possible to use a WHOIS search to find the entire range of IP addresses to block.
Using a tool like a simple WHOIS at whois-search.com it is possible to find an entire IP range and then add it to a personal blocklist.
First, simply type in your IP address and press “Submit Query”.
When the WHOIS database searches that IP range, look the “inetnum”.
This is the entire range that was sold to the company/organisation. It is possible to add this to a personal blocklist if you wish to block it.
The Settings Screen
This screen is used to manage PeerGuardian 2.
Auto-Update
You have the ability to change your original selections from when you first ran PG2; you can update the program and/or list.
There are 6 settings sections that help you with PeerGuardian2 efficiency.
Settings page one
- Log Window
- History
- Notification
Settings page two
- Start-up
- Updates
- Miscellaneous
Settings Page One
To view Settings page two please click on the [next button] 
at the bottom right hand side of the settings page.
Log Window
Here you can customise the options used within the Logging and History functions of PeerGuardian 2.
Log * Lines
The first option sets the number of lines that are logged under the protection tab.
Show Allowed Connections
This shows all connections that are allowed by PeerGuardian (that are not blocked).
Colour code log window
This colour codes your allows and blocks.
Allowed
The default colour is light grey for text and white for the background.
Blocked
The default colour is black for text and white for the background.
Blocked HTTP
The default colour is dark blue for text and white for the background.
To change a colour and make it more personal, right click on one of the colour boxes
And a new window will appear.
Just find the colour you wish to use and click “OK”
History
Click “Log allowed connections” if you wish to log allowed connections in your history logs. The box next to “log allowed connections” is an archive option so PeerGuardian2 logs don’t get so large. You can select three options.
- Do Nothing
- Remove
- Archive & Remove
Notification
Notification is a useful feature in PeerGuardian2; If PeerGuardian2 blocks a bad IP range the Tray Icon will blink three times to catch your attention.
The box next to “Notify On” has a two notify options.
- HTTP Blocks
- All Blocks
The last box is “Blink tray icon” if you wish PeerGuardian2 tray icon to blink when something is blocked, check this box.
To clear your logs you can select a button on the protection page it is called clear log which is the third button on the right hand side
Settings Page Two
To view Settings page one again, just click on the "back button" 
the bottom right hand side of the settings page.
Startup
This controls the settings related to the starting of PeerGuardian 2.
- “Start with Windows” means PeerGuardian 2 will start when your OS starts up, so you won’t have to remember to start PG2 up every time you reboot.
- “Always start hidden” will make PeerGuardian minimise to the system tray when it starts up.
- “Show splash” allows you to turn the artwork that appears on start-up on or off.
Updates
You have the ability to change your original selections from when you first ran PG2; you can update the program and/or list.
- “Check PeerGuardian” will check for new versions of the PeerGuardian application and prompt you to download them.
- “Check Lists” will automatically update your lists.
- “Auto Update every * Days” lets you decide how many days PeerGuardian will wait before checking for updates.
- “Use proxy”: If you want to use a proxy to download updates then you can enter one here. PeerGuardian supports HTTP and Socks5 proxy connections.
- “Auto-close update window after * seconds”: allows you to set the number of seconds that elapse before the update status window closes. If you don't want it to close automatically just untick the box.
Miscellaneous
This is the miscellaneous area for the settings.
There are three areas in this feature.
- Always hide tray icon
This feature will hide the tray icon for PeerGuardian.
- Hide window
- on close
This option will hide the window when you press the X in the top right rather than closing the application.
- Keep PeerGuardian on top
This option will keep PeerGuardian on top of all other programs.
| ! | WARNING: MAKING A LIST STATIC WILL DISABLE UPDATES FROM THAT LIST! |
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Plugin Functionality
Plug-ins are small extensions that are not part of the original software that are designed to add extra features. A plug-in could be used to make the application read a new type of list, notify the user in a new way and much more.
There will be a plug-in feature in the next major release of PeerGuardian 2, probably in version 2.1. We hope that the addition of plug-in technology and user-coded plug ins will help users add their own features and ideas to PeerGuardian 2 more readily.
This manual will be updated as soon as this feature is available.
| A | ADVICE: VISIT THE METHLABS.ORG WEBSITE FREQUENTLY FOR NEWS ABOUT UPDATES SUCH AS THE PLUGIN FEATURE. |
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Appendices
This section lists changes made to PeerGuardian 2 since Beta 4.
Changes in the Release Candidate One
New Features:
- TBA
Fixed:
- TBA
Log:
- TBA
List Editor:
- TBA
History:
- TBA
Updater:
- TBA
Tray:
- TBA
Lists:
- TBA
Changes in beta 6
Log:
- Show protocol
- Show allowed connections
- Color code
- Save column sizes
- List Manager:
- Save window size/position
- Save column sizes
List Editor:
- Search by IP
- Optimize loading speed
- Save window size/position
- Save column sizes
History:
- File→Export
- File→Clear Database
- Archive after X days
- Searching
- Right click→Allow/Block
- Color code
- Close button
- Today button
- Optimize loading speed
- Save window size/position
- Save column sizes
Updater:
- Auto-close after X seconds
- Show description
- Smooth out progress bar
- Don’t freeze up on auto-update
- Save window size/position
- Save column sizes
Tray:
- Always on top
- Hide tray icon
- Blink for 3sec when things are blocked
Lists:
- Recognize semi-adjacent IP ranges (ie, 1.0.0.255 and 1.0.1.1, as 1.0.1.0 can not exist)
- Optimize code (now goes up to 4x faster!)
- Recognize 7z files
- Recognize more compact P2Bv3 files
- Attempt to load all files within .zip and .7z
Changes in beta 5
New:
- New UI
- History viewer
- Search lists by name
- Enable/Disable lists without removing them
- List caching (faster load times)
- Updater performs multiple tasks at once, and can be aborted
- Lower memory used for range names by 75%
Fixed:
- Log size of 0 causes 100% CPU lock-up
- Program crash if driver file not found
- Update Window popping up many times
- Program crash when reloading lists (allow, update)
- Incorrect list Optimisation
- AllowLocal not allowing adapter IPs
- Multi-byte conversion breaks on 0-length strings (9x only)
- Last update time for lists changed when update fails
- Error code 12029/0 when updating
- Runtime error when exiting
- Lists not reloaded on auto-update
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RE: PeerGuardian 2 Public Beta Is Out! BY: Joseph Farthing and Cory Nelson DATE: 2005-02-24
Hello friends,
The Methlabs staff are proud to announce that the PeerGuardian version 2.0 public is now officially available on our website. PeerGuardian 2, the child of the original PeerGuardian has been in development, from scratch, for more than 7 months. The original PeerGuardian was developed many years ago, but this new system is more accurate, sophisticated and efficient than any previous version.
This beta release is intended to the last stage before a definite 2.0 release. We think that our testing stages will have removed any bugs within the code, but we welcome all feedback from our users.
WHAT IS IN THE BETA?
PeerGuardian 2 requires no driver installation, yet blocks IP addresses at a far higher speed than was previously available - never above 1% CPU on most test systems. On Windows 2000 and greater PeerGuardian 2 blocks at a kernel level, acting against every protocol used within the windows system. On Windows 98 or Me it blocks TCP only* with the same high performance of the Windows 2000 version.
- due to technical reasons, kernel blocking in 98/ME is not feasible
WHAT IS STILL TO COME?
The plug-in system is still not complete, and some improvements to the GUI are yet to come. Other than that, the application is fully functional. A Linux/OSX version of PeerGuardian 2 is currently in development.
SIMPLICITY
PeerGuardian 2 is now totally automatic. You do not need to install a driver, simply run the program without any visits to the control panel. The new start-up wizard makes things easier than ever.
More detailed settings can be configured from the interface, including logging and the ability to prevent websites from being blocked. A single IP address may be allowed for a period of time, or permanently, solving the problem of bad IP addresses, and our new reporting and database management systems mean that you can play an active roll in preventing friendly IPs from being added.
BLOCKLIST.ORG DATABASES
The current P2P format database has been in existence since the original PeerGuardian was devised, and is now somewhat dated. Some changes and additions made to the database have made things worse, not better, and we’ve decided something needs to be done. A new binary format database has been developed, which massively reduces the length of time it takes to download the database. Our new IPDB (IP Database) pages are also open at http://blocklist.org, allowing the user to submit ranges for inclusion in the database, and for ranges to be voted good or bad, and marked as incorrect. We hope that via community effort we can turn the sometimes inaccurate database into a much more accurate tool.
OPENNESS
PeerGuardian 2 is Open Source, meaning the program code is available on-line for anyone who wants it. Not only does this allow you to make modifications or even branch off into your own project, but it encourages peer review of the code making sure any bugs are eliminated swiftly. Because PeerGuardian 2 is Open Source, you can rest assured there are no back-doors or spy-ware included.
We hope you enjoy PeerGuardian 2, feel free to comment on our software, and distribute it among your friends.
Sincerely, Joseph Farthing and Cory Nelson on behalf of the Methlabs staff.
(I am available for contact about this: JFM at Methlabs dot org)
Press Release
September 22nd, 2005 Methlabs.org and PeerGuardian developers in exile
The majority of the Methlabs.org administration and development team have been forced out of their web site following a series of threats and incidents. The member of the group that had been trusted to handle the finances and servers slowly managed to take over each individual part of the web site's assets, eventually claiming control over the entire group and locking out the majority of staff.
The organisation's founders, Tim Leonard and Ken McKelland, as well as the majority of the organisation's staff and developers (including the main developer of the PeerGuardian2 application, Cory Nelson and the staff members responsible for auditing the PeerGuardian Blocklists) have all been forcibly removed from the servers that were funded from donations given to the organisation by happy users, and from text advertising placed on the web sites forum and project pages.
The money, which was to have been used to help fund the development and hosting costs of the group is now unavailable, stolen by the one who was trusted to keep it.
Development of PeerGuardian will resume, and the web site will temporarily move to http://peerguardian.sf.net/ until a new domain is registered and a new server found. The intention of the group is to register a non-profit organisation to handle the development of Methlabs applications and to promote open source projects that aid both security, privacy and peer-to-peer technologies, in order to prevent a repeat of this incident.
Update: We have a new home at Phoenix Labs
The team wish all their users the best through this difficult time, but promise that development will continue. Please visit http://peerguardian.sf.net/ for news as we make progress. All other sites, including http://methlabs.org and http://blocklist.org, are under control of the rogue member and should not be trusted for safe updates to our applications or lists.
A new build of PeerGuardian will be released soon to reflect these changes. Until then we ask you to continue using Beta 6a but with caution as the list update servers are no longer under our control and may be unsafe.
Update: PeerGuardian 2.0 Beta 6b has been released. We recommend updating immediately to ensure your privacy and safety aren't compromised.
All staff are available in irc.freenode.net, channel #methlabs and our forums if you wish to chat.
Thanks, The Methlabs Staff (looking for a new home),
Adam Hoier, Cory Nelson, Eric Mayuk, Fox Lowe, James Shanelec, Joseph Farthing, Ken McKelland, Steffen Tuzar, Tim Leonard
aka
braindancer, D3F, fox, FuRiOuS1, JFM, KuKIE, method, phrosty, r00ted
About PhoenixLabs:
phoenixlabs.org is a non-profit organisation founded to protect the privacy of Internet users from certain corporations and groups. We represent several million peer-to-peer and Internet users, and do not have any commercial alliance or interest. We are funded entirely by donations and text-advertising on some more bandwidth-intensive pages.
If you are interested in the Phoenix Labs community, please visit Phoenix Labs Forum
The official homepage is at: www.phoenixlabs.org
About Blocklist.org:
Blocklist.org is a website designed to allow users to interactively manage and block the IP addresses of certain organisations and companies. Founded in late 2004 by phoenixlabs.org, it is intended to be a platform agnostic database that utilises published open formats.
THANKS
Methlabs would like to thank our active beta testers and staff for the work they have contributed towards this project:
aretx, Ake, BlueIce, bitrot, braindancer cerberius, chaos3, Chrissyx, D3F, drake, Don_Phrostbyte, DVDeviant, eremini, fox, FuRiOuS1, Gambit20011, GoldenMonkey, haker0, Insanelycool, Jupiter, JFM, jmdenver, KuKIE, LS7, MaKaVeLi, Method, mercury7, MilesApart, Mystique, Nothingface5384, Nullcontext, PCGUY112887, Pepsi_One, Prof. Yaffle, r00ted, rjmuckler, ROCKAMANIAC, Segata, shortfuse, SkinGraft, sLow, somekindahate, squijello, the_matrix_has_you,
as well as the other 10,000+ people who have joined our community.
We’d especially like to thank the Methlabs Supporters:
aperuma, arcticjaguar, banditmick, bellrb19, bick, blee309, ChronoStriker1, offeecomet, dalma, darkdlight, dawhizzz, EricaZ, farkinbasteg, fphaynes53, fox, ry808, Golden-Gnu, Grim, IsoDisc, jmdenver, jojje, ldubb2, LPC, manonight, mishu , Munchr, quip, Red-Baron, rednesss, rg1, rjmuckler, Shinji, shortfuse, spaminator, quijello, squirrel64, swren, tealc, TripWireRVN
as well as everyone else who has donated money!
