**A Frustrating Networking Issue and a Review of GlassWire**

When suddenly my main Windows 10 rig decided to treat my network as “Public” instead of “Home” or “Private” and would not even give me the option to change it by normal means, thus cutting off my mounted network shares with my render server and NAS drives, it was frustrating to pull this up and have no control here since Windows 10’s networking options are a steaming pile of shit. I don’t have any idea of GlassWire’s firewall or restrictions somehow changed my network profile or of Windows 10 is just screwing with me. It could be either or both not getting along.

I’ve not seen this be a common issue in my research, however, while using GlassWire, it will popup alerts in the bottom-right-hand corner alerting you when an app accesses the internet for the first time, or information about the application has changed, a change in DNS settings, that kind of thing. The Alerts tab will show you a history of your alerts, sorted by date, apps or type. This is helpful - nothing’s more frustrating than getting a notification from an app when you’re not looking at the screen and then not being able to figure out what it said.

While I love that Windows 8 and 10 introduced integrated notifications, this drives me nuts - I’ll be in another room, hear the notification jingle and then never figure out what Windows wanted to tell me. Same thing with Malwarebytes sometimes, though they’ve gotten better about it. A raw list of alerts is the way to go, IMO, so kudos to GlassWire.

This software can do a lot - and it can do any more if you pop open the settings and go to security. Here you can disable alerts or enable a couple really cool ones that I haven’t seen in other security apps. Firstly, you have a monitor for network device activity. This would get annoying for me, but could work for others. You can enable “While you were away” alert to group up activity when you’re detected as idle.

You can set a bandwidth cap size and a time period and have GlassWire alert you if the computer has gone over that bandwidth amount (so you’d wanna set it a little lower than your actual cap so you know when you’re getting close). But my favorite is that there’s an alert for when apps or sites access your camera and microphone! This is huge. In my opinion, as the “internet of things” concept starts becoming reality and all of our computers have cameras and microphones all over them, monitoring activity for these devices and general security regarding them goes way too overlooked.

While you might get annoyed being told that every little thing accesses your camera and microphone, I think it’s REALLY important to have this information available. Here in the settings, you can clear your history, disable startup (but if you do it won’t be monitoring your system until you open GlassWire), change the language and graph skin, and setup server connectivity. You can install this on multiple boxes and monitor all from one place! This is great for server environments.

If you’re wanting to keep an eye on your machine or entire network, GlassWire does a great job. It tracks network activity better than any app I’ve used thus far - even Malwarebytes’ annoying “Website Alerts” - and it has the most intuitive firewall UI I could ask for. It will cost you a little, but it’s reasonably priced, in my opinion, and no good security app is really free.

My only main concern is that the program is currently only available for Windows PCs. Their FAQ has a listing of “Do you have a Mac/Android/iPhone version?” with the answer being “Not yet, should we?” and I say YES! 100% YES! I’d also love to see a build for Linux, while there’s already a lot more security tools available for Linux, the intuitive nature of the UI for GlassWire would still be amazing to have, especially for newer users who are still concerned about security.

GlassWire comes in 3 plan tiers, with bulk pricing available for custom quotes. The Basic plan includes 1 PC coverage with 3 remote connections and a 6-month history view. The Pro plan covers 3 PCs and lets you see through 1 year of history, with 10 remote connections possible. And the Elite plan covers 10 PCs with unlimited history view and unlimited remote connections. All of these come with the full range of features.

You’ll still need a formal antivirus to keep you safe, too, but this is perfect for monitoring. Link to GlassWire will be in the description below, along with a coupon code just for my viewers. Even if you don’t have the money right now, I definitely recommend putting GlassWire at the TOP of your list if you’re at all concerned about security.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIn my book, any app that can provide you withmore information about the security of yoursystem is something to use.I haven’t talked about security softwaremuch on this channel, mainly because it canbe a touchy subject and I don’t wish torattle any cages, but it’s time that changed.Today we’re going to be taking a look atGlassWire, an incredibly informative firewallsoftware that truly helps you keep an eyeon your privacyand security.GlassWire is a tool that gives you tons ofinformation and control over data usage, networkconnections and firewall.It’s not free, but no good security programis.I’ll have a special coupon code in the descriptionto help out, if you like.Let’s take a look at the app running onmy main Windows 10 workstation.For the main screen, you have a look at 5things right up front.First you have a graph that shows all thenetwork activity from your machine - bothupstream and downstream - sorted by specifictype of traffic and the app or service pullingthe data.Downstream is blue, upstream is pink.The graph scrolls in real-time with timecodesand scales based on data rate.You can zoom in or out on the timeline, pauseit to inspect specific peaks, and view a historythat goes back a long time, depending on whichlicense you buy.The basic license has a 6-month history, thePro license has a 1 year history, and theElite license has an unlimited history.We’ll get into the other differences ofthe licenses later.You can also take screenshots of the graphat any time.It’s pretty neat - you have all the informationyou could need about what’s transmittingdata from your machine.This is great overall - if visualizes yournetwork’s information for you, actuallymakes it interesting to look at, and givesyou more entry points to care about what’shappening on your network.Once you know what’s going on with yournetwork, you’ll wanna make some changes.Head over to the Firewall tab.This shows you currently running apps andservices, what host they’re connecting to,the upstream and downstream data rates, andthen a preview of the graph.You can turn the firewall on or off or clickto block individual apps from having internetaccess.You also have the option of making apps askto connect to external networks or blockingall traffic altogether in their “Lock downmode” - which can be great if you know yoursystem is compromised and need to restrictall network access while you clean it up,something I wish I’d had in years past.I really like this, as it gives me MUCH moreinformation and control than other firewallapps I’ve used, and generally just makesmore sense.I’ve never quite understood why making adecent firewall UI is so hard for most apps,but GlassWire has gotten it right.The ability to block individual applicationsis fantastic for directly controlling whatyour apps do and for limiting ones that you’re…trying before you buy… yeah.As I dig around in the UI, I did have onecomplaint about it.When I scale up the window to a more legiblesize on my UHD display, I can’t resize columnwidth, like with tables and spreadsheets.So at any size but the default, things startto look a little janky.For a more detailed look at total cumulativedata usage, we have the Usage tab.It shows a little chart of how much totaldata has been used, whether it’s outgoingor incoming and whether it’s external orlocal.Then it sorts by apps, host locations - whichis cool to see for me since some of my higher-usagehosts are actually local boxes on my network- and then traffic type such as Dropbox LanSync,Skype Protocol or normal HTTP.Again, you can sort this a couple ways andview the full history of this information.It’s basically the same info as the Graphtab, but focusing on a different side of things.This can be useful to compare to your ISP’sdata usage meters and if you have a data capit can help keep an eye on your data usageand maybe argue a case if they say you wentover your cap when you didn’t.However keep in mind this is only measuringthe machine it’s installed on, not yourwhole network.The network tab is really neat, as it showsall of the locally connected devices on yournetwork.You can sort by IP address, MAC address, Vendorof the network adapters being used, or whenthe devices were first seen.You can choose to view by DNS or IP.DNS has the chance to display the networkname of the device - for example, my renderserver is called “CineformBox” for the10 gigabit connection and shows as “CineformBoxdot lan” for the normal gigabit connection.But some devices only show their IP address.If you choose IP Address then it only showsthe IP address.This section is neat to see what you’reconnected to locally and try to sniff outsuspicious devices, but I have quite a fewdevices that just show up as “Unknown”- including my printer and wifi security camera- and you can’t do anything with these devicesfrom this software.There’s nothing to click on or ability tochange any settings here.It’s still great that it shows the information,though.But when suddenly my main Windows 10 rig decidedto treat my network as “Public” insteadof “Home” or “Private” and would noteven give me the option to change it by normalmeans, thus cutting off my mounted networkshares with my render server and NAS drives,it was frustrating to pull this up and haveno control here since Windows 10’s networkingoptions are a steaming pile of shit.I don’t have any idea of GlassWire’s firewallor restrictions somehow changed my networkprofile or of Windows 10 is just screwingwith me.It could be either.Or both not getting along.I’ve not seen this be a common issue inmy research, however.While you’re using GlassWire, it will popup alerts in the bottom-right-hand corneralerting you when an app accesses the internetfor the first time, or information about theapplication has changed, a change in DNS settings,that kind of thing.The Alerts tab will show you a history ofyour alerts, sorted by date, apps or type.This is helpful - nothing’s more frustratingthan getting a notification from an app whenyou’re not looking at the screen and thennot being able to figure out what it said.While I love that Windows 8 and 10 introducedintegrated notifications, this drives me nuts- I’ll be in another room, hear the notificationjingle and then never figure out what Windowswanted to tell me.Same thing with Malwarebytes sometimes, thoughthey’ve gotten better about it.A raw list of alerts is the way to go, IMO,so kudos to GlassWire.This software can do a lot - and it can doany more if you pop open the settings andgo to security.Here you can disable alerts or enable a couplereally really cool ones that I haven’t seenin other security apps.Firstly, you have a monitor for network deviceactivity.This would get annoying for me, but couldwork for others.You can enable “While you were away” alertsto group up activity when you’re detectedas idle.You can set a bandwidth cap size and a timeperiod and have GlassWire alert you if thecomputer has gone over that bandwidth amount(so you’d wanna set it a little lower thanyour actual cap so you know when you’regetting close).But my favorite is that there’s an alertfor when apps or sites access your cameraand microphone!This is huge!In my opinion, as the “internet of things”concept starts becoming reality and all ofour computers have cameras and microphonesall over them, monitoring activity for thesedevices and general security regarding themgoes way too overlooked.While you might get annoyed being told thateverything under the sun accesses your cameraand microphone, I think it’s REALLY importantto have this information available.Here in the settings, you can clear your history,disable startup (but if you do it won’tbe monitoring your system until you open GlassWire),change the language and graph skin, and setup server connectivity.You can install this on multiple boxes andmonitor all from one place!This is great for server environments.If you’re wanting to keep an eye on yourmachine or entire network, GlassWire doesa great job.It tracks network activity better than anyapp I’ve used thus far - even Malwarebytes’annoying “Website Alerts” - and it hasthe most intuitive firewall UI I could askfor.It will cost you a little, but it’s reasonablypriced, in my opinion, and no good securityapp is really free.My only main concern is that the program iscurrently only available for Windows PCs.Their FAQ has a listing of “Do you havea Mac/Android/iPhone version?”with the answer being “Not yet, should we?”and I say YES!100% YES!I’d also love to see a build for Linux.While there’s already a lot more securitytools available for Linux, the intuitive natureof the UI for GlassWire would still be amazingto have, especially for newer users who arestill concerned about security.GlassWire comes in 3 plan tiers, with bulkpricing available for custom quotes.The Basic plan includes 1 PC coverage with3 remote connections and a 6 month historyview.The Pro plan covers 3 PCs and lets you seethrough 1 year of history, with 10 remoteconnections possible.And the Elite plan covers 10 PCs with unlimitedhistory view and unlimited remote connections.All of these come with the full range of features.You’ll still need a formal antivirus tokeep you safe, too, but this is perfect formonitoring.Link to GlassWire will be in the descriptionbelow, along with a coupon code just for myviewers.Even if you don’t have the money right now,I definitely recommend putting GlassWire atthe TOP of your list if you’re at all concernedabout security.\n"