While its title “DesertFighter” sounds like a PC game, it is actually a small network security tool of its own kind. It does not do anything other than blocking the protocols or ports to prevent unknown connections to your system. This is usually done by a good firewall software but if your Windows PC does not have any firewall software installed then you can perhaps use a small tool like DesertFighter for some defense against unknown online threats.
DesertFighter has a very simple user interface. It has three sections with buttons to block or allow three different things – UDP protocols, remote clients and the local clients. The first feature blocks UDP protocol which is used only by a few applications and you can safely live without it. The second feature blocks remote applications or computers from connecting to your computer. Here you can give a few exceptions if needed. However, such remote connections are needed only if your computer is running a server or file sharing applications.
The third feature is for blocking all the local clients from connecting to the outer networks. Using this feature you can block applications like web browsers and email clients from going online. When this feature is enabled, you won’t be able to access the internet through a web browser. In fact, if you block UDP connections as well as use the local connections (using the first and the second features respectively) then you can effectively make your PC go offline. There will still be some system processes that could access the internet, but no ordinary programs would be able to access the internet.
DesertFighter offers a quick way to block certain types of connections in Windows instantly. It can block the local connections to the internet, remote clients from connecting to your system and the UDP protocol. It can be thought of a little passive firewall that works great when you don’t have a real firewall software installed.
You can download DesertFighter from http://www.worknhope.net/DesertFighter.html.