PeerGuardian Lite is an IP blocker and it is a derivative of PeerGuardian 2 made to consume as little CPU and RAM as possible. It has no UI or options and consists of a single tray icon. The application can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon Pro, which allows you to have the application start automatically at boot prior to login. This HOWTO will show you how to set it up. You can also use FireDaemon Fusion to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.
PeerGuardian Lite Setup Under FireDaemon Pro
PeerGuardian Lite development has been discontinued and is no longer available at the developers website. Regardless, the application still works as intended. Download the last Peer Guardian Lite file from the SourceForge site.
Extract the files to a directory on your computer. For the purposes of this HOWTO, we will be using C:\Peer Guardian Lite.
Peer Guardian Lite uses 1 configuration file to store its settings. In the Peer Guardian Lite root directory create a file called "guarding.p2p". The extension needs to be p2p to work. Make sure it's not a text file with .p2p in the filename.
Download and install FireDaemon Pro into the directory of your choice, typically C:\Program Files\FireDaemon.
Next start the FireDaemon GUI from the desktop shortcut. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Adjust the paths to suit your installation. Note that no parameters are required.
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Executable: The path to your pglite.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Peer Guardian Lite\pglite.exe.
- Working Directory: The directory containing your pglite.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Peer Guardian Lite.
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Parameters: None. Leave this field blank.
Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see Peer Guardian Lite running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select “Hidden” from the “Show Window” dropdown. You can optionally run Peer Guardian Lite as the user you installed it as. In the Logon Account field type your username (e.g. Administrator) and then enter the user's password twice in the Password and Confirm fields. You can change the Process Priority to allocate more CPU time to Peer Guardian Lite or specify which CPU or core Peer Guardian Lite will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs).
Now click on the Dependencies tab. Make sure the service depends on your Web Server service to ensure that the Web Server is up prior to starting Peer Guardian Lite.
Now click on the OK button to install and start Peer Guardian Lite!
guarding.p2p Format
The format for guarding.p2p is as follows:
# Comment RANGE NAME:1.2.3.4-5.6.7.8
# - This comments out lines. It's good to use for the sake of organization.
RANGE NAME - This is the name that you want to name the range, for example Port Scanner
1.2.3.4 - This is the first IP of the range.
5.6.7.8 - This is the last IP of the range. If you are banning a single IP, use the same IP in both ranges.
Here's a great site for IP blocklists; http://iblocklist.com If you do use the blocklists from this site, make sure you merge them all into your guarding.p2p file.