Configure Vallum

There are three ways to configure Vallum

• Choose a predefined configuration strategy
• Run step by step configuration assistant
• Manual configuration

1) Configuration Strategies

To choose from a predefined strategy click the 'Strategies' button in Vallum toolbar, then select a strategy and click 'Start this strategy'. A drop down view will show you some options according to the choosen strategy. Click 'Start Firewall' to start Vallum. Rules view will be displayed. Every time you select a strategy current Vallum rules will be overwritten.
Once firewall is active you can tune its configuration managing Global Rules, Managed Apps Rules and Managed Folders Rules or changing Vallum preferences.

2) Configuration Assistant

If you want to be guided step by step through the firewall configuration then run Vallum Assistant. There you can choose between different firewall attitudes, interactivity levels, filtering approaches. You can always review your choices or restart the Assistant from scratch. Once firewall is active you can tune its configuration managing Global Rules, Managed Apps Rules and Managed Folders Rules or changing Vallum preferences. Configuration Assistant can be restarted from the Tools menu in Vallum toolbar or from the Strategies view.

3) Manual configuration

If you want to manually configure Vallum then you should start from Vallum default configuration. You can load default configuration from Strategies view. This is an empty configuration and notification alerts are disabled thus the firewall never requests interaction. Global Rules and Managed Folders are empty. Managed Apps view is also empty at the beginning. All connections will be passed. A new pass rule will be automatically created for all apps that connects to the network, and Managed Apps view will be populated with their icons.

Manual configuration requires you to add new rules to Global Rules, Managed Apps and Managed Folders. If you want to enable notification alerts you can do that from Vallum Preferences.

Notification Alerts

The most important choice to make when configuring the firewall manually is to enable or disable notification alerts. This can be set in Vallum Preferences. This option greatly modify how Vallum works:

• When notification alerts are disabled Vallum enables an exclusive firewall. If ruleset is empty all connections are passed. If a connection does not match any existing rule, the connection is passed and a pass rule is automatically generated in Managed Apps view. The rule will allow all outbound connections for the app or process that triggered the connection.


• When notification alerts are disabled Vallum enables an inclusive firewall. If ruleset is empty all connections will trigger a notification alert. Connection is held until the user makes the choice to pass or block it. Once done, Vallum stores the answer in app's ruleset.