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Firekeeper

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Firekeeper User Help

This document is an overview of Firekeeper functionality with screenshots. See also Firekeeper rules description

... Installation ...

After installing Firekeeper you should have new Tools menu item and new status bar item 1 with black word 'Firekeeper' (red indicates that something went wrong).

... Configuration ...

Click Tools menu item [Firekeeper] to open configuration window. Following controls are available:

• Check box 2 that disables Firekeeper.
• List of files with rules in use 3. By default three files are available:
  • blacklist - rules are automatically appended to this file when you decide to block permanently some URL.
  • whitelist - rules are automatically appended to this file when you decide to whitelist permanently some URL. You can edit whitelist and blacklist files to remove and add rules but you can't remove these files.
  • default - this file contains default Firekeeper rules. It is updated every time new version of Firekeeper is available so it can't be edited (any changes would be lost). You can remove this file when you decide not to use these default rules.
  You can manage files with following buttons:
  • [Add local file] - adds file with rules from your local disc.
  • [Add remote file] - adds remote file with rules (prompts for URL of this file). If remote file is unreachable Firekeeper uses last successfully downloaded version ot this file. Remote files are always loaded after local files, giving an opportunity to use Firekeeper rules to filter content of remote files (ex. don't allow whitelist rules to be loaded from remote location).
  • [Remove file] - removes file from the file list.
  • [Reload all files] - reads again and loads rules from all files. Useful, for example, when you edit file with an external text editor to load your changes.
• File content 4. You can view and edit a file selected from the file list here (with an exception of remote files and default file which can't be edited). Click [Save] after you edit file to load new version of it. You can also edit files with an external editor.
• Text box 5 displays syntax errors in selected file (if there are any). If some rule in a file has incorrect syntax Firekeeper tries to load other rules anyway.

... Alerts ...

Firekeeper alerts are displayed when an 'alert' rule is triggered. If you use the default file with rules you can check how alerts works by visiting test site. Alert window has following elements:

• Alert description 6 contains URL that triggered an alert and message that describes this alert (specified by 'msg' part of the rule).
• References 7 are links to web pages that describe current alert in details (specified by 'reference' parts of the rule).
• At the bottom of the window 8 you can choose an action to take in response to the alert:
  • [Block once] - interrupts processing of the HTTP(S) response that caused the alert. Next time the same page is loaded alert will be displayed again.
  • [Allow once] - allows further processing of the response. Next time the same page is loaded alert will be displayed again.
  • [Blacklist] - interrupts processing of the HTTP(S) response that caused the alert and adds response URL to the blacklist. Next time you visit blacklisted URL it will be silently blocked without an alert.
  • [Whitelist] - allows further processing of the response and adds response URL to the whitelist. Whitelisted URLs are not examined at all.
  Firekeeper blacklists and whitelists URL by creating a new rule which is added to the blacklist or whitelist file. You can modify options of this rule in a text box which is at the bottom of the alert window. By default only exact URL which caused an alert is black or whitelisted. You may want to blacklist the whole domain or directory on the site. To do this edit rules options before clicking [Blacklist] or [Whitelist].