OA Free or Outpost Pro?

[firzen771]

the question might sound weird, but id really like to see people's thoughts on if the limitations of the free version of OA compared to its payed version wuld still be better than the paid version of outpost FW.

so in short would the free version of OA be better than the PAID version of Outpost on a laptop (that moves around a lot) ?

[FirePost]

This sounds just like one of those this versus that AV threads and a moderator should shut it down.

Once one reaches a certain level of performance in the firewall it becomes a matter of preference. Your question "the limitations of the free version of OA compared to its payed version wuld still be better than the paid version of outpost FW", is a subjective question and that wuld still be better gives us your view.

No OA free would not still be better than Outpost paid. OA paid is not better than Outpost paid either for those that prefer Outpost. Those that prefer OA have a different answer and why not compare OA free to Outpost free?

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "This sounds just like one of those this versus that AV threads and a moderator should shut it down.

Once one reaches a certain level of performance in the firewall it becomes a matter of preference. Your question "the limitations of the free version of OA compared to its payed version wuld still be better than the paid version of outpost FW", is a subjective question and that wuld still be better gives us your view.

No OA free would not still be better than Outpost paid. OA paid is not better than Outpost paid either for those that prefer Outpost. Those that prefer OA have a different answer and why not compare OA free to Outpost free?" }-

reason i ask for outpost paid is because i have a license for that while i dont have one for OA... and the reason i ask this question is cuz i hear OA is quieter but im wondering if its free versions limitations wuld still provide equal or better protection and system performance (system and internet slowdowns).

[gery]

-{ Quote: "This sounds just like one of those this versus that AV threads and a moderator should shut it down.

Once one reaches a certain level of performance in the firewall it becomes a matter of preference. Your question "the limitations of the free version of OA compared to its payed version wuld still be better than the paid version of outpost FW", is a subjective question and that wuld still be better gives us your view.

No OA free would not still be better than Outpost paid. OA paid is not better than Outpost paid either for those that prefer Outpost. Those that prefer OA have a different answer and why not compare OA free to Outpost free?" }-
i don't think that it would be prohibited here to make an A vB product for the firewalls isn't it?

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "i don't think that it would be prohibited here to make an A vB product for the firewalls isn't it?" }-

as far as i know, its only for AV's but my question is more regarding features, cuz im seeing if the limitations in free OA wuld still accomplish equal or perhaps more protection than outpost pro, plus id like to know which one has less system drag and less internet slow down?

[Zyrtec]

-{ Quote: "i don't think that it would be prohibited here to make an A vB product for the firewalls isn't it?" }-


Hi there,

Please, check this out...just in case: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=247046


Regards,

Carlos

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "Hi there,

Please, check this out...just in case: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=247046


Regards,

Carlos" }-

well looking at why the admin closed that thread, he said it applies to AV's and OA vs Comodo threads, this is neither so it shuld be fine.

[Kees1958]

OA free does not protect at boot-up, so Outpost Pro (or free) would provide better protection on that aspect (protection during boot is the only reason for me to use Windows FW behind a router).

Off course there are other aspects, but can't go into that becasue this would be A versus B

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "OA free does not protect at boot-up, so Outpost Pro (or free) would provide better protection on that aspect (protection during boot is the only reason for me to use Windows FW behind a router).

Off course there are other aspects, but can't go into that becasue this would be A versus B" }-

well id like to hear these other aspects, if u culd PM me what u mean to avoid making this AvB then? it wuld be very helpful. and by protect at boot, do u mean that if i have OA free, i basically have no FW while im booting up?

[Kees1958]

PM-ed you,


Looking at your sig,

Why don't you download Vista FW control free, start all internet facing software, do all updates, then write down which programs require outbound connection and manually set Vista FW to be two-way (using Stem's guide to do so) for these programs. When ready uninstall VistaFW control.

cheers

[pbw3]

Apols if I am simply being a bit slow, but what does "protected during boot-up" mean, and why do you need to be protected by the firewall during the boot-up process.. Surely one only connects say to the internet or outside world after boot up is complete? I know I do...

But, assuming I am missing something here.. If somehow connecting the computer to the internet is part of one's start up routine, then which comes first "as a process" - connecting to the internet or starting the firewall service..?? I'm clearly still confused..:), because that then suggests there is a point, afer the firewall service has started whilst it decides not to protect (but it is still running as a service?), until a certain point when it then does protect, which is presumably what is deemed to be the completion of boot up.. What am I missing...

Whatever the answer is to the above, does OA paid act differently from OA free in that context (if not OT)?

Peter

[Kees1958]

OA free does not protect at boot up, OA paid does

Simply put , you want your software firewall to protect you asap.

Difference between OA free and OA paid, could be that the FW service starts default in protected or unprotected mode. Possibly the OA gui application by default activates this service (or checks whether it is running properly, when not starts it). This could be an easy way of differentiating this between the free and the paid version.

Hopes this helps

[pbw3]

-{ Quote: "
Difference between OA free and OA paid, could be that the FW service starts default in protected or unprotected mode. Possibly the OA gui application by default activates this service (or checks whether it is running properly, when not starts it). This could be an easy way of differentiating this between the free and the paid version.

Hopes this helps" }-
Yes thanks, it does..

Looking at the OA site, I notice they also describe "limited autostart protection" as being a difference between the paid / unpaid product. Could this be referring to their autoruns feature (ie monitoring what sits on the start up list), or is it this which is suggesting some sort of limited boot-up protection? It's not too clear, and I have struggled to find any other reference at all..

[bonedriven]

I'd rather use outpost free than its pro version even if I'm given a license of pro for free.

Maybe it helps.

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "I'd rather use outpost free than its pro version even if I'm given a license of pro for free.

Maybe it helps." }-

why exactly? is it because Matousec says its better? ::)

[bonedriven]

-{ Quote: "why exactly? is it because Matousec says its better? ::)" }-

My computer had problems with pro. And the tips to solve those relatively common problems I read in a forum is that "turn off feartures which pro has".

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "That doesn't really make sense from what I know about Outpost.

For me, I actually employ the same concept with Avira Free. Even if I had a license for Avira Premium, I'd use Avira Free. The Premium version is just too bloated for my needs." }-

i dont think "bloated" is a good term to use for having a web scanner... and id much rather disable a webscanner than have to see that annoying popup every update AND the fact that u can only update once every 24 hours (their might be a way around this, but why have to find a work-around when with premium u can set it to w/e u want)

[bonedriven]

-{ Quote: "That doesn't really make sense from what I know about Outpost.

For me, I actually employ the same concept with Avira Free. Even if I had a license for Avira Premium, I'd use Avira Free. The Premium version is just too bloated for my needs." }-

If you use Avira along with outpost,the web guard and antispyware features are turned off for better compatibility. Now you are almost left with the "attack detection" feature which has false alarms. It kept reporting that Opendns which I was using was attacking me with "port scan attack". That's ridiculous. And I also read that most of the other internet attack methods outpost protect from are useless if you are using "XP,Vista,7". I can't confirm it though.

[twl845]

Are there any comparisons between OA and OP that don't have something to do with Avira? Not to go too far off topic, but what about OA and OP paid versions?

[Acadia]

You might be able to configure Outpost FW to work with Avira, I was able to do that with NOD which initially caused the Outpost Anti-Spyware to shut down. http://www.agnitum.com/support/kb/article.php?id=1000253&lang=en

Acadia

[Manny Carvalho]

FAQ on OP free: http://www.outpostfirewall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24216

Better or worst than anything else? Only you can answer that. I certainly can't.

[Kees1958]

On freebie level with good HIPS there is Comodo and OP Free (OA does not provide boot protection which is a knock ut criteria for me). Overall OP is much more transparent and easier to use. Using Comodo D+ only on pro-active mode, makes it a good HIPS.

On Paid level OA Paid and OP Pro, I would choose OA (OP having life time lisence advantage). When you intent to use a different AV, OP Pro's benefits are in the Firewall logs.

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "On freebie level with good HIPS there is Comodo and OP Free (OA does not provide boot protection which is a knock ut criteria for me). Overall OP is much more transparent and easier to use. Using Comodo D+ only on pro-active mode, makes it a good HIPS.

On Paid level OA Paid and OP Pro, I would choose OA (OP having life time lisence advantage). When you intent to use a different AV, OP Pro's benefits are in the Firewall logs." }-

ye im not gunna use CIS ;D but i think im gunna have to go with OP Pro since i dont feel like paying $40 for a firewall then have to renew that yearly and OA free is missing that important boot time protection :(.

my only concern now is how Outpost peforms when it comes to internet speeds, does OP slow down ur internet considerably or in any way? and i heard their used to be an issue when using P2P that memory usage wuld just climb continuously, can anyone confirm if this is fixed or not or any other insight u culd give on the topic of performance and resource usage wuld be much appreciated. any info anyone can give me wuld be great.

[MikeNash]

-{ Quote: "ye im not gunna use CIS ;D but i think im gunna have to go with OP Pro since i dont feel like paying $40 for a firewall then have to renew that yearly and OA free is missing that important boot time protection :(.

my only concern now is how Outpost peforms when it comes to internet speeds, does OP slow down ur internet considerably or in any way? and i heard their used to be an issue when using P2P that memory usage wuld just climb continuously, can anyone confirm if this is fixed or not or any other insight u culd give on the topic of performance and resource usage wuld be much appreciated. any info anyone can give me wuld be great." }-

The renewal is $14.95 - and it's not mandatory :)

[mvdu]

-{ Quote: "The renewal is $14.95 - and it's not mandatory :)" }-

That's a very good renewal price. By "not mandatory" you mean the version you are running continues to work, just without updates - right?

[MikeNash]

-{ Quote: "That's a very good renewal price. By "not mandatory" you mean the version you are running continues to work, just without updates - right?" }-

Yep, that's right!

[Manny Carvalho]

-{ Quote: " ....
my only concern now is how Outpost peforms when it comes to internet speeds, does OP slow down ur internet considerably or in any way? and i heard their used to be an issue when using P2P that memory usage wuld just climb continuously, can anyone confirm if this is fixed or not or any other insight u culd give on the topic of performance and resource usage wuld be much appreciated. any info anyone can give me wuld be great." }-I've been a long time user of Outpost and I've never noticed any speed reduction when testing with and without OP installed. That's not to say that it hasn't happened to some people but it's usually due to their configuration rather than what OP is doing directly. Of course, any firewall is going to slow things down a little due to the extra process of filtering all traffic but as far as I'm concerned, from a user perspective, it's not noticeable.

I've no personal experience with p2p software other than Skype and it works fine for me. But again some people do experience problems which undoubtely would happen regardless of what firewall is installed.

The only way you'll be able to tell is to try it, which you can do for 30 days for free.

[bonedriven]

-{ Quote: "my only concern now is how Outpost peforms when it comes to internet speeds, does OP slow down ur internet considerably or in any way? and i heard their used to be an issue when using P2P that memory usage wuld just climb continuously, can anyone confirm if this is fixed or not or any other insight u culd give on the topic of performance and resource usage wuld be much appreciated. any info anyone can give me wuld be great." }-

I don't think op slows down my internet speed. p2p works well too by default settings.

[firzen771]

thx for everyones comments, i think ive come to my descision but still wuldnt mind hearing other's opinions. if anyone has the results from the last perfTCP and perfUDP tests on matousec i wuldnt mind seeing them. and thx for clearing up the fact that u dont HAVE to renew, thats good to know.

[waters]

I have paid OA and i am using outpost free.I use P2P all the time and much prefer Outpost.No Outpost free does not slow things down

[mvdu]

-{ Quote: "Yep, that's right!" }-

Is Online Armor thinking about offering a limited time Lifetime License offer like Outpost has done?

[Woody777]

I had the same decision to make & I went with Online Armor. I like the HIPS the clear GUI the simplicity the ease of use. OA in the free version is just a firewall & conflicts with nothing. OP Disables most of its protection with Avire, Avast & NOD. So what AV are you guys using?

[Acadia]

Outpost's Anti-spyware protection can be turned back on whenever it shuts itself off:
http://www.agnitum.com/support/kb/article.php?id=1000253&lang=en

I use NOD and was able to turn AS feature back on and so far (about one week) have had absolutely no problems. I do not know how this would work for Avira or Avast.

Acadia

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "I had the same decision to make & I went with Online Armor. I like the HIPS the clear GUI the simplicity the ease of use. OA in the free version is just a firewall & conflicts with nothing. OP Disables most of its protection with Avire, Avast & NOD. So what AV are you guys using?" }-

so u consider its AntiSpyware module and such to be "most of its protection" i guess u consider the HIPS or FIREWALL parts to just be secondary to that legendary AntiSpyware part of it... ::)

[firzen771]

testing Outpost pro on an low grade laptop (just for testing purposes before i put it on a real system) 768mb RAM, 1.6ghz processor, XP SP3, so far running smooth as silk with next to no browsing drag or system drag, like it so far.

[virtumonde]

-{ Quote: "so u consider its AntiSpyware module and such to be "most of its protection" i guess u consider the HIPS or FIREWALL parts to just be secondary to that legendary AntiSpyware part of it... ::)" }-

Of course,you're right but I think it's Agnitum Fault,adding so many features.It's confusing for most users,who think they are less protected while the beauty of outpost lies in in's superb firewall configuartion Imo,and very decent HIPS.It's suppossed to be an firewall after all,we're not talking about the suite i hope.

-{ Quote: "

I had the same decision to make & I went with Online Armor. I like the HIPS the clear GUI the simplicity the ease of use. OA in the free version is just a firewall & conflicts with nothing. OP Disables most of its protection with Avire, Avast & NOD. So what AV are you guys using?" }-
If you install outpost first than from what i know if u install other antivirus it would work ok.
But even if not what features are disabled?Antispyware ,certainly not needed if u use other antivirus.
Web Control ?i wouldn't say about this that it's not useful ,but if u are running Firefox it's about the same as using adblock plus and Noscript.

[twl845]

-{ Quote: "Of course,you're right but I think it's Agnitum Fault,adding so many features.It's confusing for most users,who think they are less protected while the beauty of outpost lies in in's superb firewall configuartion Imo,and very decent HIPS.It's suppossed to be an firewall after all,we're not talking about the suite i hope.


If you install outpost first than from what i know if u install other antivirus it would work ok.
But even if not what features are disabled?Antispyware ,certainly not needed if u use other antivirus.
Web Control ?i wouldn't say about this that it's not useful ,but if u are running Firefox it's about the same as using adblock plus and Noscript." }-
As you probably know, you are given the option to install the anti spyware feature during installation. If you're running a good AS like Superantispyware or Malwarebytes, you can omit the anti spyware feature.

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "As you probably know, you are given the option to install the anti spyware feature during installation. If you're running a good AS like Superantispyware or Malwarebytes, you can omit the anti spyware feature." }-

thats what i did. and i have yet to recieve a single alert yet, this program has very well configured presets for programs, i just allowed rule wizard at startup to allow my startup programs then turn it to block most and HIPS at advanced, not a single alert yet, very nice.

[Pinga]

-{ Quote: "OA does not provide boot protection which is a knock ut criteria for me" }-
Mike, can we expect this to be added in the near future?

[Brummelchen]

Buy OA++

It NOT the job of any Firewall or HIPS to do same as a proper antivirus software.

[MikeNash]

-{ Quote: "Is Online Armor thinking about offering a limited time Lifetime License offer like Outpost has done?" }-

Hi mvdu,

We've never done lifetime licences, and at the moment we have no plans to do so.

When we look at companies like Diamond CS (lifetime licence, dead), Ghost Security (lifetime licence, dead) we can see a recurring theme. OA is not yet a mass market product, it's not "done" in that we plan to keep developing it for many years.

If we offered a lifetime licence then we're taking short term cash grab at the risk of damaging the product and the company longer term. Every month we have servers to pay for, developers to pay, Adrian to pay doing customer support. We might have one really good month on this offer, but then what about next year? People will still want support, bug fixes, new features, Win64 support and so on.

We have offered lifetime licences to some people who have helped us out a lot over the years, and I'd offer lifetime licences for example as prizes where the proceeds were donated to charity - but I think OA fits in a niche market and it doesnt make sense for us, if we want to be around in the long term.

If lifetime licences gave us the ability for example to make a quick couple of million, and then use that money to market OA more thoroughly and completely it may make sense - but I suspect that all it would really do for us is convert our current sales into lifetime sales. Our renewals on Online Armor are only $14.95 per year on a single seat licence, it's not really that expensive.

I'll never say never - we had no plans for example to do a free product for similar reasons many years ago - but I cannot see this as something that would happen for the forseeable future.

Mike

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "Buy OA++

It NOT the job of any Firewall or HIPS to do same as a proper antivirus software." }-

when in any part of this thread did anyone even give the IMPRESSION that i dont have an AV or that i want Outpost FIREWALL alone to replace my AV...

[1boss1]

Overall i like Outpost, and the Pro version i feel is money well spent. I don't notice any performance hit when using it, and the granular control over every packet coming and going is great once you get the hand of the interface.

However the alerts are horrible, it's the one area i feel that severely lets it down and prevents making it perfect.

[mvdu]

-{ Quote: "Hi mvdu,

We've never done lifetime licences, and at the moment we have no plans to do so.

When we look at companies like Diamond CS (lifetime licence, dead), Ghost Security (lifetime licence, dead) we can see a recurring theme. OA is not yet a mass market product, it's not "done" in that we plan to keep developing it for many years.

If we offered a lifetime licence then we're taking short term cash grab at the risk of damaging the product and the company longer term. Every month we have servers to pay for, developers to pay, Adrian to pay doing customer support. We might have one really good month on this offer, but then what about next year? People will still want support, bug fixes, new features, Win64 support and so on.

We have offered lifetime licences to some people who have helped us out a lot over the years, and I'd offer lifetime licences for example as prizes where the proceeds were donated to charity - but I think OA fits in a niche market and it doesnt make sense for us, if we want to be around in the long term.

If lifetime licences gave us the ability for example to make a quick couple of million, and then use that money to market OA more thoroughly and completely it may make sense - but I suspect that all it would really do for us is convert our current sales into lifetime sales. Our renewals on Online Armor are only $14.95 per year on a single seat licence, it's not really that expensive.

I'll never say never - we had no plans for example to do a free product for similar reasons many years ago - but I cannot see this as something that would happen for the forseeable future.

Mike" }-

Hi, Mike. Agnitum seems to be doing fine with lifetime license offers. What allows them to do it, then?

I would renew OA Pro anyway though at $14.95 if I get that startup delay worked out; you offer both firewall and HIPS for that amount which is good.

[Manny Carvalho]

-{ Quote: "Hi mvdu,

We've never done lifetime licences, and at the moment we have no plans to do so.

When we look at companies like Diamond CS (lifetime licence, dead), Ghost Security (lifetime licence, dead) we can see a recurring theme. OA is not yet a mass market product, it's not "done" in that we plan to keep developing it for many years.

If we offered a lifetime licence then we're taking short term cash grab at the risk of damaging the product and the company longer term. Every month we have servers to pay for, developers to pay, Adrian to pay doing customer support. We might have one really good month on this offer, but then what about next year? People will still want support, bug fixes, new features, Win64 support and so on.

We have offered lifetime licences to some people who have helped us out a lot over the years, and I'd offer lifetime licences for example as prizes where the proceeds were donated to charity - but I think OA fits in a niche market and it doesnt make sense for us, if we want to be around in the long term.

If lifetime licences gave us the ability for example to make a quick couple of million, and then use that money to market OA more thoroughly and completely it may make sense - but I suspect that all it would really do for us is convert our current sales into lifetime sales. Our renewals on Online Armor are only $14.95 per year on a single seat licence, it's not really that expensive.

I'll never say never - we had no plans for example to do a free product for similar reasons many years ago - but I cannot see this as something that would happen for the forseeable future.

Mike" }-
Not to take away from an otherwise well writen post Mike but that little bit in bold above could have been left out. Your response was well thought out and you answered the question very well. However, without even mentioning Agnitum, you delivered a rather backhanded insult at it's marketing strategy.

I can make arguments to support either side of lifetime licenses and you are right that one should never say never. But the implication inherent in that statement I think is below you and one that you should stay away from. Absolutely state why you don't want to do something that's your right and, frankly, your obligation to explain to your customers. However, from your position as a vendor you have a greater obligation not to imply in a thread involving Outpost that it's development is done. I expect more from you in understanding the possible interpretations from your written words.

[firzen771]

lol Mike only mentioned companies that failed, what about Outpost? and SuperAntiSpyware? they both offer lifetime licenses and i know at least SAS is doing fine, since Outpost has begun doing this relativly recently while SAS has been doing it for a while now.

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "Overall i like Outpost, and the Pro version i feel is money well spent. I don't notice any performance hit when using it, and the granular control over every packet coming and going is great once you get the hand of the interface.

However the alerts are horrible, it's the one area i feel that severely lets it down and prevents making it perfect." }-

ye thats the ONLY drawback i saw, the alerts are pretty unclear and open-ended, but i find the logging to be absolutely brilliant and perfectly clear and i really love that. just hope maybe in the next version they improve their alerts to make them more clear and precise about what is happening and why its alerting. and yes, im def going with Outpost Pro now, thx to everyone who responded, it really helped me make my descision.

EDIT:

got a quick question about an alert, im using a program, and when u press allow, it only remebers it for that session it seems, thers an option when u drop down the allow choice that says auto learn, does that turn auto learn on JUST for that application, or does it turn on auto learn for ALL programs?