I have been happy with outpost on xp pro on my Desktop apart from 2 issues. Slow hips requestor response and the service killing itself. On a thread on wilders before i tried to sort out why outpost 7.x was falling over and we came to no final conclusion. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/outpost-firewall-v7-dies-on-click-system-tray-icon.352803/ It works fine on win7 64bit. The only solution seemed to be a new install of xp pro because an old firewall driver may have been conflicting. I have used a new installation of xp pro but again as time goes by and more rules are added for new apps it starts to fall over. Been through 7.x and all 8.x versions and with it quiting again its time to find another firewall that is more stable. I would like a firewall which has 1) hips 2) site blocking (cyber lockers throw up some unsavoury popup sites). 3) network control Any thoughts on other firewalls that have these integrated? I have heard of defense wall and private firewall? Do these cover what i require? Security configuration is in my signature thanks
I have DefenseWall Personal Firewall (hips) on my xp computer and has never been infected since installed about 5 years ago. Runs very light, install and forget. Plus I run Peerblock to take care of unsavory popup sites and more.
For a long time I was running Outpost Pro on my XP system. It was a very good firewall, but quite some time ago, I switched to PrivateFirewall and couldn't be happier. It's very effective, extremely light on system resources (which I didn't think Outpost was) -- and it's free.
Well, there are a few software FWs out there you can use, such as: Online Armor OnlineArmor Emsisoft Online Armor Online Armor Personal Firewall with HIPS OA Online Armor v7 All of them are good. In the end it really depends on you to choose which one to pick. BTW... Spoiler IMO adding a CHIPS when you already have AppGuard and Driver Radar is superfluous.
@trott3r - It would not surprise me if Driver Radar Pro were conflicting with Outpost. They probably hook the same stuff. As for Windows XP vs everything else: if you're not stuck with some kind of legacy software that only runs on XP, I would suggest migrating the XP machines to Linux to prolong their usable lifetime. Not just for security reasons - browsing the web from XP is probably going to become painful in a few years.
It used to die back before i installed driver radar pro. Also it works for a while when i go back to my earlier config which has less rules
I have ran peerblock at times but find it very heavy on resources while outpost site blocker doesnt seem to have an impact. Defensewall has any addition features other than hips and network control?
Any extra features you liked with private firewall compared to outpost? anything you miss? Like the site blocker?
Hmm. If it crashes routinely and reproducibly with too large a ruleset, I would honestly not be inclined to trust it... Edit: for site blocking, do you need that to be centrally configured as admin? If not it might be better done through a browser extension, or alternative DNS service.
6 versions of online armor? Are they by the same company? As to superflous the hips can be but network control is needed on xp and also the site blocking.
Sorry if there is confusion; outpost crashes with a larger ruleset while driver radar has been fine so far. Regarding site blocking it doesnt need to be centralised in a multi pc network but I would like it one utility on the Desktop PC i use. I use different browser so i would have to have addons for all of them so that is out. Alternative DNS service? Is there a free one that i can add sites to a block list?
No, it's the same OA by Emsisoft which was bought from TallEmu a few years ago. Pardon me and my elite twisted personality. =V And yes, I understand the requirements of network control and site blocking. My comment was only about the CHIPS vs AG's policy restriction + Driver Radar's monitoring. The database is managed by the DNS service providers. If you want a customizeable rules then the HOSTS file can be edited/using third party HOSTS file such as MVPS HOSTS.
Okay so we have 3 options so far then. 1) online armour 2) private firewall 3) defense wall Can someone who has used 2 or 3 of those give me a short comparison or pros and cons?
I've used both Online Armor and PrivateFirewall. Both are great products with excellent features. My preference overall is Online Armor which, imho, is a bit more intuitive to use, maintains an updated white list and blacklist of good and bad sites, programs and certificates and also provides a bit more functionality. That said, I think one can be well served by either and it may come down to which one works on your system best. (For example, I could never get Outpost Pro to play nicely with my XP system for one reason or another.)
Do PFW and DW have website blocking feature to begin with? Yeah yeah, I know it can be achieved by other means, but OP demanded that feature to be integrated within the software FW itself.
I used Outpost briefly a couple of years ago on a search for an alternative to CIS in the end I found Comodo to be easier to configure and and more intuitive to use, also more effective overall
I used Comodo FW in the past (when I had some issues with an earlier version of OA) and it worked well for me. The problem I had was that I never really felt comfortable with it nor did I fully understand how to configure it without using guides provided by various more experienced users. (I uninstalled it following the upgrade from version 5.12 and was happily able to return to OA without the earlier issues I'd experienced.)
One of XP's major MAJOR assets is the fact that it can run DefenseWall (DW), one of the singularly best all-around protections for any OS. Moreover, DW is being actively maintained up-to-date specifically for XP users. Further, DW has a splendid support forum which is frequented by DW's author and by several highly knowledgeable users of DW.
That brings up something i havent thought of; 64bit compatibility. While i want to find a firewall with hips for xp 32bit it would be good if i could install it on my win 7 64bit install as well for future familiarity and use. So that knocks defensewall off my list. Do the other 3 have 64bit versions? PFW Commodo online armour Even if they have limited hips it would still be better than not working at all.