Considering Outpost, opinions please

If i have the choice between the devil and beelzeboy...
Outpost has grown up in the years - i started with v1 and ended it with v3.5
after trying v4/v6(200 and v6.5(2009).
In first you guys should think about what a personal desktop firewall should do for you!
Blocking some in- and outgoing traffic (erm, IN ist blocked in most cases from a router).
So blocking outgoing traffic is important. Blocking what? If Malware is already
on your system a firewall is worth nuts.

A firewall which controls content - well - get another browser/mailer.
And for Outpost - Outpost is slow - really slow in that.
I turned that crap off here and surfing is much faster.
On the otherhand - i use Firefox with a better content filter than any external
program can offer. ofc - firefox is much safer than internet explorer, it dont
realy needs some additional filter (with correct settings).

And hips is in some parts annoying - nevertheless it offers additional security
to any antivirus engine. But the hips of outpost (pro) is bullshit!
i have never seen such crap in that context with a firewall.
In pure contrast with online armor or defensewall hips...

One thing to mention - the built in av-engine in outpost is crap too. Get another one!
Suites are comming since bla - but they knock off each security cause less people
care about good settings instead the default crap (which cover the most cases - ofc)

My latest experience was online armor (paid) (without av-engine - not oa++).
But even the free version would cover my needs (and some more).

My Tip: OA free - it offers more configuration - more flexibility.
If that does not satisfy - go straigth to Outpost Firewall - drop the free ****.
But dont buy the Suite if you prefer security.

Here: Eset v2/3/4 + Outpost (Online Armor temporarely dropped till the next final)

# erm sorry - forgot Comodo - nice decision too, if it works
(without AV-Engine - that makes too much trouble -> read comodo forum)

##
>> But on this Vista it's shared with others, so must be friendly as ZA's used to be.

Tried the Vista built-in Firewall with the free configurator
http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/index.html
UAC do the rest

 

I like Outpost, enough to grab a lifetime license.. but i am thinking of switching to Comodo or OA because i really dislike the alerts in Outpost they need serious work.

If you tweaked Outpost and made it virtually silent, it would be ok for a new users. Outpost is great in every other area, i don't think i'd call it highly user friendly though.

 

The had a deal for the 3-pc lifetime licence at $59.95 until 7/10.
Currently they have the 1-pc lifetime licence at $39.95 until 7/31.

 

2009

 

well try what Panagiotis suggests and you'll see the difference

i have re-installed it and turned the improvenet feature and its virtually sielent...thanks Panagiotis...

 

>> turned the improvenet feature

Thats called OASIS at Online Armor. But i would prefer OASIS than Improvenet.
Why? Cause my first steps with that were horrible - Outpost allowed programs
access to the net automatically which needs to be stopped.
User gives away control to outpost (to software in general).
And in that cases a firewall aint useful from my p.o.v.

 

I don't know about Online Armor, but Outpost will only create automatic rules for well known and digitally signed applications (It checks the digital signature, MD5, path and name of the process.), considering, of course that ImproveNet is ON.

The task of ImproveNet is to make things easier for users, even novice users. Why? Every rule will be sent back to Agnitum and checked for any possible dangerous misconfigurations, and then redistributed to every other user, also making use of ImproveNet (I believe I'm saying it right. Someone else may correct me, otherwise.).

That's the right approach, IMHO. If that's not what you want, then that's why you have the option not to set it to automatically create rules. It gives you more control, but more alerts as well.

You need to understand that Outpost, in this case, wasn't thought of just to serve the purposes of one user, but of the general population.

 

Hi S:

Well what's is your status? Did you decide/install it? What did you observe?

These are not challenge questions just interested in your impressions coming from where you were

 

Glad I could help.

Panagiotis

 

Running Outpost FW Pro on Vista with Norton AV 2009, SAS and Mamutu on my desktop. They all play very well together. I keep Outpost in the learning mode just because I like to know when something new tries to phone home.

I would highly recommend Outpost. It's easy to use - simple enough for a novice and with all the controls that an advanced user might want. I took advantage of the 3-license lifetime offer earlier this year. I've found that if a piece of software works well and does what it's supposed to do, it's worth it to go for the lifetime license.

 

Don't leave it in Learning Mode. It's like alarming your house and leaving the front door unlocked.

 

In Outpost the learning mode runs for some days after initial install. Some say even a week. The way to shorten the learn is to run all your applications asap during learn mode then switch to Block Most!

Again once this period is past, switch to Block Most mode or as twl845 says your security is compromised.

If you wish to know when/ if a new executable is attempting access the way to do that is to disable auto rule creation in the improvenet screen. That way you will be prompted for the "new" event and can decide yourself to allow or not.

 

Thanx to everyone for your advice and suggestions, greatly appreciated.

As i'm staying at friends at the moment whilst i get my place finished, major refurb what a pain lol, i've decided not to install it on their Vista PC. However i hope to be able to move back in to my place by next week sometime. If all goes well then i can think about doing it sometime after then.

Thanx again,

S

 

Hi S:

That seems wise not to install OP or any other SW on others setup until you KNOW it works on your own and have passed through the learning curve yourself.

Otherwise we are indirectly using THEIR set up for testing.

Hopefully we will hear how you did later

 

Just to clarify to those reading, Auto-Learn Mode can be enable or disabled via the tray icon. You have the choice of 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week. You can turn it off any time. You do not have to wait for the specified time limit.

Quoted from Outpost Help:
"Auto-Learn Mode can pose a security risk because allowing rules are created for every requested connections. So while in Auto-Learn mode, be sure you are not running any unknown or untrusted applications and not visiting objectionable sites. "

I comes in handy after installing and you want to get Outpost Rules quickly up to speed with minimum of prompts while running all of your know applications.

Edit: Your security is not compromised after Auto-Learn Mode is turned off, the default Firewall Policy is Rules Wizard, which will result in prompts for programs not know by ImproveNet. Setting the Policy to Block Most will block all network connections, except those allowed by Application Rules.

 

To avoid turning this thread into an OP support vehicle by accident here are the 2 places users can go for formal support.

(1) http://www.agnitum.com/support/ this is the vendor support site

(2) http://www.outpostfirewall.com this is the user run support site

In my own case, 99% of my questions have been solved quickly in (2)

(1) lists what os's work with OP and what 3rd party SW is compatible with OP, a very handy list BEFORE proceeding IMHO.