Outpost free firewall 1.0

As you have seen by many queries on firewalls, I have been a dilemma and surfing a number of security forums to get a reasonable one that does not use up a lot of resources after my Bad experience with Zone Alarm Pro 5.
I am trying out the above free firewall and noted that there is an option for agnitum update and i click on this and it indicates 438 kb and connecting but nothing happens.Does anyone know anything about this?

Also, being a novice i don't know anything about Rule Setting, is there anywhere on the net that a member can go to learn how to do this?

Also I was wondering about the Pro edition, Zone Alarm really bogged me down in startup as well as browsing and it was so bad, This free version is 2.5 mb and I was curious what the Pro edition was in size and what "bells and whistles" it has to make it desireable for a Novice like me.

Also I believe I mentioned that Toshiba the manufacturer of my notebook is still working out issues with sp2 and told me not to install it But suggested that I may want to install a 3rd party firewall in the meantime.

i read a couple of articles while surfing in Security forums where members were still keeping their sp2 firewall enabled and were not having problems with Outpost and so I also wondered what members opinions on leaving sp1 enabled would be.
So far no problems.

i really look forward to your answers to my queries.

thanking you in advance.

 

I clicked on the update thing and nothing seemed to be happening but eventually a box came up with a message recommending me to update to the pro version, which I just declined.

I've not really looked into rules setting much, other than follow the prompts when accessing a program for the first time which seem pretty intuitive. If I get asked if I want to accept something incoming, I tick 'deny'. There's stuff about rules in the help section.

 

OP free was a decent firewall a few years ago. It still is, but it is lacking a few updates right now. The update button does not work, it's a OP Pro thing. It cannot handle most leak tests (if you care, I wouldn't) and a minor vulnerability regarding a local user being able to bypass the security settings. Also no big deal, but it's a vulnerability.

Current version is much improved and bigger too (download around 6 Mb). The main reason being the new logging engine that uses a real database and the advanced process control, to avoid illegal processes take over your system.

As I said, OP free will still do the job. But please avoid using other firewalls. Windows firewall will probably also affect the effectivity of OP. Besides, it's useless to have two firewalls check the same events.

More and better info on the outpost firewall forum. Very helpfull community over there.

 

If you liked Outpost Free, try Kerio 4 Pro www.kerio.com [30 day trial] you can let it expire ... it will still work [except for its ad/referrer blocking etc.]
Or try purchasing a cheaper than Outpost Pro but decent firewall like LnS.
Jetico is really light, good and free... but HARD to understand for the first week.
Sygate Free is also better than Outpost free if you don't use a "local proxy" aka "loopback" or 127.0.0.1 address (say in Proxomitron or Privoxy or T.O.R. [and it is updated BEFORE Sygate Pro]

 

Hi
You would really recommend that fwall, wouldn't you?

I would like to try, but not sure if stable enough... Many bugs still?

 

well, its bugs are mainly restricted to LOGGING capabilities. Unless there's serious trouble, its a fine enough firewall.
You may want to give Sygate, LnS or Kerio 2.1.5 a try too.

 

Outpost Firewall 1.0 had a very long and unfixed problem that nagged some systems:

The firewall driver would BSOD and crash the system.

This happened several times on my otherwise stable system and I reported the bug reports diligently to Agnitum.

They never fixed it.

I removed it and started using Kerio (at that time). That stopped all crashing on my system (which was prime95, cpuburn, memtest, game and general use stable 100%).

So, I would definitely NOT recommend Outpost 1.0 for anything.

Also, being that Agnitum never fixed it for free to paid users (like me), but only gave a for-pay upgrade to v.2.0, I wouldn't really recommend Agnitum either.

I mean, if a program has a system crashing bug, it is not working as advertised and should be fixed free of charge.

But that's just my opinion, of course

 

Hi
Not as sure as I used to be about Kerio 2.1.5

http://www.issociate.de/board/post/137989/Kerio_2.1.5_vs._Kerio_4xx.html

 

There is a flaw in Kerio 2 but most people seem to agree that it's nothing much to worry about. I used it for a long time without any problems... and I'm even contemplating installing it again now as we speak...

 

It's an esoteric exploit...
A hacker/trojan would need to be sure that the target PC runs ONLY kerio 2.1.5 firewall and NO router...
Doesn't a router take care of the exploit? I'm not so sure... threw Kerio out after I noticed a GUI slowdown on 433Mhz Celeron, and threw it out again off this P4 2.6 GHz after I needed logging capabilities for a "hacking" competition at a seminar.

 

Esoteric, perhaps, but most crackers these days just run scripts to try lots of computers for all kinds of vulnerabilities. Itś not that the have to know that a system is vulnerable. My linux php e107 webserver gets lot of requests for postnuke vulnerabilities and windows holes.

So even an esoteric exploit might find a victim. Coincidence, perhaps, esoteric perhaps but a threat nevertheless.

 

meneer.
You have a point there... seeing how many people use Kerio 2.1.5 these days... it's an attractive target for any wannabe hacker, yeah?
even then, you are left with some pretty decent choices [not just a combo firewall like Kerio 4 or TPF or Jetico, but combination of 2, like a-wall or armor2net and CHX-I or 8-signs......some free, some not]

 

The Web-Hiker's Guide to Outpost provides plenty of information on Outpost Free - it is written for Outpost 1.0 so does not cover the new features of Outpost Pro (currently at 2.5).

The pro version is a 7.5MB download. See the Agnitum Comparison page for a list of the new features. The ones that seem to attract most people are the logging system, better leaktest performance and improved plugins (Active Content and Attack Detection especially). It does have an auto-configuration option (where it checks your system for programs needing network access and creates rules for them) which can provide a good starting point for new users - but the default permissions can be tightened up considerably in most cases.

Resource-wise it will use more memory and CPU than Outpost Free (the latest build reduced memory usage from 30-35MB to 15-20MB) but should not cause problems (the most likely one being with anti-virus background scanners - see Resolving High CPU Utilisation Issues with Outpost for details).

The main problems with Outpost Free (that can affect everyone) are the Learning Mode bug (where all connections in Rules Wizard mode are blocked with the reason Learning Mode - best workaround is to switch to Block Most policy) and Outpost Free losing its complete configuration after a system crash (requiring a reinstall to retrieve the default global rules - best workaround is to keep regular backup copies of the configuration.cfg file).

It is overdue for retirement but can do a reasonable job for those who think its benefits (user interface) outweight the drawbacks. However there are plenty of other options and Kerio does offer more facilities in its free version.