Outpost Firewall Pro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

Outpost Firewall Pro

Developed by	Agnitum
Latest release	6.0.2295.253.0490 / June 4, 2008 ^[1]
OS	Microsoft Windows 32-Bit/64-Bit
Genre	Firewall
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	www.agnitum.com

Outpost Firewall Pro is a software-based personal firewall package developed by the Russian firm Agnitum. It is available in both paid and freeware versions. The product is also licensed by several leading security software publishers: Sophos, Lavasoft, and Bullguard.

Outpost is designed to monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic on Windows machines. Like most recent Windows firewalls, Outpost goes beyond monitoring internet traffic and also monitors application behavior in an attempt to stop malicious software covertly infecting Windows systems. Agnitum calls this technology "Component Control" and "Anti-Leak Control".

Unlike some of its competitors, Outpost Firewall Pro allows the user to specifically define how an application connects to the internet. This is known as the "Rules Wizard" mode, or policy, and is the default behavior for the program. When in this mode, Outpost Firewall Pro displays a prompt each time a new process attempts network access or when a process requests a connection that is not covered by its rules. The idea being that this then lets the user decide whether an application should be allowed a network connection to a specific address, port or protocol. In practice this can make the product seem over complicated to less experienced users. In order to make things easier, Outpost includes pre-set rules for many popular applications. Users can also optionally submit rules they have created through the Agnitum "ImproveNet" program. After a new rule has been received and validated by Agnitum, it is automatically shared with all other Outpost Firewall users via Agnitum Update.

In advanced security mode, Outpost's Component Control will notify the user every time a network enabled application has a changed component and Anti-Leak Control will notify the user whenever an application performs a potentially dangerous operation such as overwriting another applications memory space. In practice this can result in such a high number of alerts that they can quickly become intrusive.

The firewall includes a spyware scanner and pop-up blocker/spyware filter for Internet Explorer. Outpost Firewall Pro was also designed to allow users to create their own plugins and add third-party plugins to increase product effectivness and meet specific needs.

Outpost Firewall Pro is renowned for its sophisticated self-protection that detects any attempts to modify/disable its services or hinder program protection. Also, Matousec.com performed a variety of leak-tests to Outpost Firewall Pro and it was one of three software-based firewalls to receive an "Excellent" rating.

1 Criticisms
2 Footnotes
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Criticisms

Outpost Firewall has been criticized by some end users for being confusing to use, possibly because of its advanced features. Outpost can generate a large number of security alerts, which some experts believe will lead to the end user habitually dismissing all alerts, even important ones. This firewall is recommended to experienced users as Agnitum's direction is to give the end user complete control to all aspects of their system to avoid unwanted changes by malicious software, disclosure of personal information and viruses/malware/spyware. Advanced program features are listed here: http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/features.php