ForThatMatter

So the other day I decided to try a new firewall. I liked ZoneAlarm because it was easy to use but I found it a little heavy. So I switched to Outpost. For those who have not used Outpost and are thinking of switching - be warned, I am by no means adept with skills needed for conducting proper reviews of products and I probably only have enough knowledge about security to make myself dangerous - there is a learning curve. The rules implementation in Outpost is nice. This is the way the user controls application access. I do like feeling in control and this program does that for you. Unfortunately, since the install I have been searching mad for topics about how to set it up properly. I blame ZoneAlarm for that. In ZoneAlarm, I would click once to either allow an application through or not. Rule mode in Outpost lets you see all the connections. So, for example, when I use uTorrent I get to see the slew of incoming and outgoing connections trying to be made. My question about this is - which port to allow incoming and which to let outgoing. Everyone who uses P2P has the option to set their out ports. So, do I let all incoming ports or only the ones I have set? Should I allow all outgoing ports? If I only allow the incoming ports I have set does that block others form connecting? Obviously I need a better understanding of how the internet works. Oh well, I’m learning.

Anyway, I do like Outpost so far. One of the reasons I made the switched was to lower system resources. I read a couple of posts that claimed Outpost had a smaller foot print than ZoneAlarm. I looked at the memory usage for running processes and Outpost ranges from 12 to 20 megs. Not horrible and - on my system - better than ZoneAlarm. So that's a good thing.

I do have an idea for Outpost. Perhaps it is already a feature but if not it should be. Anyway, you can create rules in Outpost so why not have them exportable for others to import. For example, I have a rule setup for uTorrent. I post that rule so others can download it an use in their Outpost. Perhaps this is what load configurations already is but I was thinking towards specific application configurations.