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Thread ID: 33753 2003-05-24 11:26:00 Agnitum Outpost firewall - best firewall on the market? Captive (3159) Press F1
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147184 2003-05-24 11:26:00 Okay before I start let me say I realise that to date ZoneAlarm has a big share of the market. And to some that may well be a reason to consider it a leader.

I have found this new program called Agnitum Outpost firewall [http://www.agnitum.com] that comes in version 1 freeware or version 2 trialware [30 days]. Version 2 I found easier because it can preconfigure your apps, whereas v1 does not [in the version i tried]

I have only been using it for a short while now [a few days]. I have found it to be more reliable than ZoneAlarm and sygate with perhaps a more easy to the point interface. In a firewall I would rather have a program than looks skinned at the cost of speed - Am you after a wallpaper or a program?

i found a listing of firewalls on www.firewallguide.com but none really was easy to implement and yet having the features i want. The closest i found was zonealarm but that to me was unreliable.

This program i am mentioning allows rules as complex as Norton personal firewall [NPFW}, much more advanced than Zone alarm, in my experience so far yet its 10x smaller [approximately i think it may be closed to 11x but oh well] than NPFW.

Now i am not going to say its for everyone. May i suggest though that people consider it / try it.

I went through dozens of programs that left me feeling unsatisfied for lack of features or unreliability.

Maybe this could be the future?

Anyway to cut a long story short. Check it out :-)

PS i have no involvement with them... havent even talked to them by email before [or any other form [although i did download the program from their site]]. 		Captive (3159)
147185 2003-05-24 23:39:00 I ditched ZoneAlarm for Outpost a long time ago and found it an excellent program to use. In addition to being a firewall it has features that are very handy, eg advert blocking, pop-up blocking and detecting certain emails with dodgy extensions such as the recent virus going around with the .pif attachment. When these come in Outpost can be set to alert you and not allow them to be opened and thus executed.

Unfortunately the free version does not support ICS so I changed to Kerio, which does and is free, after networking my two computers. Kerio is also an excellent program but it is missing the additional features that Outpost has. That is not a problem for me however, but I do think Outpost is more "user friendly" for inexperienced computer users than Kerio is. 		Susan B (19)
147186 2003-05-25 00:38:00 Yep. Outpost is a very good app. Had used it for about a year but had to ditch it in favour of Kerio (ta Susan B) because of a conflict with something in W2k SP2. Once/if they sort that out I'll go back.

Cheers Murray P 		Muzzer (238)
147187 2003-05-25 02:02:00 You might want to note on the 23rd [their time possibly US time] they introduced version 2. Not sure if it fixed the problem but it may be something to check. Note version 2 is trialware Captive (3159)
147188 2003-05-25 02:08:00 Hi Captive

No it didn't fix the problem :( which is a real bummer because I really liked that little program in comparison to others I have tried ZA included. Will perchase as soon as its fixed.

Cheers Murray P 		Muzzer (238)
147189 2003-05-25 02:24:00 Susan, I downloaded Outpost and tried to un-install Zone Alarm, but it always blocks access to the Internet, so have to re-install it from D:\.

Any suggestions please.

Les3 		leshibbard (873)
147190 2003-05-25 03:51:00 I used it for a while but it kept breaking after a month, stopping all traffic. I got sick of reinstalling it. bmason (508)
147191 2003-05-25 04:14:00 Oh okay, perhaps thats the case . . . I will see how i go with version 2 which is only just released in the last few days .

On a comparitive note though for me, and a few sites I administer on occasion [only a few computers each], I found Zone Alarm was prone to breaking every few reboots .

That is however my experience and perhaps others have not experienced the same thing *shrug* 		Captive (3159)
147192 2003-05-25 04:15:00 >.... tried to un-install
> Zone Alarm, but it always blocks access to the
> Internet, so have to re-install it from D:\.

The following links maybe of assistance with fixing the block internet access problem once ZA is uninstalled:

Cannot Browse the Internet After You Uninstall ZoneAlarm (support.microsoft.com)

ZoneAlarm Installation & Uninstallation FAQ (www.zonelabs.com RcWDiOv08RAAn4UgrLpNrMyWxCXRCTAPy!-700466479!-1062696904!7551!7552!243220313!-1062696903!7551!7552)

This is also from ZA's user forum posted by a moderator:
"What are VSDATA files? These are the actual firewall driver files (can be VSDATA95 or VSDATANT or both).
If an uninstall or upgrade fails, in some cases it may leave registry entries or files,
which can block Internet access, or generate error messages at startup. In these cases
you will need to reboot into Safe Mode to remove the file. On Windows 98/Me, the startup warning
can be ignored by hitting the ENTER key.
If you reinstall ZA, the warning will disappear.
If you don't plan to reinstall ZA, you will need to make a note of the exact registry key listed,
and remove that key." 		Jen C (20)
147193 2003-05-25 04:42:00 My mistake Captive . Checked out ver 2 . 0 pro and it has been fixed, I think becuase it mentions:

Outpost Firewall blocks all traffic on ICS gateway under Win2000+SP2(3)/XP

Workaround

Use Outpost 1 . 0 . 1220 (available at . agnitum . com/download/OutpostProInstallOLD . exe" target="_blank">www2 . agnitum . com ) and do not upgrade it until we will announce the fixed version .
If you are using Windows 2000+SP2(3) try to go back to SP1 .
Install a Proxy or Socks server instead of ICS
Status: It will be fixed in 2 . 0

But I don't use ICS . I use an adsl nat router . So . . . still not sure if it will work . Will download demo and check it out . Thanks for the tip .

Susan B . . Looks like your ICS issue has been fixed :) Would you give up Kerio for Agnitum . I'm interested in your reasoning either way .

Cheers Murray P 		Muzzer (238)
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