Short Assignment: Software
Evaluation
by Anne Bauers for INLS
187
March 19, 2003
Outpost Firewall
for Windows
Outpost Installation
Effectiveness Evaluation
Recommendations for Use
According to Free-Firewall.org, only a few free firewalls are still available for Windows that are not in crippled form. One of these firewalls is a new product from Agentium, the Outpost Firewall. It is the first such product developed for Windows that uses an Open Architecture development model, and also the first to support plug-ins. It is currently available in a free version, although HomeNetHelp.com notes that this may be temporary.
Agentium notes that the Outpost Personal Firewall is ready to use out of the box, so is appropriate for beginners. It also supports a number of advanced features, including plug-in protection. This allows advanced users to extend the firewall's usefulness and can protect consumers from pop-up ads. It can also prevent ad tracking and notify users of software attempts to "phone home" to hackers. The software also receives automatic updates from the Agentium site so that it stays up-to-date.
To install the Outpost personal firewall, simply download the executable from the Agentium Outpost free download site. Double-click the OutpostInstall.exe file from your personal computer; the Installation Wizard will prompt you through the installation process. Once you have run this installation, the firewall is ready for use; no additional steps are necessary.
The firewall begins to work immediately. It prompts you each time you attempt to access an outside service using a port for the first time, as well as each time an outside service attempts to connect to a port for the first time. The message box allows you to block access to the service, allow access to the service, or allow access to the service using pre-defined rules. An image of this message box is included below.
You may also access Outpost's advanced features window, which allows you to customize the rules by which the product moniters your machine. This window allows you to access information about all open connections, plug-ins, and configuration options for the software. An image of this window is included below.
I am a first-time firewall user, and so I chose to evaluate Outpost's effectiveness from the perspective fo a user who is not experienced with the technology, but who is serious about privacy protection. My evaluation criteria and results are outlined below.
The Outpost firewall is very easy to get up and running; essentially I downloaded and installed it, and it began working immediately. Although special configuration options are available I did not have to explore them for the software to begin working. However, users who do not have a good understanding of how the Outpost software works may be confused by the message boxes that ask what sort of traffic should be allowed. These sorts of users would be well advised to carefully read the User Guide so they have a clear understanding of how to best answer these questions.
After I installed the software but before I explored the advanced features, I ran several tests to evaluate Agentium's claim that Outpost is effective out of the box. First, I navigated to AuditMyPC.com to test the installation using their free firewall scan. AuditMyPC scans for commonly used ports that are open; all ports should be closed to prevent hackers from accessing the system. The scan did not find any open ports. Next, I downloaded the GRC corporation leak test to test for leaks that are incoming and outgoing. The leak test is an executable that simulates a trojan horse by attempting to connect to the GRC servers from my PC. I found that my firewall was able to block the LeakTest executable from connecting to the Internet. Based on these two tests, I determined that the Outpost firewall does indeed provide good protection immediately upon installation without any additional configuration.
The Outpost Firewall configuration window is easy to uderstand. It is designed using the Windows Explorer format, so users who are comfortable in Windows should have no trouble interpreting it. The window lists all open connections, including the application that opened the connection, start time, direction, local port used, local address used, up time, and bits per second. Users can create rules for how to handle connections from different applications here. The window also displays a list of connections that have been allowed and blocked.
The configuration window has a separate section on managing plug-ins. This section contains information on ads, content, DNS cache, active content, attachments filter, and attack detection. Clicking on one of these topics provides information on which plug-ins of that type have been blocked. Right-clicking on a topic provides a menu of options for controlling plug-ins.
I found the configuration window simple to use and easy to understand. Some users who are unfamiliar with the different functions that the firewall can provide, or who don't have a good understanding of what different plug-ins do, would finding reading the User Guide helpful, but in general Outpost's advanced features are very accessible.I would recommend the Agentium Outpost Firewall free version to beginner firewall users who are looking for a simple but effective product. It begins working without additional configuration after installation; the advanced features are accessible; and it effectively blocks inappropriate connection behavior, protecting PCs from hackers and other rouge elements. The main difficulty I see in using the product is that it may not remain free in its current form. Like most other manufacturers of personal firewall software, Agentium may begin charging for a non-crippled version of the product after users become dependent on it. However, since there are not a lot of other good free Windows firewalls available, this is probably a risk worth taking.
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Agentium's Outpost Free software
is available at: http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpostfree.html |