Agnitum Outpost Pro Review

Product: Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0 Price: $39.95 Single PC / $75.95 Entire Household Company Info: Agnitum Editor Rating: 4 stars Download Outpost Pro (single license)

Pros
+ Automatically configures itself - no obscure technical questions to answer about your PC
+ Considerably faster than ZoneAlarm
+ Blocks many types of security threats that ZoneAlarm doesn't, including pop-up windows, in-bound attacks, unwanted ads in webpages, and known hostile websites.
+ New heuristics to prevent malware from shutting down firewall or antispyware products
+ Blocks incoming probes and attacks
+ Stops outgoing communications from rogue programs
+ Provides extensive detail about all processes running on your PC
+ Works with both Mozilla Firefox and IE 7
+ Provides additional protection against spyware

Cons
- A little less user-friendly than ZoneAlarm

Outpost Pro Review

Outpost Pro is an excellent firewall and probably the best value on the market. Like ZoneAlarm, it blocks both incoming attacks as well as outgoing communications from rogue programs on your computer (such as spyware, adware, trojan horses, viruses, etc...) However, it adds many features that ZoneAlarm doesn't have. Outpost Pro will block internet ads, cookies, hostile websites, popups, hidden browser windows, and dangerous file attachments.

The latest version of Outpost adds several fronts of defense in the war against hackers. For instance, it now uses heuristics to detect spyware when it tries to install (and automatically blocks it). It automatically updates itself as necessary. The latest version defends itself against malicious programs which attempt to terminate firewall software in an effort to bring down your PC's defenses. And finally, it adds an additional layer of protection to detect spyware (while this doesn't eliminate the need for a dedicated anti-spyware product, it doesn't hurt to have two programs working towards the same goal).

Note: Firewall products protect against different threats than anti-spyware and anti-virus programs, and you should always run a firewall in addition to those other types of security products. Click here for more information about firewalls.

Installation and Configuration

Installation was straightforward on our Windows XP test machine and took less than 5 minutes.

Outpost Pro was surprisingly easy to configure. While most firewall products require you to answer a number of questions, Outpost automatically configured itself for our system and kicked off a system scan. This was a welcome improvement over other firewall products which are notoriously difficult to set up.

After installation is complete, you'll need to reboot before the firewall can start protecting your computer.

Usability

Agnitum Outpost Pro 4.0 has virtually done away with the many pop-up alerts that you used to receive (and still do with other products). You will still receive a few popups similar to the following when you run unrecognized programs, but Agnitum has built in a large library of common software so the program is quite adept at automatically configuring itself. This is a huge improvement over most firewall programs which require constant training the first few days after you install them.

If you're just getting started at securing your computer, you may see quite a few of these pop-ups as the firewall blocks spyware or adware on your PC. Note though that a firewall program won't remove spyware - it will just disable it. The spyware will still be running in the background, using up your computer's resources. To really defeat spyware, you should have both a firewall as well as an anti-spyware program installed on your computer.

The other thing you should become familiar with is the main Outpost Pro window:

While not as pretty as ZoneAlarm, it is infinitely more powerful. Using this window, you can see every process on your computer that is communicating on the internet. You can also see the number of ads, attachments, javascripts, cookies, and other baddies blocked. Because this screen offers so much information, it might be a bit overwhelming for some users. The good news is that there's no need to look at it if you don't want to.

That?s all there is to it. You now have added a powerful layer of protection against internet threats to your computer.

New AntiSpyware Features

Agnitum Outpost Pro now includes an additional layer of protection against antispyware. While we found that this product's antispyware capabilities were nowhere near as robust as the top dedicated antispyware products on the market (it basically only detected cookies in our test), the features it provides are helpful and can definitely augment the protection you receive from those products.

For instance, Agnitum can detect unauthorized software installations and attempts by spyware programs to shut down firewalls or memory-resident scanners. While these attempts do sometimes work when you have only one program running, it will become virtually impossible for a spyware program to install or bypass your defenses when you have two different programs working in conjunction with each other. This is one reason why it is so important to have multiple security programs working together at the same time.

Other Features

Outpost is packed with useful features that ZoneAlarm doesn't have. While ZoneAlarm stops at blocking incoming and outgoing attacks, Outpost Pro also blocks:

* Internet Ads on web pages
* Cookies
* Suspicious file attachments within email
* Hostile internet sites
* Hidden browser windows and pop-ups

The latest version includes sophisticated "Anti-Leak" technology to defeat any attempts by malware to bypass security protection. For instance, it cleverly uses techniques invented by spyware authors to prevent spyware from shutting down the firewall. It also actively looks for component injection and unauthorized application launch as well.

Summary

Outpost Pro is a heavy-duty personal firewall that offers many features ZoneAlarm doesn't and at a cheaper price as well.

Price: $39.95 (single license)
Download Outpost Pro Here (single license)

Have multiple computers in the same house? Save money by purchasing a family license and protect all of your PCs for one price:
Download Outpost Pro Here (family license)