Outpost Firewall Pro Review
We are big supporters of small, independent programming houses that put out unique, high-quality software. Hence, when a company releases a firewall that is a high quality, independent release, we are quick to support it. Everyone has heard of ZoneAlarm or Norton, yet no one has heard of Outpost Firewall Pro, even though it is a capable and well-rounded application.
This myopic view reflects itself on the market in two ways: it causes the competition to sink in upon itself, allowing the creation of a monopoly; it creates products which are short sighted and myopic in nature, when the market really needs intuitive, creative solutions. Thankfully, Outpost Firewall Pro has been released, and this little piece of software turns out to be pretty darn good.
Features
This software can do just about everything, and it does it efficiently and without complaint. The core of the program itself can be had for $55, and you can pay extra to add on additional features, such as content blocking or IP mapping. While certainly not required in order to be useful, the additional programs add a sense of finesse and capability to the program.
Outpost Firewall Pro has several revolutionary features, such as the image blocker. This tool, which comes standard within the program and requires no external purchase, gives you several options when blocking image: size, dimensions, or description. This a great way to keep pornographic images from loading when your children are using the computer.
You can create safe lists, as well as blocked lists. The program itself can be password protected, keeping little Johnny from changing your firewall settings. As well, the program allows individual port access, meaning that you can still play online games or download from P2P applications without fuss.
Using Outpost Firewall Pro
This software installs easy, and all of the options menu's are simple and well laid out. We never had a problem finding the part of the application we were looking for. However, we do wish that some of the add-ons were integrated better, but that's a minor problem and an easy fix.
The image blocker worked quite well, and not a single pornographic image slipped by. To keep things interesting, we had our designer code up a page with a dozen nude pictures, each one displaying under different circumstances. The result was the same: no go.
A menu box pops up anytime an application requests Internet access or when an external application requests private access to your computer. During our test, we ran into no issues or technicalities.
Conclusion
This software refuses to be the underdog, and it comes out of the dog house with its dukes up and stance ready. It's quite obvious that this software has some big goals to achieve, and we suspect the chip on its shoulder might just get it there.
Highly recommended.
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