Here’s some good news for those of you who’ve already moved to Windows Vista - we’re beginning beta testing of Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 for Vista (32-bit and 64-bit). Clearly, at this stage, the functionality is somewhat limited, as we are a number of months from the official release of the product, but it’s never too early to start testing, so if you are interested and have the time to help us, please sign up for the beta test program.
Needless to say, the Vista product will be significantly different from the XP version, both visually and technologically. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find under the new graphical interface of Outpost Firewall Pro for Vista:
Security
- Multi-level program architecture to prevent permissions escalation
- Fully functional operation for users without admin rights
- Isolation of firewall processes from external actions
- More secure SHA256 algorithms and optimized checksum recalculation algorithms
- Enhanced background mode security
- 100% invisible mode
Control
- Network activity detection alerts prior to port connection
- Customizable self-protection mechanism
Usability
- Choose between predefined security levels and customization for individual modules
- Integrated event viewer
- Support for fast user switching
- Simplified autoconfiguration
- Improved update procedure
Outpost Firewall Pro for Vista will continue the Outpost tradition of ever-stronger proactive protection and self-protection combined with ease of use for users of all levels of experience. Now that this process is under way, you can expect to see a beta-test announcement for Outpost Security Suite for Vista in a few weeks, along with the next beta version of OFP for Vista.
Alexey Belkin
Chief Software Architect
15 comments:
FINALLY!
I have to say the one thing I would have like to have seen listed in the feature set is something about that the new firewall using less system resources.
According to matousec's results in the XP version it would take a task 1.72 times as long to complete the same task because outpost was turned on. Other firewalls only took 1.32 times as long (on average).
That's kind of disapointing because it's saying that a 3 GHz with outpost runs just as fast as a 2.4 GHz machine with the average "other" firewall. (assuming the CPU was the limiting factor) otherwise we could say that a machine with 10,000 RPM hard disk and outpost runs about the same as a 7,200 rpm hard disk machine with the average other firewall (7,500 rpm to be more exact).
Kind of sad numbers if you ask me, but i hope this vista version fixed that!
Agreed. They have taken a long time to get to this stage with a Vista release, all-be-it a Beta release.
I also hope that the issue with tasks taking longer is fixed. Sometimes it appears the Developers only fix what they want, and not those problems of paying customers.
As for the selected testing - that speaks volumes! How can a product be correctly tested by a few? Microsoft got it right with Office 12 (2007) Release the beta to the public, get all the feedback, fix all of the bugs and release the product. What's to hide?
Statements like "hardware requirements of Outpost Firewall PRO are bigger than requirements of competitive products" or "it just works slower" are myths. Anyway, designing the Vista-version Agnitum team have done their best to decrease the load on resources as much as possible.
>What's to hide?
Well, nothing, of course. But it's really a raw version. As soon as we get support and advice from our devoted testers' team, we'll make further improvements and launch a second beta - most likely public.
Is a great notice. I have one suggestion for the Outpost firewall. I used this firewall for a long time, but in certain moment I used Comodo Firewall and I saw in this firewall one interesting feature, I want to know if possible implement this feature in Outpost Firewall. The feature is when in the notify warning appear in the process Svchost.exe for example in the warning applet specify not only the ip and port try use for Svchost.exe , appears additional info, in this case tell you what is the subprocess and aplication try to uses Svchost.exe, Can you believe is possible to implement in Outpost Firewall? Thanks.
hurry up
>Can you believe is possible to implement in Outpost Firewall?
I see what you mean. There's a technological opportunity to realize this in the final release of Outpost Firewall Pro 2008. The feature is expected, but not guaranteed.
Pavel Goryakin,
Agnitum Ltd.
new version for winxp ?
Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 will support both Vista and XP.
Yeah at last but must say I'm disappointed as my license will probably have run out by the time its been released thus meaning I've wasted my license fee this year (went to vista as soon as i came out) hope they do a trial version if my license has expired so that i can have a look and decide if i wish to carry on with outpost
The name of the new version will be Outpost firewall pro 2008 or Outpost firewall pro 5?
The official name will be Outpost Firewall Pro 2008.
Well, I installed Vista last weekend and seeing my license was about to expire, I renewed it. Fully realizing that Outpost is not vista-compatible yet, but I'd imagine it to be right around corner. I don't know how long "a number of months from the official release" would be, but I really hope it is less than two... With so many Internet security suite being available on Vista nowadays, it is very hard to imagine any customer, other than a loyal Outpost fan like myself :), would wait around for the 2008 version to come out... Oh well, I guess sometimes it can't be helped. Now I only hope 2008 worths the waiting and of course, be available as soon as possible... Keep up the good work, and hopefully I'll see you very soon on vista.
"a number of months from the official release" means this autumn - early winter.
Hopefully they'll get out a version before december 2007 when my current license expires. Bought the family license version to put it on my families pc's.
Yes, this should definitely happen before December. In September-October.
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