Shall I buy Outpost Firewall?

[Super_Spartan 56]

I have an ESS license but always choose to install NOD32 only as its Firewall is not so great as per reviews I've read and it slows down uTorrent.

 

Now my question is, is Outpost Firewall compatible with NOD32 or not?

 

Does it have HIPS also and should one disable it?

 

Pls advice

[SweX 871]

My advice would be to use some other firewall with NOD32 (if you don't like the ESS firewall)

 

Some say Outpost works great with NOD32, others say the opposite and they try to set exclusions in both programs but even after doing that it doesn't work for some users. And that is not because NOD32 is incompatible with the Firewall in Outpost, but some of the other protection features. Outpost is much more than a firewall wich is why it sometimes doesn't work that well with other AV's.

 

In any case....."don't buy before you try"

 

I don't know what review or test you read. But I read a "test" a while ago where both Outpost and ESET were included and they "scored" the same when the firewall was set to maximum settings, whatever that means in ESET's case.

 

I remember it was ESS V6 that was tested so V7 would surely don't do any worse.

[Arakasi 549]

Nod32 has HIPS, it would conflict with Outpost HIPS, one would need to be turned off.

[Super_Spartan 56]

Nod32 has HIPS, it would conflict with Outpost HIPS, one would need to be turned off.

thanks, not gonna bother then.

 

Even though I just got a reply from Outpost cutomer care advising me that when I buy the license, to ensure that NOD32 is installed first THEN install Outpost so it would run its compatiblity wizard but now I have my doubts after what you both said.

[Super_Spartan 56]

My advice would be to use some other firewall with NOD32 (if you don't like the ESS firewall)

 

Some say Outpost works great with NOD32, others say the opposite and they try to set exclusions in both programs but even after doing that it doesn't work for some users. And that is not because NOD32 is incompatible with the Firewall in Outpost, but some of the other protection features. Outpost is much more than a firewall wich is why it sometimes doesn't work that well with other AV's.

 

In any case....."don't buy before you try"

 

I don't know what review or test you read. But I read a "test" a while ago where both Outpost and ESET were included and they "scored" the same when the firewall was set to maximum settings, whatever that means in ESET's case.

 

I remember it was ESS V6 that was tested so V7 would surely don't do any worse.

 

I can't seem to find the link anymore about the review I read last year

 

But basically what it said was, the bad thing about the ESET firewall is that it allows most connections by default until you specifically block them.

 

Another concern is, I do not want any slow downs on my internet especially while downloading torrents (I download legal torrents like Windows ISOs, Office or owned product keys I am not a Warez person)

 

So in all honesty, do you guys feel that ESS slows your internet surfing or downloading experience? and torrents?

 

I am torn between staying on my setup that is fast and snappy now which is NOD32 + Windows Firewall + SUPERAntiSpyware manual scans weekly to get rid of any tracking cookies or upgrade to ESS?

 

PS: Another thing I don't like about ESS is that it installs the parental controls and Anti-Theft thingy when I never use them, wish it had a custom setup

[SweX 871]

The resource usage would be the same even if Anti-theft or Parenal Controls were not incorporated in the product, I have them both disabled as i don't need any of them, it would be an issue only if disabling those would turn the tray icon "red" or show warnings etc... but since it doesn't it's fine to just disable them if you want.

 

The Win Firewall in Vista and later is actually not that bad, what you could do is to install something like Windows Firewall Control.

 

Windows Firewall Control is a nifty little application which extends the functionality of the Windows Firewall and provides quick access to the most frequent options of Windows Firewall. It runs in the system tray and allows user to control the native firewall easily without having to waste time by navigating to the specific part of the firewall. This is the best tool to manage the native firewall from Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and Server 2008.

hxxp://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

 

You would get rid of the yummy tracking cookies faster if you runned a scan with CCleaner everyday, no need to have SAS for that purpose only IMO.

 

No, no slow downs while browsing or downloading, I don't do torrents so I can't say if I would.

 

But personally I would continue to use ESS, I use the ESS firewall in Policy-based mode so all connection attempts are blocked in/out unless there is a rule for it.

Edited March 28, 2014 by SweX

[Super_Spartan 56]

The resource usage would be the same even if Anti-theft or Parenal Controls were not incorporated in the product, I have them both disabled as i don't need any of them, it would be an issue only if disabling those would turn the tray icon "red" or show warnings etc... but since it doesn't it's fine to just disable them if you want.

 

The Win Firewall in Vista and later is actually not that bad, what you could do is to install something like Windows Firewall Control.

 

Windows Firewall Control is a nifty little application which extends the functionality of the Windows Firewall and provides quick access to the most frequent options of Windows Firewall. It runs in the system tray and allows user to control the native firewall easily without having to waste time by navigating to the specific part of the firewall. This is the best tool to manage the native firewall from Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and Server 2008.

hxxp://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

 

You would get rid of the yummy tracking cookies faster if you runned a scan with CCleaner everyday, no need to have SAS for that purpose only IMO.

 

No, no slow downs while browsing or downloading, I don't do torrents so I can't say if I would.

 

But personally I would continue to use ESS, I use the ESS firewall in Policy-based mode so all connection attempts are blocked in/out unless there is a rule for it.

thanks for the suggestion man. I have to use SAS though as I can't clear out my cookies using CCleaner, I have a gazillion sites I login to and don't want to lsoe my logins nor do I want to take the time to setup exclusions for the myriad of sites I use.

[Marcos 5,074]

There are several advantages of having one solution instead of several ones from different vendors:

• better protection and lower footprint as modules from one vendor can communicate with each other
• lower total memory consumption
• no compatibility issues between protection modules

I'd suggest installing a trial version of ESS to find out if it works fine on your system. I've seen a few reports of issues with utorrent but have never been able to reproduce it.

[Arakasi 549]

Hello,

 

But basically what it said was, the bad thing about the ESET firewall is that it allows most connections by default until you specifically block them.

 

Please read the firewall modes, specifically Interactive for Tweak, and Policy for Swex :

Automatic mode

The personal firewall will automatically evaluate all network communications, while also applying rules that you have defined. This will by default allow all standard outgoing connections, and block all non-initiated incoming connections. This mode is suitable for most users.

Automatic mode with exceptions (user-defined rules)

In addition to Automatic mode, it enables you to add custom rules.

Interactive mode

In Interactive mode, network communication is handled according to predefined rules. If there is no rule available for a connection, the user is prompted in a dialog window to allow or deny the connection. After some time, the user will have created a group of rules fitting his or her needs. Use caution when choosing this mode for a corporate environment, as after time, some users may ignore the regularly appearing dialog windows and just allow everything they are prompted for by the program.

Policy-based mode

In Policy-based mode, network communication is handled according to rules given by the administrator. If there is no rule available, the connection is automatically blocked and the user sees no warning message. We recommend that you select the Policy-based mode only if you are an administrator who intends to control the network communication, and you are sure you know which applications should be allowed or denied.

Learning  mode

Allows all activity and automatically creates and saves rules based on user behavior; this mode is suitable for initial configuration of the Personal firewall. No user interaction is required. Learning mode is not secure, and should only be used until all rules for required communications have been created. The Personal firewall should then be set to Automatic mode with exceptions or Policy mode.

 

Another concern is, I do not want any slow downs on my internet especially while downloading torrents

If you use the above mode labeled "Learning Mode" while using your torrent program for the first few downloads, ESET will create the rules needed to allow the traffic and ignore the throughput/bandwidth regardless.

After you have run it a few times, you can switch to Automatic, or Interactive mode and have no worries unless the torrent program makes a change on their side.

 

PS: Another thing I don't like about ESS is that it installs the parental controls and Anti-Theft thingy when I never use them, wish it had a custom setup

You can keep Parental controls disabled, and add that Anti-theft notifications DO NOT REMIND you again and disable as well.

 

CCleaner does clean cookies if you select the right folders for cookies in each and every browser.

[Super_Spartan 56]

There are several advantages of having one solution instead of several ones from different vendors:

• better protection and lower footprint as modules from one vendor can communicate with each other
• lower total memory consumption
• no compatibility issues between protection modules

I'd suggest installing a trial version of ESS to find out if it works fine on your system. I've seen a few reports of issues with utorrent but have never been able to reproduce it.

I don't need a trial bro, my license is an ESS license valid for 3 PCs / 3 years. But as you know, ESET has a great thing where if you have an ESS license, they allow you to use and activate it for a lower product, in this case, NOD32

[Super_Spartan 56]

Hello,

 

 

 

But basically what it said was, the bad thing about the ESET firewall is that it allows most connections by default until you specifically block them.

 

Please read the firewall modes, specifically Interactive for Tweak, and Policy for Swex :

Automatic mode

The personal firewall will automatically evaluate all network communications, while also applying rules that you have defined. This will by default allow all standard outgoing connections, and block all non-initiated incoming connections. This mode is suitable for most users.

Automatic mode with exceptions (user-defined rules)

In addition to Automatic mode, it enables you to add custom rules.

Interactive mode

In Interactive mode, network communication is handled according to predefined rules. If there is no rule available for a connection, the user is prompted in a dialog window to allow or deny the connection. After some time, the user will have created a group of rules fitting his or her needs. Use caution when choosing this mode for a corporate environment, as after time, some users may ignore the regularly appearing dialog windows and just allow everything they are prompted for by the program.

Policy-based mode

In Policy-based mode, network communication is handled according to rules given by the administrator. If there is no rule available, the connection is automatically blocked and the user sees no warning message. We recommend that you select the Policy-based mode only if you are an administrator who intends to control the network communication, and you are sure you know which applications should be allowed or denied.

Learning  mode

Allows all activity and automatically creates and saves rules based on user behavior; this mode is suitable for initial configuration of the Personal firewall. No user interaction is required. Learning mode is not secure, and should only be used until all rules for required communications have been created. The Personal firewall should then be set to Automatic mode with exceptions or Policy mode.

 

 

 

Another concern is, I do not want any slow downs on my internet especially while downloading torrents

If you use the above mode labeled "Learning Mode" while using your torrent program for the first few downloads, ESET will create the rules needed to allow the traffic and ignore the throughput/bandwidth regardless.

After you have run it a few times, you can switch to Automatic, or Interactive mode and have no worries unless the torrent program makes a change on their side.

 

 

 

PS: Another thing I don't like about ESS is that it installs the parental controls and Anti-Theft thingy when I never use them, wish it had a custom setup

You can keep Parental controls disabled, and add that Anti-theft notifications DO NOT REMIND you again and disable as well.

 

CCleaner does clean cookies if you select the right folders for cookies in each and every browser.

thanks a lot Araksi, I'll try the learning mode then.

[Arakasi 549]

You're welcome bro

[Super_Spartan 56]

I did try the learning mode bro, there was no issue in torrents anymore

 

Then I renabled Automatic mode after a while. But I had to go back to NOD32 as my system felt sluggish compared to when I had NOD32.

 

I certainly like NOD32 more and Ill stick to that but thanks a lot for helping me

 

You are my new friend

[Marcos 5,074]

Then I renabled Automatic mode after a while. But I had to go back to NOD32 as my system felt sluggish compared to when I had NOD32.

 

If I understand it correctly, you didn't have any issues with the firewall being in learning mode and the performance issue started to occur after switching the firewall to Automatic mode.

Did you try "Automatic mode with exceptions"? Unlike Automatic mode, in this mode custom rules and rules created by learning mode are applied.

[Super_Spartan 56]

 

Then I renabled Automatic mode after a while. But I had to go back to NOD32 as my system felt sluggish compared to when I had NOD32.

 

If I understand it correctly, you didn't have any issues with the firewall being in learning mode and the performance issue started to occur after switching the firewall to Automatic mode.

Did you try "Automatic mode with exceptions"? Unlike Automatic mode, in this mode custom rules and rules created by learning mode are applied.

 

oh no the system was very sluggish in learning mode but I gave it some time I thought the learning mode is causing this. Everything was jerky in movement, the mouse, browsing, running a setup file of some large program like Nero Platinum 2014 or Adobe Photoshop CS 6 was a living nightmare.

 

I gave it the benfit of the doubt though, but to my surprise, when switching back to the default Automatic mode this slowness didn't change.

 

So I formated again and installed NOD32 I'm much happier with NOD32's performance + the default Windows Firewall

[Marcos 5,074]

Could you please clarify this discrepancy in your statements?

1, I did try the learning mode bro, there was no issue in torrents anymore.

2,  the system was very sluggish in learning mode but I gave it some time I thought the learning mode is causing this.

 

We would highly appreciate if you or someone else experiencing this issue would be willing to help us troubleshoot the issue. Unfortunately, we were unable to reproduce it so there must be something specific to these systems that causes the issue.

Perhaps others could share their experience with uTorrent and ESS.