Using Outpost Free v1? Read This First!

[Paranoid2000]

Outpost Free (version 1.0.1817.1645) can provide good incoming and basic outgoing protection but has the following issues which users need to be aware of:

• It will lose its configuration (including all rules) if it crashes for any reason. Unless you have a backup, the only way to recover from this is to reinstall Outpost Free. Users therefore need to keep regularly updated backups of the configuration .cfg file (using Windows Explorer to make a copy of this file is the simplest method).
• The "Learning Mode" bug - Outpost Free may block all communications with the reason "Learning Mode". The best workaround is to switch to Block Most policy, but all necessary rules for applications needing Internet access must be created beforehand. Closing down and restarting Outpost is another workaround, albeit one that leaves the computer vulnerable online, even if only momentarily.
• Outpost Free was released before Windows XP and has not been updated for it - there is therefore a possibility that it will cause problems (including blue screen crashes) with Windows XP, especially with Service Pack 2 (disabling SP2's Data Execution Protection may help in some cases).
• If "Automatically Check for Updates" is enabled, the update offered will be for a trial (30-day) version of Outpost Pro. There have been no indications of any future upgrades for Outpost Free itself.

The above issues do not apply to Outpost Pro (v2.x onwards) which offers numerous other improvements, both to the firewall engine and the plugins. For more details on using Outpost Free, please see The Web Hikers guide to Outpost Firewall.