Here is 19th Giveaway in series of Avinashtech Birthday Celebrations i.e. ABC 19. We are giving away 30 licenses of Agnitum Outpost Firewall today to readers of Avinashtech i.e. Avtechies.

PS: This review is done by one of our Forum Member Svwrt.

Agnitum Outpost Firewall is one of best firewalls available. Outpost Firewall is rule-based firewall with two-way protection. Installation of Agnitum Outpost is simple and convenient.  During installation you will be asked if you want to improve the program and join ImproveNet community by anonymously sharing information.

One innovative thing during setup is that it detects other incompatible products to provide smooth coexistence. Although  in my case it detected Kaspersky Antivirus, Agnitum Outpost Firewall is one of the very few firewalls that works with Kaspersky AV.

After that you can choose simple or expert mode of installation. Simple mode begins immediately with the installation, while in expert mode some options can be chosen such as: Web control and Antispyware protection and the ability to download the latest Outpost Firewall updates during installation.

Outpost Firewall requires restart after installation, but that can be delayed and can be proceeded to the settings of the program.

After restart it will be shown a message in order to choose if you want to enter the key(if you have one), continue 30 days trial or purchase.

It’s recommended that Agnitum Outpost be put in Auto-Learn Mode. There are three choices : 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week.
Here you will have to choose between not to be bothered by too many messages from the program by auto creating rules, and also not to pose your computer to potential security risk.

The main dialog is quite good looking and easy to understand. Options are divided into: My Security, Firewall, Proactive Protection, Web Control and Event viewer. Also at the top you can find : Settings, Update and Help.

At main page you will be offered to subscribe to Agnitum Direction email, which is personalized Agnitum newsletter with monthly updates, news and promotions. Agnitum also has a blog where informations about their activities are posted. The Knowledge base is a good place to start from.

Also the Agnitum Support Forum offers support for users of all Agnitum products including Free and Paid Firewall, The Security Suite and the Antivirus. Premium Support is available only to paid customers. Also you can test your PC online to see if  computer is protected.

There are two views: Simple and Expert.

While Simple View is sufficent for almost every user, the Expert View gives more information and control of the application. Under Firewall tab in Expert View are Network Activity and Used ports. In Network activity the programs that are using the internet can be seen and managed, while in used ports the ports that this programs are using are shown. By right clicking you will be offered to Edit application rules or break connection.

Agnitum Outpost runs in stealth mode by ignoring the data that is being send to it, making it invisible and blocking attacks and intrusions from hackers.

It can protect Lan(wired) or wireless networks agains breaches.

Agnitum Firewall is not only “pure firewall”, but it offers other features besides the firewall.

Agnitum has proactive behavioral protection which prevents zero-day threats and prevents leak of confidental data. In conjuction with the firewall component the Host Protection module can stop different malicious software such as: viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, keyloggers, bots and many others.  The Proactive defense offers Anti-Leak protection, System Guard protection, Application Guard, File&Folder Lock and Self-Protection(in which can be added exclusions such as current Antivirus).

The protection given by Agnitum Outpost Firewall is ensured by self-defense. The Firewall can’t be deactivated by malicious attempts.

System Guard monitors and protects vulnerable system objects from being changed by unathorized application, while in Application Guard can be set programs that are protected by Outpost such as: browsers, internet messengers, mail programs.

The messages notifing about some program asking for permision and the quantity can be sometimes confusing especially for begginers or users not used at such types of firewalls or programs.

As previuosly mentioned the computer can be put in Auto-Learn mode(Automatic Rule creation). If the user is sure that PC’s is “malware free” this can be very good way to rid off of many pop-ups.

The Web control protects agains malicious WebSites containing hidden malware, phishing, ActiveX and JavaScript components, Flash, cookies and many others. This keeps exposure of your personal informations on the web.

Besides site black list which is updated by Agnitum also great thing is adding Hosts Files in order to block known bad domains. Also Site blocking can be configured by keyword or by URL.

Agnitum Outpost Firewall is the first firewall that support usage of plug-ins and open architecture.

Some of already created plugings provide: Full privacy protection, Every type of port scanning detection, Content filtering for parental control, Internet attact blocking, Management of active elements in email and WWW pages.

Agnitum Outpost is constantly tested by Matousec which gives highest position in proactive security test performed for Firewalls. Also Agnitum Outpost is constantly awarded by different magazines or websites (lattest award is Hard’n’Soft Editor Choice, an Russian IT Magazine).

The Firewall can be password protected. Agnitum Firewall can detect applications launched in Full screen such as games, thus running without interference and showing alerts.

Also it can protect children from innapropriate sites.

The “Configuration Maintenance” feature gives option to export/import setting from one to another computer while unistalling/installing the product. This is very usefull in order not to lose personal settings while upgrading to newer version. The Update feature can be set to: manually, hourly, daily and weekly.

The Agnitum Outpost offers boot-time protecting which protects the computer during restarts until loading into Windows.
This is implemented both in Paid and Free version.

The Help file is quite large and obliging, making it easy to learn more about the program to everyone.

The Free version of the firewall compared with the Pro version is very good for the money, but the Pro version is quite a bargain for the money and offers top-notch protection.

The full comparaison between different Agnitum Products can be seen below.


Agnitum Outpost Security Suite implements Antivirus which is licensed from Virus Buster.

Agnitum is regullary awarded with VirusBulletin VB100 award.

Current version of Agnitum Outpost is version 7 and coincides with the release of Windows 7. Today, only version 7 (Version 7.0.4) is supported, while previous versions aren’t.

There are single and multiple licenses offered, and also bussiness licenses. Agnitum Outpost is the Only firewall that offers Lifetime license (1 or 3 PC’s) and with that license all future updates to the program are free of charge. Outpost Network Security (ONS) 3.2 is the company’s core bussiness solution.

The quality of Firewall program is proven by the fact that is licensed to many security vendors such as: Sophos, AVG, Lavasoft, Bullguard, CAT/QuickHeal.

GIVEAWAY :

I have 30 licenses of Agnitum Outpost Firewall to giveaway to Avtechies.  The rules are simple. For being eligible to participate in contest/draw, you need to do the following:

  1. Subscribe to Avinashtech by entering your email address in the subscribe box on right sidebar of the blog or by clicking this link. Do remember to verify your email address when you get the verification email from Feedburner.
  2. After that, just leave your name and email address in the form by clicking this link.
  3. Leave a comment below telling why you would like to have Agnitum Outpost Firewall License.

Keep in mind, Multiple entries will disqualify you from the draw.

PS: One license is reserved for reviewer Svwrt and 3 licenses (Single user) for active Forum members/Avinashtech Staff. Rest will be decided by the draw through Random.org list randomiser.

Forum Discussion thread: Agnitum Outpost Firewall Giveaway : Discussion and Review/ feedback

PS: Sorry for some delay in announcing winners of previous giveaways. I am too busy these days but they will be out soon.