Best performers

All 24 firewalls were tested with these leak tests. The detailed results can be seen on the next page. Here are our comments on the winners, the firewalls having the best results using their default configurations.

Outpost Firewall Pro 2.0.226
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/
Version 1.0 of Outpost Pro was not a great contender in our previous tests last year. However, version 2.0 is rock-solid, not only in comparison to Outpost Pro 1.0 but to the other firewalls as well!

Its new Component Control feature enables Outpost Pro to pass most of the leak tests without extra configuring. All you need to do is block suspicious DLLs when Outpost 2.0 reports them.

Developers of Outpost Pro told us the next build of the program (Agnitum is testing it right now) blocks all these leak tests. However they refused to disclose exact time frames for the release of this update.

Look’n’Stop 2.0.4
http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm

The winner of our previous tests proved its high rating again this year. However, it failed at the “Atelier Web Firewall Tester” (with a score of 2 points out of 10) and it failed against Thermit and Copycat. We contacted the developers (Soft4Ever) and they confirmed those results, but reported their beta version (2.04p2) should pass both Thermit and Atelier Web Firewall Tester. That’s good news for users of L’n’S firewall!

Other firewalls

The other firewalls, such as Sygate and ZoneAlarm Pro, can do much better if properly configured. So users of ZoneAlarm Pro/Plus should enable the “High” level of control to pass more tests.