Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Potetial Outpost Conflicts?


From: alaskan () telusplanet net
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 11:21:58 -0700

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:23:49 -0500, you wrote:

Paranoid?

Why would you want to run a second and a third copy of software that
does the same thing? I think the programmers are justified in warning
the users of incompatibilities when you run similar applications etc.
The practice of multiples will slow your system down and add
instability and vulnerabilities as stated by the programmers. 

I think I'd sleep better knowing that at least one program is working
to spec without the worry of not knowing if it helps to run multiples
without a guarantee of performance.

G'day, all,

I currently run two firewalls (Sygate and Tiny). I wanted to replace one 
with Outpost to see if Outpost is as good as people tell me it is. Agnitum 
warns you not to run more than one firewall, so I disconnected from the 
'net, shut down both my firewalls and started the Outpost install. The 
install process noticed the existence of the other non-running firewalls on 
the sytem and gave me the following message:

"You will most likely have the following problems if you decide to run more 
then one firewall on your computer:

- Blue screen fatal errors, system freezing or sudden system reboots.
- All access will be allowed for every application. Nothing will be blocked.
- Every application will be blocked and you will be unable to connect to 
any web site.
- Your computer system will be unable to boot up.
- Every other error imaginable!"

First, these claimed potential problems strike me as being somewhat 
over-the-top. Second, I run two AV programs (security in depth, and all 
that), one of which warns of dire consequences from running more than one 
AV program. In fact, I have no problems whatsoever; they don't even trip 
over each other's signature files. Neither do I get any conflicts between 
my current two firewalls or problems from running two. (I pass all GRC, 
Sygate and other tests with either or both.)

So my question is: Has anyone experimented with running Outpost with 
another firewall? If so, what was your experience? If not, can anyone think 
of anything to justify Agnitum's claims? Is this just a problem of 
Outpost's? (No other firewall I know of issues such a warning.)  Or is this 
just a marketing claim to encourage usage of Outpost and only Outpost? (My 
OS, BTW, is 98.)

Cheers,
Colin



Current thread: