Vista Firewall: Block outgoing connections?

[Stupendous Man]

I was wondering if there was a way to have the included firewall with Vista block outgoing connections from 3rd party programs? Ideally, I would like a popup to ask me if I want to allow the program to connect to the internet, just as Zonealarm does. Unfortunately, Zonealarm isn't yet ready for vista, so I have to wait a bit for it.

Is there a way to do this, or another program that is freeware that will perform this function equally as well under vista?

 

[richardm]

You can block outgoing connections (search for "Firewall with advanced security" in the Vista search thing), but I'm not sure if you can get it to ask you a la Zonealarm. Might be worth having a tinker to see if you can find a solution though.

Edited to add: Because it seems like a stunning oversight, and it might be in there somewhere.

 

[MortFurd]

You can block outgoing connections (search for "Firewall with advanced security" in the Vista search thing), but I'm not sure if you can get it to ask you a la Zonealarm. Might be worth having a tinker to see if you can find a solution though.

Edited to add: Because it seems like a stunning oversight, and it might be in there somewhere.

Not an oversight, stunning or otherwise.

A firewall that blocks outgoing connections is an admission of failure. If there's a program on your PC that needs to be blocked, all other lines of defense have failed and you have the bad stuff already using your machine.

Most users don't have the knowledge to decide what is good or bad, anyway. They are as likely to block their email program as anything.

I've given up on Zone Alarm and similar products. For the untrained user, they are worse than useless. About the only use I have for them is to confirm a suspected connection from some program that wants to do an update automatically.

A firewall that blocks incoming is good, but you are better off with it in an external device than you are with it in software on the machine you are trying to protect.

 

[GodMark2]

You can block outgoing connections (search for "Firewall with advanced security" in the Vista search thing), but I'm not sure if you can get it to ask you a la Zonealarm. Might be worth having a tinker to see if you can find a solution though.

Edited to add: Because it seems like a stunning oversight, and it might be in there somewhere.

It's even worse than an oversight, it was a design decision. Microsoft didn't want the 'average home user' to be frustrated by a bunch of mesages asking 'Can I let program XXX access the internet?'. In there defense, the standard user reaction (to a plethora of such messages) is to simply click "Yes" rather than think, which has the same result.

Yes, such a message from an unknown application is a sign that all the incomming defenses have failed. But personally, I'd rather have that sign than simply allow any program that managed to get into my computer to have free reign with the network.

Vista already detects installer applications (and forces you to grant them admin access or stop running). Couldn't it ask the user at that time "Should this app acess the internet?"

 

[richardm]

Besides, "Most Users" are not "All Users". I'm quite capable of identifying my email program when prompted. By all means let "anything goes" be the default position for the great unwashed, but why not let users who would like to have that last line of defence have it?

 

[Soapy Sam]

I thought the ability to check outgoing as well as incoming data was one of the selling points of the new firewall?
When added to the fact that most standard security packages don't work with Vista, this seems another reason to stick to XP.

 

[richardm]

It can block outgoing data, but the default position is to allow anything to go out. There doesn't appear to be a handy popup that asks "Such and such is trying to access the internet, what do you think?"

At the moment I am just using the built-in firewall. We'll see how it goes. Perhaps Microsoft's position will be vindicated, but it still seems an odd omission to me.