Windows Software for Controlling Outgoing Packets?

non carborundum asks: "When using Windows I use Zonealarm because I like its ability to control outgoing packets. It's a good way to find out if some program is trying to call home. Zonealarm is much better than nothing, but 1 prefer open source solutions. Besides, it is overkill - I don't use it as a firewall, since I have a router, and it uses several megabytes of RAM. Better still would be a reverse honeypot - an app that catches outgoing requests, tests them against a database of known offending addresses and/or ports, and (optionally) tricks the offending application into thinking it has successfully phoned home. XP users in particular might be interested in such a tool."

Comments

Try Tiny Personal Firewall.

[Conspiracy FACT]

TPF is great packet sniffing software. It allows you to determine which apps are allowed to receive incoming TCP connections, or make outgoing TCP connections, or receive incoming UDP connections... and which ones aren't. It also allows you to stop Net BIOS name resolution as well as other neat stuff. It gives you much more control then Zone Alarm does. Really a great piece of software.

TPF used to be freeware. You can pick up the shareware version here. You can still find the old freeware version (which I use) here.

For the record, I use both Zone Alarm and Tiny Personal Firewall.

The best article on the subject

[phaze3000]

http://www.samspade.org/d/firewalls.html I agree with pretty much everything the article says..