Portmaster is an application firewall similar to Little Snitch that works on Windows and Linux. When prompting, it suspends connections for a short amount of time, which, as far as I remember when implementing it, is configurable. I can check to tell you the details, if interested.
I am so scared of Portmaster's website. Looking at their pricing page, it's talking about some VPN thing, and they absolutely insist that Portmaster itself is free and open source, but they keep emphasizing "free" to such an extent that I can't tell if they're lying. Free free free, free download, free and open source, etc etc.
Could you confirm if Portmaster is actually completely free forever and doesn't lock any crucial features behind a paywall or different "plans" or pricing tiers? Is it actually just a local firewall? Because if so I might switch to it from WFC, it does look like it might actually do the trick. It has great documentation and seems to have a userbase too.
"Many of the features mentioned by GlassWire, such as remote connection monitoring, Wi-Fi network monitor, Virus total scanning, and longer connection history, will cost you $39, $69, or $99 depending on your needs.
Portmaster, on the other hand, is both free in terms of freedom and free in terms of price. Safing makes money by charging a monthly fee for additional privacy features."
They will list every paid feature of Glasswire but only say "additional privacy features" for Portmaster? I am so sketched out right now. Are they trying to hide something or not?
Also, the docs don't mention connection prompts—how did you get them?
In principle it is very simple: The Portmaster software itself is completely free and there is no catch. The only thing we charge for is access to our VPN-alternative, the SPN. This is our business model in two sentences.
So, all local features are free. We are thinking about testing new features with the supporter subscribers in the future, but eventually these features will also become free. However, we will never put previously free features behind a paywall. (The software is open-source, so people will just grab the forks!)
> Is Portmaster actually completely free forever?
Except for the SPN, yes. (additional privacy features == SPN)
> Is it actually just a local firewall?
Not counting SPN, yes.
> Also, the docs don't mention connection prompts—how did you get them?
Okay, so I've actually installed Portmaster and things seem to be going well! It actually does seem to suspend connections like you described, which is infinitely better than WFC just setting block-by-default. That's awesome.
It does have quite a few usability nitpicks, and I don't know if it's appropriate to open GitHub issues over those, but if there's some way I can get them to you other than HN (because this is getting quite off-topic) I'd be glad to send them over.
One of my only non-nitpick gripes so far is the fact that I can't allow a connection to pass once without creating a permanent rule. Well, I can if I get a desktop notification (I can just dismiss the notification), but if the notification doesn't get sent to the desktop for whatever reason I cannot control, it shows up in the Portmaster interface itself which doesn't let me allow a connection once without creating a permanent rule.
Okay, thank you! I had a suspicion it was the SPN but didn't know if anything else was paid. It's very unclear that SPN is the only thing you have to pay for. :/
The whole thing raises big alarms of "there's a catch, there's a catch, they're doing the stupid thing where they put positive reassurances everywhere but don't actually explicitly tell you that there is no catch". It feels so untrustworthy.
See https://safing.io/