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All Macs connected to the Internet (DSL, cable modem, etc.) are exposed to hackers, vandals and other security risks. Experts estimate that between 85% and 97% of intrusions are never detected.
Intego NetBarrier X4 is the Internet security solution for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X. It offers thorough protection against intrusions coming across the Internet or a local network.
NetBarrier X4 gives you an overview of all its powerful functions, and lets you customize its protection simply and easily. With Firewall, Antivandal, Privacy and Monitoring features, NetBarrier X4 is the only program that protects your Mac from all the dangers of the Internet.
NetBarrier X4′s default settings are perfect for most users, and the program’s custom firewall rules, antivandal protection settings, anti-spyware application blocking, filters and monitoring tools make it the ultimate tools for network administrators as well.
Intego NetBarrier X4 protects your computer from intrusions by constantly filtering all the activity that enters and leaves through the Internet or a network. Intego NetBarrier X4 protects you from thieves, hackers and intruders, and warns you automatically if any suspicious activity occurs.
Personal Firewall
Intego NetBarrier X4 contains a personal firewall that filters data as it enters and leaves your computer. A full set of basic filtering rules is used by default, and its Customized protection mode allows you to create your own rules, if you need to.
Antivandal
Intego NetBarrier X4′s Antivandal is a powerful guardian for your computer. It watches over your computer’s network activity, looking for signs of intrusion, and, if it detects anything, stops the intruder in their tracks and sends you an alert. The Antivandal has another powerful function, the Stop List, that records the address of any intruder who attempts to get into your computer, and ensures that they cannot come back. Several options allow you to choose the type of protection you have on your computer. The Antispyware function lets you choose which applications to trust and how to handle unknown applications.
Privacy Protection
Intego NetBarrier X4 helps protect your privacy. It filters data to ensure that no sensitive information leaves your computer, blocks ad banners and lets you manage cookies, deleting them whenever you want. It can clean your browser’s cache and history files. And it has a unique feature that hides information about your computer: its platform, which browser you are using, and the last web page you visited.
Data Filter
Intego NetBarrier X4 has a unique function that protects you and your information: its Data Filter ensures that any sensitive information you choose to protect cannot leave your computer and go onto a network. You decide what to protect, such as your credit card number, passwords, or key words that appear in sensitive documents, and Intego NetBarrier X4′s Data Filter checks each outgoing packet to make sure that no documents containing this information are sent. Not only does this protect you from accidentally sending documents containing this information, it also prevents anyone who has network access to your computer from taking copies of them.
Monitoring
Intego NetBarrier X4 contains powerful tools for monitoring your network activity and usage. Its activity gauges show your network traffic in real time, and its additional monitoring functions give you essential information on your computer, its network, and the services and connections that are active.
Intego NetBarrier X4 even offers a monitoring screen saver, so you can always keep an eye on your network traffic.
For more information, visit www.intego.com.
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December 5th, 2007 at 12:52 am
I’d be pretty careful even trialing this one. Only gets 1/5 at versiontracker over 189 comments. With a firewall router, leopard firewall, adblock pro, and littlesnitch, I can’t see what this adds, sorry.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:26 am
It gets 1 out of 5 from a user who apparently did not know how to use it. ;) This one is not that bad.
I think it’s overpriced even with the Zot discount. I think Intego’s support has a very negative track record. I know I won’t use it unless I win it through NextZot.
Having said this, it worked fine for me when I used it in the past. IIRC it identified ping flooding attacks or something to that effect. This is one Intego program that was useful for me. If the price were $20 I would “think“ about it.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:54 am
Agreed. They’re support has never been good and their products are just so-so. I’ve tried their anti-virus and backup solutions and just haven’t been impressed with them. (The best way to put it for those of us who have been stuck with PC coding responsibilities is they’ve always reminded me of visual basic apps instead of professionally developed products. That’s obviously just my $0.02) That said, their products are designed for folks without extensive computer experience or the desire to wade through mounds of manuals. Can’t speak to whether this program works for that; I can only talk about my past experiences with their stuff, and to-date, it hasn’t been that good.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Yeah, versiontracker’s system is a little literal. Version tracker indeed. But other recent comments weren’t great either. It’s not like 4.4 is wildly different from 4.3 or 4.2 or 4.1, and really going back, far older versions either.
Overall, it has a three at both macupdate and at versiontracker. Which isn’t terrible. The real reason you should be careful before trying this is that a large percentage of the ratings are either a 5 or a 1. I’d much prefer downloading a package where almost everyone agreed it was a 3 then something that has ratings like this. It’s either “this is terrible, it did x, y and z and they were no help at all and I can’t believe they made this so stupidly” or “this is so great, it saved me from utter doom, now i’m safe!” And since I don’t know which I’d get….
At any rate, I’d be really interested to know more about the program…a lot of the reviews (both positive and negative) are technical, explaining exactly what went wrong/went right/went/stayed put…whatever. Except that a lot of them disagree…vehemently. While it’s possible for some people to have a great experience and some, well, not, it’s pretty startling how varied the technical explanations are for how the program works and how much they disagree with each other.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:31 am
I’m passing on this one – after buying the product they want $30/year for updates. These guys are just too greedy…
December 5th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Zot Tip: When the product screenshots are almost 2 years old, don’t buy and count on support!
December 5th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Darn it! I just bought this full-price a month ago :-)
One of the things about being on the Mac is that we’re all lulled into thinking that network security is a PC-only problem. And since it’s *mostly* a PC problem :-) you have a lot of choices of firewalls and anti-virus programs over there. FWIW, here in Macsville we don’t have too many options.
After upgrading to Leopard and seeing how the firewall was basically useless (turned off by default (!) and with Apple waffling about how it was an ‘application-level’ filter) I went hunting for a decent firewall. I’d been running Little Snitch for eons for stopping outbound connections (and loved the UI) but inbound was an issue — especially when out at a public hotspot where everyone else is on your subnet. I run MAMP for development and needed *something* in place.
After a bit of research I settled on NetBarrier — mostly because all the other ones out there were worse. I’m not thrilled with how some features are implemented, but it seems to get the basics right and so far it works fine on Leopard. Yes it’s a bit overpriced, but if it’s between Leopard’s anemic firewall and this, I’ll happily pay to protect my work.
There are a few UI quirks, like having to hold the option key down for one-time allowing or denial of network access and I think they need to rethink how they filter FTP so it doesn’t keep asking you for permission every time you click on an ‘ftp://’ link. But the two-way firewall works fine and I ended up (sadly) retiring Snitch a week ago.
If you’re around public WiFi spots a lot and are worried about people next to you running sniffers and port-scanners then you’ll want a decent firewall and some sort of VPN (like OpenVPN or PublicVPN) as a basic precaution.
I haven’t had too much experience with Intego’s tech support, but I haven’t had to deal with them so far. Overall, I’d say if you’re worried about security and hang around places where you’re exposed a lot, you’ll want something like this.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I use this product. For the doubters , Why not try the demo?
December 5th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I love this product. One really cool feature is it shows you which channel all the wireless routers in reach are using, which is handy.
I thought when Leopard came out that I wouldn’t need it anymore. Not true. It is so much easier to configure and has features that were never thought of in Leopard.
As Quok says – there’s also a free demo on their website.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:34 am
read this, it could be useful : http://blog.intego.com/2007/12/06/intego-netbarrier-x4-compared-to-apples-leopard-firewall/