Intego NetBarrier is a nicely designed software firewall for Mac OS X with a good range of features and extras. It can be purchased standalone; or bundled with anti-spam, anti-virus, or a Windows firewall (ÒDual ProtectionÓ). An enterprise enterprise administration console is also available.

Even the basic ÒstandaloneÓ product includes a menu extra for quick access, an (apparently useless) Dashboard widget, NetBarrier Monitor, Intego NetUpdate, and Washing Machine. Washing Machine removes traces of Internet activity from web browsers and other programs that access web sites. Safari and Firefox already have features to clean up this data, but other programs such as news readers and Help Viewer arenÕt generally as security conscious.

Unfortunately, NetBarrier purchases include only one year of filter updates. ItÕs not clear how important these updates are, but if theyÕre trivial Intego should not charge users to download them. Worse, the Intego site fails to inform NetBarrier customers that they will be asked to pay for updates, a year after purchase. When I downloaded and installed NetBarrier X5, I was told to get an update, which was not available until I entered a serial number. This surprised me, as they promote the Free Trial on the site, and I had the latest available download.

Intego support was responsive Ñ they provided reasonable answers to email queries within 24 hours. The documentation is well written, and does a good job of explaining concepts and features. During installation, the Setup Assistant walks the user through a simplified explanation of program features and prompts for reasonable default settings. For users with a bit more knowledge, these settings are quite configurable.

I was pleased to see a ÒClient, local serverÓ firewall option, whereby the Mac can access resources anywhere on the Internet, but does not accept connections from anywhere but the local subnet. IÕve requested that Apple add this feature to Mac OS XÕs built-in firewalls more than once, but (unsurprisingly) Apple has not done so. In general, however, ÒClient onlyÓ is a better option for most users, as it blocks most probes even from people on the same network (both wired and wireless).

On the other hand, NetBarrier decided our Apple TV was an attacker, and blocked it. NetBarrier sent email telling me it was detecting a connection flood, which was good, but the email didnÕt mention the address was being added to the blacklist, which is not so good. Ironically, I tried to whitelist my whole home network when I first set up NetBarrier, but it will only allow one IP address to be entered at a time, and I didnÕt have enough time to enter all my IPs individually. I was disappointed that NetBarrier doesnÕt offer a Òwatch and learnÓ mode, where it would record all network access for later review Ñ since anything that happens immediately after installation of NetBarrier is more likely to be valid activity that it doesnÕt yet know about, rather than malicious activity.

The application is nicely laid out and informative. People curious about what their Macs are up to will be interested in NetBarrierÕs Services display, Log window (which offers a variety of breakdowns and options), and Traffic window, offering a dozen different network activity gauges and a bar chart. The Services window is equivalent to Ònetstat -aÓ or Ònetstat -anÓ, and Activity Monitor offers several of the same Traffic metrics, and NetBarrier does a good job of presenting the information in a friendly fashion.


Macworld buying advice

NetBarrier X5 provides a good set of features for preventing malicious access to your MacÕs over the Internet. The software is well designed, and worthy of consideration from people who are worried about Òcyber-criminalsÓ. The bundles may be particularly interesting for users concerned with securing Macs which also run Windows, or interested in other Intego products such as VirusBarrier.