Sammo,
On first reboot after installation OA will be very slow, after that it will be quick (whatever your normal boot up is) at boot up.
Outpost Free 6.5 has weaker inbound filtering than Outpost Pro.
Read the thread below, especially posts #90 & #97 by Stem, Wilder’s firewall guru.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=240422&page=4
I may get the OP Pro in the future. I just tried Online Armor again and found that it not only takes up more system resources than Outpost but it completely blocked all internet connections even though I was really careful in the setup. I’ll pass on OA from now on. Another good addition I have is Zemana Antilogger (http://www.zemana.com/) which kills stuff that might get past OP or avast.
Whilst that is one opinion, I believe the results of the http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php is another and OP free does very well overall. With a better result than the OP Pro firewall (on a technicality) and better than Online Armor Free.
David,
OA Free passed the tests OP Free failed & OP Free passed those OA Free failed, except they both failed Crash7. That puts them at an exact tie. Add what Stem said about OP Free’s inbound puts OA Free far above OP Free.
Regardless of these results, we need to use what works best on our own systems.
OA doesn’t work for Sammo and OP drastically slows my internet, so it’s OP for Sammo & OA for me. 8)
I read in OA forums leftovers from other fw’s can conflict with OA, there may be help for Sammo there. 
In the mean time a router fw can give him peace of mind. ;D
Someday I may again try OA on another machine, but for now OP, avast and Antilogger work really well on my current computer. This s/w combo plus my h/w firewall passes all the tests. You may want to try OA to see if it passes the tests here: http://www.zemana.com/SecurityTests.aspx . If it does, let me know. Thanks! 
In McAfee SiteAdvisor tests, they found 21 yellow downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs. :o
Any Outpost Firewall user notice any potentially unwanted program/adware/spyware ? ;D Is it Ask.com toolbar ? Like the one in Comodo Firewall and ZoneAlarm Fireall ?
I would trust Agnitum over site advisor any day of the week. I have been using the outpost firewall in various guises for about 8 years from the original free (version 1.0) through to the Outpost Firewall Pro and never been any hint of adware/spyware unwanted programs, etc.
Feel the same !
+1
I use Outpost 2009 (free) on Thinkpad / XP Pro SP3 with IE8 brower.
I also have avast running alongside MSE beta and so far all good. I have posted about this.
I work Outpost with combo - runonce / learn mode - to set basic rules default and so far all good.
I use OA (pay) on 2 computers with profile below - Firefox browser - and so far all good.
Also OA (pay) on Asus P4 with much same profile as computers below - so far all good.
I don’t think I push these computers too hard as most my time is taken up just getting through my work routine. And doing a bit of research whenever I have time spare time. Or else repair. maintenance, build of computers. So pretty much stay on safe ground - just pesky adware sometimes.
I use ASK toolbar for research purposes - but only for record / convert and instead search web using more conventional tools, mainly google search box, but also academic - like University, Tech Institute or W3C - search engines. So I guess that cuts down a lot of the likelihood of malware intrusion.
Now firewalls settled in, I cannot tell difference Outpost and OA with general running. So far.
One important difference between OP Free and OA Free is that OP Free has keylogger protection and OA Free does not. If you feel like doing some tests then try the tests from these sites:
http://www.zemana.com/SecurityTests.aspx
http://www.pcflank.com/pcflankleaktest.htm
OP Free passes most, OA Free passes a few less of them.
OP Free fails six of Matousec’s firewall tests, OA Free failed seven. Both OP Free & OA Free failed Crash7.
OA Free passed the ones OP Free failed & OP Free passed the ones OA Free doesn’t do (keyloggers). But many antispywares & av’s do protect from keyloggers. Therefore I don’t think this is a critical weakness in OA Free.
If what I read about in Wilders is true about OP Free’s inbound, that’s a critical weekness.
In addition to a s/w f/w shouldn’t a good hardware firewall also help protect against inbound threats? Also, for added protection I use and recommend Zemana AntiLogger - http://www.zemana.com/
In addition to a s/w f/w shouldn't a good hardware firewall also help protect against inbound threats?
Yes. I said as much in a previous post. Not eveyone is behind a router fw, dial up has no routers. ;D
No scans with SAS, mbam, ST, WD, avast!, ESET Online, OA Full or ClamWin find keyloggers on either of my computers. 8) OA Free does find keylogger detection–hooks.
I would begin to wonder as to the whether testing firewalls is worth the time and effort. :o
But I’m not about to argue the point one way or the other. Given a failure at firewall, I would be ready to enter the discussion. Until then, I guess just keep taking notes.
dial up has no routersFrom what I remember, with dial-up you are assigned a different DHCP space each time you go to the net. So potentially the better malware-resistant option, if not the best way to surf the web overall. I imagine there are firewall implications. Perhaps help to gain more insight into firewalls and their uses.
Confusion from North:
I had planned trying Outpost 2009 Free on one of my netbooks when I saw this thread:
Perhaps it is too hot here , but I have to ask:
Weak inbound protection? Does it give Stealth at grc.com?
I read the pointers to Wilders thread but still confused.
Got the impression of a semi-inbound firewall?
Is it bundled with anything? I saw Ask toolbar got mentioned.
If yes, possible to opt out?
Thanks
HL
Yes it has a stealth setting and passes the GRC tests. Outpost will also pass the tests at http://www.zemana.com/SecurityTests.aspx as well as at http://www.pcflank.com/pcflankleaktest.htm
As with any software firewall it is always better if you have a router/firewall as well for more inbound protection.
I recently switched from Comodo because it failed some of these tests.
Thanks, Sammo.
What about my second question about bundling?
HL
I didn’t see any extra stuff bundled with Outpost when I installed it. It doesn’t have adware or spyware.
Thx a lot.
HL