In Outpost, I add the rule manually for each applications I think needed to connect to the inet. Yes it’s cumbersome, but I like to control which proggie can do what.

For those who doesn’t have this problem, I notice that you all seem to use the Pro/paid version of Outpost. Maybe I should have been clear from the start, I’m using the free version of OSS and yes I’ve disabled parts of it which I think Avast could handle better.

As for the auto-learn mode, I only use it if it’s absolutely necessary and can’t figure out why a prog can’t connect. Even when I did use it, I manually re-tweak the rules later, aiming for the minimum access rights necessary for a prog to work.