Privacy: Portmaster (SPN) - anyone used it?
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I've been using Portmaster on multiple PC's for a week now. It's pretty good, but sometimes it refuses to open if left/right clicked from the tray icon. I haven't noticed any lag or connectivity issues. I had to disable DNS Over HTTPS in Firefox due to a conflict that Portmaster warned me about.
There is no trial for their SPN service, and I'm reluctant to pay just to test out a new technology, especially since I've read mixed reviews about it.
As for Portmaster itself, I'll continue using it as it's pretty good. You can select which DNS you want to use from a list, or you can add your own entries.
It's mostly preconfigured right out of the box and starts blocking immediately after install. They do ask you a few set up things on first install, but the process was effortless. You can force internet blocking which is stronger than using rules and filters, but that might be a bit extreme without some testing first. You can select which filters to enable.
Overall, it's better than Glasswire as no features are behind a paywall and it's open-source. Give it a try.
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@RazielKanos It worked fine on my PC's. I had to disable DNS Over HTTPS in Firefox though. Other than that, it's running solid.
@lukas I'll give AdGuard a try if it has the same blocking features as Portmaster.
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@humptydumpty let me know your results
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@humptydumpty ok then I should try Postmaster also
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I can confirm that the SPN is a pretty strong tool and should not be discounted based on the reviews. It is always improving and provides you granular level control over where your connections originate and end at. If you guys want I can provide a detailed review.
Techlore did a review way back but I find him to be rather amateur and the features have improved since: https://safing.io/video/2021/05/27/techlore-reviews-portmaster-safing/ and the general idea is that you get port control, VPN, and Tor type power all in one.
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I ended up uninstalling portmaster not because it didn’t work but because it worked too well. I often ran into connectivity issues like websites and desktop apps not loading, or I got blocked completely until I shutdown Portmaster. I didn’t sign up/test the SPN service though.
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@humptydumpty that‘s an import point with many of these blocking tools - how to find a reasonable degree of blocking. If my TV doesn’t update anymore, payment services don’t work or banks provide me with captchas halve the time, the ad-blocking hasn’t really improved my life….
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I def think you have to strike a balance for sure but remember that the ease by which you access these services and sites is dependant on the sacrifice of one or more of your privacy, security or anonymity. You have to make that call for your own needs. What I will say is that the SPN provides the granular control you are looking for and I often hear people getting rid of Portmaster for the reasons you mention above. With SPN, I can set it so that Brave always opens with a connection in my home country but private windows in brave open in another. I have it set so that LibreWolf opens in the country I want to be streaming from and WaterFox is two hops obfuscated. The SPN then lets you determine the traffic even further. It’s worth diving into and maybe I should do a video l cause it is complex but their white paper does a good job explaining the architecture.
