At a first glance it seems nice, and quite protective -- leak tests and intrusion tests were successful.

It's got really neat features that expand on the idea of application hijacking (it checks for all sorts of attempts by programs to use other programs to either connect to the internet or send out private data).

It has a low impact in terms of system resources and works smoothly.

The main downside is that it is incapable to set full application-based rules. There are two separate components -- application monitoring and network monitoring -- that do not seem to be integrated. As such, you cannot really define a Sygate-like rule, i.e. "Allow incoming TCP on all ports for ". If you set such rule in App monitoring it does not work as long as you don't also allow all incoming TCP in Net monitoring... Confused yet? Well, the program is indeed confusing in this respect.

Another downside is the super-stealth top secret "trusted application list". You cannot see what programs are on it, and if such a program accesses the internet you are not notified. So, if you expect a confirmation pop-up for IE, you won't get it. This can be disabled, but then it asks for every application. This should be easily fixed with a Symantec-like behavior (that announces you that "rules have been automatically created for ").

Another big issue is the non-standard interface. It doesn't do well with common keyboard shortcuts and settings is hard (or at least annoying) to reach.

All-in-all this is a very promising program, and I just hope it will stay free long enough for it to become a fully developed firewall and a household name.

It is plain stupid to pay for this! It's a total joke! Google videos ARE AVIs, they are encoded in standard DivX4 and wirh MP3 sound. No /conversion/ is necessary!

The thing is that common players don't play them because one header. All you have to do is delete it (see below). There are free tools on the net that do this. Also read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Video#GVI_format_and_conversion

If you can use a Hex editor (such as HxD), just delete the first LIST block in the file header, which starts at byte 12 (000C hex) and ends at byte 63 (003F hex). Optionally, the file length (in bytes 5 to 8) should then be amended by subtracting 52 (3F hex - 0C hex = 34 hex).