DoorStop PE 2.0.1

10-23-00 Michael Tate Jones

Product: DoorStop Personal Edition 2.0.1
Company: Open Door Networks
Web: www.opendoor.com
Contact: info@opendoor.com
Category: Utilities, Internet, Security
Price: $59 (Single User License)
Requirements: Macintosh Computer running OS 8.1 or later and an Internet connection.
OS X Plans: Unknown.
Rating: 4 bites out of the Apple (5 being best).

("Paranoia will destroy ya . . ." Black Sabbath)

With the popularity of high speed Internet access on the rise, more and more Mac users with cable modems and DSL are literally 'opening the door' to their computers. You could say it's akin to leaving the front door to your house unlocked with a sign that says "Welcome, the door's open, please take anything you like." Granted, the Mac has always had superior protection against would-be hackers. Even the US Navy knows that! However, since OS 9's introduction there are more ways for people to access your computer over the Internet. Personal Web Sharing, File Sharing over TCP/IP and Program Linking over TCP/IP to name a few. Worse, if you have a Cable or DSL connection, your 'front door' is accessible at any time. Modem users are only at risk while logged in to their ISP (Internet Service Provider). Not to worry though, Open Door Networks personal firewall utility program DoorStop Personal Edition is ready to help you lock the front (and back) door to your Mac and provides a keyhole you can look through to see potential intruders.

Before I get into the features of DoorStop, I'd like to give you a brief description of how the Internet works and how your Mac connects to it. Once you see some fundamentals you'll see whay you need this software. I'll also generally describe what a firewall is and what it does.

So what is this Internet thing anyway?

The Internet is simply a large collection of computers all over the world connected together by wire and controlled by a set of somewhat more complicated protocols (TCP/IP is one of them, but we'll get to that in a minute). Each computer on the Internet must have an IP address (much like your home has an address so the Post Office can deliver mail to you). A computer's address is a unique set of numbers separated by periods (128.0.0.1 for example). Web pages get delivered by special computers called servers (Applelust.com is on a server provided by itsamac.com). A server can be compared to your local Post Office. It delivers packets of information (or mail) to your computer (home) every time you visit a new website or download a file. TCP/IP controls the entire process of exchanging packets of information. An experienced hacker could feasibly gain access to your computer if he/she knew your computer's IP address. To prevent this, large companies use a device called a firewall to deny access to their company's personal information. A firewall simply prevents access to any unknown computer address. DoorStop Personal Edition is a software-based version of a firewall giving you the same protection that large companies are privileged to. Whew! I hope that made sense!

What can DoorStop do for me?

So now that you know all there is to know about the Internet (!!), you probably want to know how DoorStop can protect you from those naughty hackers. It's pretty simple. Download DoorStop. Install it. Launch DoorStop, and then press the Start button (I'm not referring to that 'other' Start button). It's that easy! Ok, so there's a little more to it than that. Actually, installation is very simple. You run the installer, restart your Mac and then launch the Doorstop application. This is what you will see.

Simply pressing the Start button activates DoorStop protection. As you can see, DoorStop provides protection for 3 of OS 9's major internet functions; Personal Web Sharing, File Sharing over TCP/IP and Program Linking over TCP/IP. For each of these, DoorStop lets you 'Allow all access', 'Deny all access', or create a list of IP addresses to give or prevent access to your computer. This could be a list of your friend's IP addresses, an ftp server you access often, or list of suspicious IP addresses that you don't recognize.

The fourth item, 'All Others' is self-explanatory. It covers any other service that requires some type of access to the Internet (such as your web browser). In Advanced Mode, DoorStop allows you to specify particular programs to 'keep an eye on.' The advanced mode also allows users in a Macintosh network (say at work) to Allow or Deny access to a whole range of computer IP addresses or within a particular subnet. Don't worry, if you're a home user and have no idea what a subnet is then you'll probably never use this feature. The simplest (and safest) way to setup DoorStop is to select 'Deny Access' for each of OS 9's TCP/IP services. If you plan on using any of these services, it's best to create a list of your friends IP addresses and only allow them access. If your friend says, "What the heck is an IP address!" tell him to open his control panels folder and select TCP/IP. This control panel reveals his IP address. Have him read it to you then select 'Allow access from only addresses in list'. Then press the 'New' button.

Type in your friend's IP address then select 'OK.' Now, only your friend can gain access to your computer. You can continue to add as many IP addresses as you like as you keep alist of friendly and unfriendly ones. And believe me, with DoorStop you'll start working on that list right away, because you will see how many attempts there are top access your computer.

I saw you peeking at my computer!

You can set DoorStop to alert you with this dialogue about access attempts to your computer.

One of Doorstops nicest features is the ability to view a list of access attempts by other computers. Viewing the list is easy. Just open the DoorStop Access History window. Here you will find a log of any computer that tried to access your computer.

By the way, I am currently on a cable connection and activated DoorStop just before I started writing this review. Already there have been 3 attempts by other computers to access mine. Two of them were my Internet Service Provider running a security scan and the third was actually me running DoorStop's test feature. At least I know it's working! What's even more interesting is DoorStop's ability to search for more information about a given IP address in the Access History list. Simply double-click on the unknown access attempt and DoorStop displays an Access Information window.

From here you can click on the 'Learn More' button. DoorStop launches your web browser and instantly takes you to a web page with all the details of the offending computer. If you follow through with this procedure you can find the actual address, phone, and name, of the person(s) (or institutions or companies) which owns the address which attempted the access. (And note - - people can do the same to you! It usually works both ways on the Net.) This feature is very cool indeed. It even gives information as to why the access attempt was made and lists possible web sites associated with this particular IP address. This is what it told me about the NNTP service:

'This access attempt was made to see if your machine is running a Network News (NNTP) server. NNTP servers make available the newsgroups that you often see on the Net. If you use the @Home Network to connect to the Internet, they seem to periodically look for these servers to make sure you're not running one.'

Well, I never knew the @Home service attempted to do this and now that DoorStop is running they never will again! Definitely cool.

It should be noted that many of the "attacks" you'll get with this program are standard Net protocols on your network. There are a lot of electrons flying around there and sometimes a stray one hits you. Some are not outright attacks per se. Your host may do security checks, like @Home, or hire a third party to do monitoring. But the 'Learn More' feature allows you determine this for yourself (for the most part), and it certainly, if anything, will wake you up if you think that no one knows you're out there on the crowded net. They do. In my opinion, the 'Learn More' feature alone is nearly worth the price of DoorStops $59 price tag.

DoorStop comes with a CSM so that you can stop and start protection on the fly. This is handy indeed. Open Door has thought of everything, it seems.

Is it worth the 60 clams?

Also, it should be noted that over the months we have used this product it has not crashed once. It is very stable and does not mess with your system or network settings in anyway. If Open Door wanted to produce a product for those who simply want protection but don't want to learn all about TCP/IP to get it, they have succeeded. That is to say, the 'Mac spirit' of this software is very high indeed - - it's simple and intuitive, with little fuss required on the user's part.

We will start to make it a note in these reviews to mention the documentation. This is a vital part of any application. Since DoorStop PE was an electronic download the documentation was not printed. At this point developers have two options: PDF or HTML. These are the best ways to supply documentation absent printed manuals. (We at applelust.com are partial to PDFs for the most part, since they are better to print.) The DoorStop PE manual is HTML. It covers most of the basics in a matter of fact way, and supplies step-by-step examples to lead you through setting up the application. It has a nice section on how DoorStop interacts with other applications, especially ftp and email clients, and, while not exhaustive, does provide enough background for one to understand what's going on. We would say that it is sufficient without being pedantic, and well suited to most's needs.

The Shareway IP feature shows Open Door knows the Mac.

If you'd like to find out for yourself, simply download the 10-Day trial from www.opendoor.com. It's also nice to know that Open Door Network's ShareWay IP technology is integrated into OS 9. It's what allows File Sharing over TCP/IP to function. So it's obvious Open Door Networks knows something about Macs and how they operate. Installation was easy and I found it simple to use overall. I'm giving DoorStop 4 out of 5 bites from the Apple (we don't do halves, but if we did it would get 4.5). I didn't give it 5 because even though the 'Learn More' feature is really cool, the price is still a little high given that its major competitor, NetBarrier, recently lowered its price to $49 though it has a somewhat richer freature set.

Although, it's hard to put a price on something as important as protecting your personal information, DoorStop PE is a great program which gives you some piece of mind. It might not do it all, but what it it does it does well and is perfect for those who do not know a great deal about networks and want a simple way to protect themselves.

Michael Tate Jones