McAfee Prepares Firewall 5.0

Preparations are underway at McAfee to beta test Firewall 5.0. Product manager James Schmidt recently sat down with BetaNews to detail what's in store for this year's release.

For its updated Firewall product, McAfee has focused on automation and customer education. Extended intelligent application handling operates from a list of trusted programs that are instantaneously permitted access without need for customer intervention. A new optional "setup assistant" and online tutorial collectively educate users on what a firewall is and what is does.

In order to better automate the firewall and keep user interaction to a minimum, McAfee utilizes a program database that is continuously altered through the recommendation of hackwatch.org. Applications must meet specific criteria of due diligence for safety and privacy before being deemed a trusted application.

McAfee targets spikes in application requests to review the newest applications as they are installed on customers' desktops. Unknown products will cause Firewall 5.0 to ask the user to accept or deny a connection. According to Schmidt, McAfee has hired a full time employee to expedite the review process.

Power users will be keen on a new feature that permits access by trusted IPs only during a specified window of time. Other features are more universal.

From installation onward, past McAfee customers will notice significant change to the Firewall 5.0 interface. The UI encapsulates the new standard McAfee facade: a blend of the boxed product with the online interface. Initial plans also call for task oriented toolbars.

Further down the feature set, a visual trace for trusted and banned IP detections is now embedded in the firewall. Forms can be used to report incidents to the proper authorities, or so-called "whitehat" activist groups.

McAfee is placing bets that its own hackwatch.org site will become a driving force in this process, and is focusing its energies to mold the site into a community based forum driven by its customers.

Firewall 5.0 is on schedule to be released to manufacturing on September 3, with an estimated retail price of $39 USD.