First Look: Little Snitch 2.0
updated 12:00 pm EST, Sat November 17, 2007
Little Snitch first look
Security is a large issue for many people, especially when it comes to personal privacy concerns. Many applications "phone home", most of the time with the naive purpose such as software validation, but in some cases, the application will report personal information or other things of a private nature. Most users have no control over such reports, since they typically happen behind the scenes. Little Snitch aims to combat this, and has recently been updated to v2.0, sporting a new interface and several enhancements from its first incarnation.
Little Snitch no longer inhabits the System Preferences, instead it is managed by the Little Snitch Configuration app, located in the Applications folder. New to this version is a menu bar icon that displays any network activity – up and down – and provides access to the Network Monitor, Rules and Preferences.
Little Snitch's configuration menu
The pop-up windows have been changed as well, providing a clean interface that contains three tabs, four buttons, and "Allow" and "Deny" buttons. The purpose of these controls is to determine whether you want to accept the connection or decline it, for how long, and to where, allowing for a very specific refinements to connection management.
Alert dialog
The Preferences window allows users to customize whether they want Little Snitch to provide constant feedback about network activity, and provides options for alerts, rule-handling, security, and turning Little Snitch on or off.
The preferences dialog
Rules are what Little Snitch uses to determine what connections to provide and deny access, and where existing rules can be modified or deleted. Rules can be filtered according to certain criteria, such as User Defined Rules, or Temporary Rules. Objective Development has improved how the app deals with full screen applications: in addition to hearing the Speakable Items voice reading out the name of the connection, Little Snitch can automatically accept the rule (pending that the correct preference was activated), or the user can switch out of full screen mode and accept or modify the rule manually.
The Rules manager
The semi-transparent network monitor shows exactly what services are currently active, with up and down indicators to the right of the entry. Selecting the service highlights it at the top of the window, showing also a connection history based on what servers the app has tried to access.
The network monitor
Little Snitch 2.0 available from Objective Development's product page for $25 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Little Snitch
I loved the previous version. Downloaded the latest demo and I am not sure about upgrading. I liked it before because it worked more behind the scenes and only got my attention when necessary. This one scatters itself over the memu bar and the monitor window and always seems to want to be noticed. I like the aspect of it alerting me when an application wants to call home but this version seems to be a bit more needy for attention.