Freeloader Friday Download of the Week

Some Privacy Here, Please

DG Console

DanGuardian has lead the web filtering game for years. The powerful proxy filters by blacklist and is one of the few that also support content filtering by keyword. DansGuardian runs in the background as a process, with your Mac's web traffic routed through it at the system level.

Traditionaly, DansGuardian has been a nightmare to set up. It requires Squid, a background proxy. Setting these two can be tough. Thanks to Dave Lopata of Lopata.net there's a Mac GUI for installing and managing both of these. With DG Console you can install, start and stop Squid and DansGuardian. You can also configure automatic updates and blacklists.

DG Console is available in Panther and Tiger flavors, and even comes bundled with Squid and DansGuard and more in DG Complete. With everything in place you can control what content comes in to your Mac and keep web servers from collecting information on from your browsing.

Glowworm FM lite

Applications that connect to the internet for one reason or another are nothing new. Have you ever considered what your applications might be saying about you, or who they might be talking with? If you have Tiger, then you should try Glowworm FM lite.

This application intercepts applications that "phone home" and gives you flexible options to block that traffic. Don't have Tiger? Prefer something that runs in the background? Try Little Snitch, a shareware alternative that also intercepts network traffic.

dSniffControl

If you'd like to make one step beyond paranoid to vigilante then dSniffControl will let you monitor the the traffic on your network down to the packet.

See you back here next week. If that's your real name.

Brian

  


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