Radio Silence
Security and privacy
outbound firewall
SHOW HN2011
77points
81comments
#152of 1,097 in 2011
Top 14%of 2011 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
14 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 11 critical, out of 48 comments about the project. Thread score +0.09.
Pricing: 2 for, 5 againstDesign: 5 for, 0 againstIdea: 3 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean, attractive website and UI
From 3 comments
Very clean site design, and UI looks gorgeous. Awesome job! May want to think about putting the qualifier inside the call to action: Buy now for $9 (try risk-free for 30 days)…
nmeyer on HNI'm really liking the design of the website.
thirtysixred on HNI think you did a great job. Tells me exactly what it does, I don't have to hunt down screenshots, the call to action button is obvious yet not obnoxious and it's clean. Well…
iamdave on HN
Simple, unobtrusive design with no dock or menu icon
From 1 comment
very nice, it just disappears when you click done. You may forget about this and wonder why my apps aren't connecting but glad there isn't dock or menu icon!
shennyg on HN
Price of $9 feels right
From 2 comments
$9 feels about right. I know this is off-topic, but how do you like FastSpring?
robterrell on HNAsking for features "before I buy" is lame, I know. These are merely suggestions. 1) Avoiding the verboseness of something like LittleSnitch is an admirable goal, but there's too…
ary on HN
Objections
No trial download; buying up front is a barrier
From 3 comments
Can't download to try before buying. Lost my interest.
nvk on HNAgreed. I use Little Snitch currently. I wanted to give this a try but.... I won't buy an application up front. I understand the Dev will refund instantly as stated in comments…
tintin846 on HNMy first thoughts: + nice website + app in the screenshot looks nice ? does it show up in the menubar or...? (maybe add a couple of screenshots) - I can't try before I buy (yes,…
kamme on HN
Does not detect which apps phone home, so users must know what to block
From 2 comments
If you have to silence apps manually, how can you know if an app will phone home?
lovskogen on HNIt's not misleading, but the combination of requiring manual silencing and not giving any indication of what needs to be silenced seems self-undermining. Your target market is…
lisper on HN
Can't block non-app-bundle processes or other exfiltration routes
From 2 comments
There's so many ways to send outbound traffic that I'm not sure if it's worth blocking it at all. You can easily block applications that don't try to be sneaky, but are firewalls…
pornel on HNIs there a kernel extension involved ? What about blocking process e.g. from the terminal etc.
uris on HN
$19 price too high for the functionality
From 2 comments
Yeah, I'd say $19 is really pushing it for this sort of app, which is something that is zero-maintenance, zero-interaction, install and forget kind of thing. The app needs to…
huhtenberg on HNI'd be curious as to what the sales of this are like. It's something I'd be tempted to buy at maybe $5-10 or so, but for ~$20 I'd just use either the System Preferences firewall,…
shabble on HN
Requests
Whitelist mode for paranoid users
From 3 comments
I really love Radio Silence’s UI (based on the screenshot). Quick thought — for the more-paranoid, would it make sense to let you switch to a whitelist, where only the listed…
Sidnicious on HNseconded. and an opt-in growl notification for applications that are trying to outbound connect.
siculars on HNI would like to see whitelist as well. Looks nice. Good luck.
trusko on HN
Growl notifications for blocked connection attempts
From 1 comment
seconded. and an opt-in growl notification for applications that are trying to outbound connect.
siculars on HN
Trial version or free download
From 2 comments
Can't download to try before buying. Lost my interest.
nvk on HNAgreed. I use Little Snitch currently. I wanted to give this a try but.... I won't buy an application up front. I understand the Dev will refund instantly as stated in comments…
tintin846 on HN
Subscribable adblock-style block lists
From 2 comments
I wish I could subscribe to adblock style lists for application firewalls. That's something I'd pay real money for.
Aloisius on HNSomewhere upthread someone mentioned an adblock-style collaborative/hosted block list. Having it follow one (or more) RSS feeds would allow anyone to offer a list, and any user…
shabble on HN
Thumbs up/down toggle per application
From 1 comment
Asking for features "before I buy" is lame, I know. These are merely suggestions. 1) Avoiding the verboseness of something like LittleSnitch is an admirable goal, but there's too…
ary on HN
Questions
Does it work on Windows or Linux equivalents
From 1 comment
Very nice. Anyone aware of something like this for Linux?
rufugee on HN
Why not sold through the Mac App Store
From 2 comments
Any reason why you decided to not distribute it through the Mac Appstore? Genuinely curious.
iampims on HNIt would be nice if it was in the Mac App Store (or if it is already you shall link to it)
Kwpolska on HN
Does it work with Spotify
From 1 comment
Will this work for an app like Spotify? Note: Spotify appears to use very random ports to do it's p2p stuff, which is great except when you don't have the bandwidth to spare.
tombot on HN
Alternatives named
Little Snitch
From 2 comments
What makes this better than Little Snitch?
foobarbazetc on HNI'd be curious as to what the sales of this are like. It's something I'd be tempted to buy at maybe $5-10 or so, but for ~$20 I'd just use either the System Preferences firewall,…
shabble on HN
pf firewall and Waterroof
From 2 comments
Personally I use a combination of pf (Waterroof is a nice control front end) and HandsOff (switcher from LittleSnitch for more fine grained control). I wish the dev well - but…
windexh8er on HNI'd be curious as to what the sales of this are like. It's something I'd be tempted to buy at maybe $5-10 or so, but for ~$20 I'd just use either the System Preferences firewall,…
shabble on HN
HandsOff
From 1 comment
Personally I use a combination of pf (Waterroof is a nice control front end) and HandsOff (switcher from LittleSnitch for more fine grained control). I wish the dev well - but…
windexh8er on HN