Portmaster v1.2 & v1.3
The most exciting updates since v1.0
Network History has Arrived!
Many of you have requested this for ages and I am glad to announce that we are finally delivering. Record the network activity of any app for as long as your hardware can manage!
The Network History is tied into our Portmaster Plus and Pro packages.
Better Process Detection
Portmaster used to regularly have “Other Connections”. These were connections Portmaster was not able to attribute to a process. We improved the system integration on both Linux (via eBPF) and Windows (via our kernel driver) in order to get higher quality data about the connections. This means that you normally should not see any connections in the “Other Connections” app anymore. In our tests, every single connection was attributed correctly!
This is not to be confused with the “Network Noise”, where connections from other devices on the network are pooled, but your device is not listening to them.
Portmaster is easy privacy and peace of mind
With Portmaster we set out to create an application that makes privacy as easy as installing an application. Unfortunately, Privacy is quite the battle at the moment, and it gets reduced on multiple angles. Portmaster is built to be a good start in your privacy journey. With Portmaster Plus we added the next step. With the free version you gain great privacy out of the box, and the upgrade helps you understand your device better.
Portmaster Plus: Investigate Everything
The motto for the Plus upgrade is “investigate everything”. Because Portmaster sits inside the network chain it can give you super interesting information about what is going on on your device and in your network. While Portmaster Free is focused on privacy and blocking unwanted connections, Portmaster Plus gives you the insights and information about your device and network you didn’t have before. Recording the network activity of any app is only the start and you can expect more features designed to increase your investigative powers in the coming months.
Portmaster Pro: Protection Everywhere
The SPN takes a different approach than a VPN. It was designed from the ground up for privacy on a per-connection basis, routing each connection independently through the network with layered encryption. The tradeoffs: the SPN is slower than a VPN and routes traffic through fewer exit nodes to improve traffic mixing. For a detailed comparison, see our SPN vs VPNs post.
Focus on Portmaster
As you can tell by the recent changes we’ve made, we are shifting our focus to Portmaster for a while. Read all about this in our blog post Portmaster Free | Plus | Pro = ?.
Other Changes
The complete list of technical changes can always be found in Portmaster’s GitHub Relases.
August 8, 2023 • Written by Daniel
