The first firewall application for the iPhone received today a major update announced by the application developer Yllier. IP Firewall is exactly what the name says, a firewall application that blocks the traffic of all applications that try to connect to the Internet until you decide to give them permission. The first version was a bit rudimentary and I gave up on it a few days after installation, but I'm curious how version 1.2 will behave, which brings some very important things.
Here are the news:
* WhoIs: when FiP's main popup appears you'll see that the hostname is now in a button. when you tap the button a new view will appear containing the whoIs-info for the domain/IP (if available)
* allow/deny connection for this session (the connection is allowed/denied until you exit the app)
* log (can be enabled in the info view; the (i) button on the main screen)
* a second theme for the popup (can be changed in the info view)
* if you are in a host view (any allow/deny table) you can now edit the hostnames if you put the table into edit mode (simply tab on the hostname in edit mode).
* manually add hostnames to allow/deny for an app
* the allow/deny for an app now also supports the *host.com notation (like global allow/deny). meaning that if you change a hostname to *hostname.com the host and all subdomains will be affected. if you use *.hostname.com only subdomains will be affected).
An application of this type is extremely useful for iPhone users, because some applications have the stupid habit of connecting to the Internet on their own and generate traffic that can sometimes end up swelling your bills quite a bit.
The application can be purchased from Cydia for $2.49. If you don't know how to buy applications from Cydia, you have a tutorial here.
