Pausing and turning off the filter

Pausing stops Outbound enforcing your rules until the time you chose. Speed limits stay on. The pause is stored with the filter, so it holds if you quit Outbound, and it ends on its own.

The Overview says what a pause means while it lasts: “Rules aren’t enforced until” plus the clock time, or “until this Mac restarts”, then “Speed limits stay on.” An app with a speed limit stays limited during a pause, and its QUIC traffic is still turned back to TCP so the limit keeps working.

Turning the network filter off stops all filtering until you turn it on again. That is the rescue switch, for when filtering itself is what broke the network.

Pausing

The menu bar panel’s pause button opens a menu. While filtering, the headings and items are:

• Allow everything for: 15 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours.
• Until the Network Changes. The help is “Resumes when this Mac joins another network, and after 4 hours at the latest”. The item is off until Outbound knows the current network. If it does not, the error is “Outbound cannot tell which network this is yet.”
• Until Restart. If Outbound cannot tell which startup this is, it says “Outbound cannot tell which startup this is, so it cannot pause until restart.”
• Turn Off Network Filter… at the bottom, when the filter is on.

While paused, the same menu shows Resume Now and Extend the pause, with the same durations.

The pause row in the panel is separate from that menu. It reads “Paused until restart”, “Paused until the network changes”, or “Paused until” plus the clock time, and its button is Resume.

Example data.

Firewall uses different names, and it has no 4-hour item: Pause for 15 Minutes (⌥⇧⌘P), Pause for 1 Hour, Pause Until the Network Changes, Pause Until Restart, and Resume Filtering (the same shortcut) while paused. Turn Off Network Filter… help is “Stops all filtering until you turn it on again. Use it if the network stops working.” Turn On Network Filter replaces it while the filter is off.

The Shortcuts action Pause Outbound takes a number of minutes from 1 to 1440 (1 minute to 24 hours), and it defaults to 15. Its description is “Pauses Outbound’s rules for a few minutes and asks for approval. Speed limits stay on.” Resume Outbound ends a pause. The menus themselves only offer the fixed choices above. If something asks for a pause outside 1 minute to 24 hours, Outbound answers “Choose a pause between 1 minute and 24 hours.”

Starting or extending a pause asks for Touch ID or your password, because your rules stop applying. The clock starts when you approve. If the network changes while that prompt is open, a network pause is already over and Outbound resumes at once. While your organization sets the mode, pause is refused with “The mode is set by your organization.”

The menu bar’s status line says “Paused until restart”, or “Paused until” plus the clock time, or “Paused” when a pause has no end it can show. The main window’s status pill uses the same two timed wordings. Neither uses the words “until the network changes”: a network pause still has a 4-hour end, and that clock is what they show. The pause row in the panel is the place that says “Paused until the network changes”.

Until the network changes

This pause is for one network: a captive portal, a hotel login. It ends when the Mac joins a different network, and after 4 hours at the latest if it stays. Going offline does not end it. The network has to change.

If only the sign-in page fails to load while encrypted DNS is on, you may not need to pause your rules at all. Pause for Captive Portal (15 Min) in Settings › DNS turns DNS encryption off for 15 minutes and leaves your rules in force.

Turning the filter off

Turn Off Network Filter… removes the filter’s hold on the network: no connection is checked until you turn it on again with Turn On Network Filter. Both commands live at the bottom of the pause menu and in the Firewall menu.

Turning it off asks for Touch ID or your password while protection is on. The reason is that Outbound would turn off its network filter, so no connection is checked. Turning it on needs no approval.

Caution

With the filter off, Outbound has no say over any connection. Rules, modes and pauses do nothing until the filter is back on.

When protection is off

With Warn when protection is off on (Settings › Menu Bar, on by default), the menu bar icon shows a warning badge whenever protection is off or the filter is missing. The same state is visible in the menu bar panel’s status line.

Related

• In Strict, the first block of each app can post one notification.
• An unblock approval covers pausing, extending a pause, and turning the filter off.