The security center should only come up with a possible of 3 thing:
1. Firewall is not on
2. AV is not installed or not updated(another thing I forgot.)
3. Auto updates is not on.
All 3 of which I think are good for average users. The above are 3 big steps to avoid malware problems.
I dont know what kind of problems you were having with the windows firewall but I've never seen anything go wrong with it on any computer(no frantic calls/emails about something not working because of it either. ). Its basic but enough for most.
The Windows Security Center is good to have and leave on! If someone is using an unrecognized antivirus or firewall they can be individually changed to not monitored in Security Center so that it will stop alerting that no antivirus, and no firewall software is installed.
If uninstalling a third-party firewall that had disabled Windows Firewall during setup, and hasn't re-enabled it during uninstall Security Center is the only alert that will display a notification that your security is lacking a very critical layer of protection. Which is another reason to track installations with Total Uninstall, or ZSoft Uninstaller as they will undo the disabling of Windows Firewall in such cases when using their tracked installation to more fully remove an application.
One thing I like about AVG Anti-Virus is that it has its own built in faulty component alerts that will notify if something isn't working which makes it a definite winner in my book on older OSes without Security Center.
Online Armor has one of the best easy to use two-way firewalls I've ever used period! It pasts with flying colours many online firewall tests. I wish they'd make the firewall component a separate program altogether.
Glad you like it Andavari, I don't use the OA +AV version (which uses the kapersky engine)
I have the firewall one with just a minimised version of an av, OA using it's own smaller database, so I use avira with it. However it plays nicely with all the av's.
Glad you like it Andavari, I don't use the OA +AV version (which uses the kapersky engine)
I have the firewall one with just a minimised version of an av, OA using it's own smaller database, so I use avira with it. However it plays nicely with all the av's.
I'm most thrilled with the firewall. All that other protection it has doesn't really suit me like the Program Guard.
I posted about the file sharing thing on their forum. The programmer guy basically told me that with the free version(maybe paid too?) that all computers on the same network are considered trusted. This is a huge turn off for me because I use public wifi a good bit during the day and basically the windows firewall would provide more protection.
The programmer guy basically told me that with the free version(maybe paid too?) that all computers on the same network are considered trusted.
That's something I didn't know about! Since I don't use anything wifi (need a laptop) it wouldn't be a problem for me, however it's good to know what you've stated.
Yeah I've already dumped it now. He told me that the paid version can do it but its "messy". Why that is a hard feature to implement, I'm not sure. Every other firewall I've ever tried could do it.
I ended up getting rid of it today after my ISP offered a free upgrade from MSN Premium to Microsoft Windows Live OneCare. I didn't even have that MSN Premium software installed to begin with. I'm liking it at the moment, for however long that will last.
I haven't tried one care but most of the people I know who do/have used it really like it. The only problem is whether or not it actually does anything.
I haven't tried one care but most of the people I know who do/have used it really like it. The only problem is whether or not it actually does anything.
It works, it's just the virus scanning afterwords tells absolutely nothing useful whatsoever because it detected RemoveWGA which isn't even an infection to begin with and MS labels it as some Win32.HackerTool. I ended up having to hunt down it's main log buried in the hidden Application Data folder to know what it removed, however I already had a very good idea that it was referring to RemoveWGA before even looking at the log.
The antivirus component is too plain, and even the freeware av's tell more info such as were a supposed infected file was removed from. The firewall is alright, and the backup utility is impressive. I always wanted to try it, so now I know.
Ok I tried it on my laptop since its the only one I would even consider running a 3rd party firewall on.
The installation process is pretty nice. It installs and then oddly enough scans your start menu for programs that it recognizes as safe and unsafe.(I sorta remember it doing this the first time I tried it, but its been a long time) Then it asks you if you trust all of the ones that it doesn't recognize and I guess will identify bad ones(which I obviously cant test on my own computer. ). This process is cool because you wont be bombarded with pop ups at start up the first time(I've seen a few crappy firewalls actually crash the whole computer because they stop processes like that).
Yes, a nice feature. IIRC some other HIPS are starting to include that, on top of of the old "learning mode" that Diamond CS processguard had. Another feature I like is a "install mode" to allow more comfortable installation of software packages.
- I cant seem to find anything that would enable/disable network file sharing. I have it turned on because I will every now and then get files from here on my desktops but then I would "disable all exceptions" with the windows firewall. Maybe I'm just over looking it but I don't see anything that would control it.
That's a windows specific function not a firewall specific function? Just give the normal permissions and it will work.
One major problem though I could be wrong but while you can set rules using specific ports, you can't set filters based on ip? Can someone confirm?
Whats up with the virus scanner thing it has? I assume its not running all the time but what good is it if it doesn't update?(I dont seen an update button anywhere.) I have antivir installed at the moment and I haven't noticed any conflicts.
Some confusion here. Real AV scanning (kaspesky engine) is only available in paid OA+ . OA does have a small blacklist - which should not be confused for av signatures , and can recognize certain processes and files as malicious, but you should not rely on that for protection. Use another AV instead.
Oh I forgot I'm talking to a noob , who needs a big fat "disable/allow file sharing" instead of manually setting up the rules himself. My bad.
The whole point of my post was to say things that I noticed that could be improved with online armor to make it more user friendly (which is obviously what this program is aiming for.). Their firewall in the free version is pretty locked down anyway and their is no "setting up rules" option available(all they allow is blocking/allowing programs access to the net).
As for the way the local networking works - OAs firewall (in standard mode) is set to be very simple. Machines on the LAN are automatically considered trustworthy.
Online Armor has one of the best easy to use two-way firewalls I've ever used period! It pasts with flying colours many online firewall tests. I wish they'd make the firewall component a separate program altogether.
Hi Andavari,
I agree that OA's firewall component is very easy to use. Your leaktesting results imply that it did not pass all of the ones that you had tested it against. Could you please share with us which tests OA firewall did not pass? Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you are saying.
I'm currently using ZA Pro because that's what I started with and I'm very used to it. It's somewhat resource heavy at about 35 mg for its two processes, but it's very configurable. I'm tempted to use the Comodo free version, but from what I've read on other forums, their version 3 (currently in beta) is the one to watch.
Does the Comodo free or Online Armour (paid or free) allow for the things I like about ZA Pro, which is the ability to configure each individual url to block practically everything you can think of- one by one (cookies, pop-ups/unders, javascript, vbscript, embedded objects, mime, web bugs, private headers, animation, banner ads, etc).
For example, I have ZA Pro set to block EVERYTHING except for allowing the site to load. and after the site is added, I uncheck item blocking as necessary. For my favorite sites, I'll allow javacript but not activex unless absolutely necessary.
I use the paid version and in advanced it has lots of features (apart from ease of use!) One which isn't mentioned much is 'run safer'. You can apply this to what you will and it does the same as DropMyRights. This feature is also available in the free version
I can also import blacklists, block by country etc etc.
I like it a lot, but I'm a bit biased as I've been beta testing it.