online armor

[dell boy]

i just installed online armor yesterday and am looking about the settings and such, just one question: when i click on hosts i see loads of websites which i presume are bad yes? well why then are then all set to allow?
please could someone explain to me i dont understand as not very much is explained on this product but i think its a good product overall.:-\

[subset]

-{ Quote: "when i click on hosts i see loads of websites which i presume are bad yes?
" }-
How do these entries look like?
Some security programs write new entries to the hosts file to block connections to known bad sites, like e.g.
127.0.0.1 ad.server.net
This would be a 'good redirection'.

-{ Quote: "
well why then are then all set to allow?
" }-
With OA you can block or allow these redirections.
So it makes no sense to block a 'good redirection' like shown above.
But you can also block any suspicious redirection in your hosts file with OA.

Cheers

[stapp]

May help to have a read of Mike Nash's blog on the subject

http://onlinearmorpersonalfirewall.blogspot.com/2009/03/host-of-problems.html

[dell boy]

ok i think i get it, when it says the sites are allowed it means they are allowed to be put on the hosts file..... am i right =s when i go actually onto my hosts file not on online armor, i dont see any sites by online armor, just spybot s&d, im so confused :S

[Vikorr]

OA records all sites you visit in it's webshield. Any of these sites, you can block should you choose to do so (default if I remember right, was ?)

A hosts file is a file list that prevents your web browser from accessing particular internet sites.

It sounds to me you are in the web shield component, rather than the hosts file component (though it's been quite some time since I used OA)

[dell boy]

nope, im using the free version, so i dont have the web shield installed, its the host section im in, i can take pictures if you want... ill attach in a minute
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6976/onlinearmorhosts.jpg

[fax]

-{ Quote: "nope, im using the free version, so i dont have the web shield installed, its the host section im in, i can take pictures if you want... ill attach in a minute
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6976/onlinearmorhosts.jpg" }-

As written in the hosts file, this list comes from SpybotS&D ;D
Manually remove the list if you want by editing the hosts file or using OA directly.

Fax

[Keyboard_Commando]

-{ Quote: "ok i think i get it, when it says the sites are allowed it means they are allowed to be put on the hosts file..... am i right =s when i go actually onto my hosts file not on online armor, i dont see any sites by online armor, just spybot s&d, im so confused :S" }-

The websites listed in OA's Hosts tab are allowed simply to exist... banned or not. The banned bad sites are still banned. I guess if OA was able to graphically show the status of each of those sites inside the Hosts file it would remove the slight confusion.

[Victek123]

-{ Quote: "
A hosts file is a file list that prevents your web browser from accessing particular internet sites.
" }-
.
More exactly the HOSTS file caches website urls/IPs. The original use was to speed access to websites by providing the DNS translation in the HOSTS file instead of accessing a DNS server. This was a nice optimization when using dial-up. It is also effective at blocking access to "bad" websites by translating their urls to the local host IP - 127.0.0.1, which basically drops them into the bin. Using HOSTS to speed access is not really necessary now that we have broadband, but the blocking function is still useful IMHO.