Hints on using Online Armor FW-a Learning Thread 4

Hello:

FYI, I just downloaded and installed the firewall program that came with
Online Armor V 2.1.0.11 which is the paid version.

So what we post here may or may not apply to OA Free.

Stem suggested (off line) that I might like this FW as it has black list features among others. This thread will explore the use of this FW, and along the way hopefully we can share some tricks to optimize the usage of the HIPS features.

IMHO, this product is a suite, so that alone is a departure for me. But I have an open mind on this point.

AS before a learning thread is not offer a chance to "knock" OA. Far from it.

Support for OA is in the usual OA forum etc.

I also post questions there under the same id as here and will link to threads and posts there to avoid duplicate keying work.

I have had this installed for about 1 hour, so I have many questions and much work to do.

You need to turn on the advanced features to work these screens.

One screen I wanted to show dealing with MY acceptable counties. Your list will be different. Your own home country would be allowed plus any where your software gets updated. Please don't get mad at me if your country isn't on my list. Everybody builds their own. If you don't believe in restricting countries that's fine you just don't use that feature.

I added 1 country for NOD 32 to get it to update.

The other screen is dealing with the program white list where they are allowed or not. I have some questions pending over at OA about how to tweak the entires. At the moment I can't seem to get the ask feature to work. The block setting does work. I tested it.

What can you tell us about how to use the FW?
What are your questions and answers? on the HIPS and or FW?

 

About the "ask" feature for CCleaner, have you tried accessing the check for updates feature in CC to see if internet access is restricted?

 

Thanks, just looked at that for you and it updated fine, no updates needed.

All I was trying out was if I could tweak the program settings so it asked me if it could run. I really don't distrust it just learning out how to tweak the white list.

See attached jpgs one on CCleaner the other on keyloggers. Over at OA I told them I crashed CCleaner with my ask settings so I may still have a UI brain gap to overcome. ( no surprise there)

I was able to run it in safer mode.

It would be good if you could try to covert CCleaner back to ask mode from trust mode maybe you will succeed.

 

Hi Monty and other interested parties.

Been over at OA forum:

see this thread

http://support.tallemu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=14792#14792

Tommorow I will try another test over there.

 

I seen your post over at OA, and decided to let you be the guinea lol and wait to see if you got it worked out. I had set a couple of processes to untrusted and was going to open them to see the result, but not now!!! I'll wait for the help files, thanx for the heads up!!!

 

Exactly! What's the point in testing an incomplete product, which doesn't even have a help file?

And what's the point in not including the free version which should be very interesting for newbies and Moms?

Cheers

 

Hi Lundholm:

I don't know the answer! In my case, I have the product now and want to know how to use it help file or not.

The 1st post merely meant that I can't say if the paid=free. Only Mike Nash could do that. If you are using free post anyway, I will test what you post in the paid as time permits. More learning.

 

Hi Monty:

OKay, I rebooted as usual today.

Attached are 2 screens showing OA's HIPS program "ask" settings on CCleaner (CC) (it is my guinea )

Observations:

The ask "took" over night between boots.
CC ran fine
CC DIDN'T ASK ME ZIP BEFORE EXECUTING.


Conclusions are not available from me anyway

Action: I will post a link to this post over at OA support forum.

 

Hi Escalader, I admire your courage, and your situation is very realistic, because most people just use software without reading the help file. That's why we see so many forum posts.

That would be nice, but I wouldn't touch a security product (free or paid) without a user guide or help file. I'm still waiting for Mike to release something. I guess this thread is the closest thing to an OA guide, so I will watch carefully!

Cheers

 

Not sure but shouldn't "run safer" be checked It 's the only difference for the apps. that I have blocked...

 

That's what makes it so exciting...damn the odds...engage!!!

 

Thanks, it is my destiny to go where know man has gone before, or if you prefer fools rush in where angels fear to tread source of these homilies is unknown

I'm not going to even indirectly critique OA that is not my plan. But I will report results of tests.

The best this thread can do IMHO is contribute to the OA product and the work they are doing on the guide.

Anyway here are the results of my latest tests for all to gasp and wonder

1) Tried to work with setting Notebook to ask permission to run following Mike's 3 step guide. Bad choice as I can't find it in the program lists either start or programs. It is no doubt built in to windows so it can't be controlled directly in OA as it stands. Again I don't care about Notebook control it was just a potential test exe.

2) Undaunted, and moving forward in the face of defeat, I decided to try Mike's 3 steps on free cell and on window washer.

Good news!

Following this 3 step procedure AND adding my own 4th rule OF NOT CLICKING REMEMBER DECISION , I was given 2 pop up (attached) warnings for those 2 programs.

Observations on effectiveness of the 4 steps on :

CCleaner they don't work
FreeCell they do work
WindowWasher they do work

Conclusions: none from me

 

I've been using the paid version of Online Armour v2 since release, while it has a few quirks, it's certainly one of the best all round security products.

One of the features I use the most is the Firewall 'Blacklist'.

I update the blacklist daily using BlockListManager (third party software) and include:

AD Trackers
Bogon Ranges
Dshield Ranges
HiJacked IP Ranges
Spyware Ranges
Trojan and PortScan ranges

The blacklist can be exported automatically by BlockListManager; I use the 'SafePeer' export option as this can be imported into Online Armour directly.

 

Help files are actually very difficult to produce. I know. It needs a user of the software with the "thinking" of a new user but the "knowledge" of an advanced user. It is only too easy to make an help file and leave a simple step out.

I know "Mike" spends many hours (more than he should) making replies to forums in replies to questions/support.

 

OA's forum is quite small but the quick response to even the simplest of questions is amazing. "Bugs" are few but they get immediate attention. Quite impressive to have a learning thread on this app. too. Thanks Escalader!!!

 

Hi Monty:

Thanks for your kinds words. Yes the learning threads notion tends to put things on a " higher plane" avoiding a lot of my Hips/fw etc is better than yours type posts. We really are in a different one here since I'm only a few days into it I'm going to learn a lot and make some errors in public again.
But that's okay.

I'm hoping someone can validate my CCleaner experience since that is the only exe I tried that "coughed up" a C++ error. I have a hunch only that 3rd party programs in C++ may all do that in OA. If there is another one in C++ we could try it but I just stumbled on to it!

Go ahead and try your CCleaner if you have it, you can always delete it later it is safe to do even when the error pops up, you just exit the program.

 

Hi Stem,
This is true. I think that Mike could have written 2 user guides in the time he's spent on the forums. Forums are better than 1-2-1 support, because more people can learn from it. User manuals are even better, because you can read about a subject in the right context. A forum thread is (as you know) mostly a mix of irrelevant information , which makes it almost impossible to extract useful information.

There is some heavy competition in the firewall market - good free firewalls with good documentation. If OA is the world's best firewall, then it would be a shame if nobody can read about it.

I appreciate the efforts you guys (and Mike) are making, and I'm sure that something very good will come out of it. Maybe you should write the manual, as you go along? .

Cheers.

 

Hi Fellow learners:

I'm back from shopping and couldn't resist having a peek at the thread.

I'm setting aside the HIPS side of OA for now as we have bugged Mike Nash with posts enough (IMHO) on the white list override and tweaking issues both here and there at OA forum.

Now, I'm going to really have some learning fun and open up the OA Paid FW features and settings and options. The Goal is to see what these do right now in this version of the software. I will display my own settings and MAKE NO CLAIM THEY ARE RIGHT OR WHAT OA intended. My hope is that Mike and Stem will post in from time to time and others who are more familiar with OA FW than I am. So once again I'll take the risk of being exposed as being imperfect as a wantabee geek

Here come my 1st FW jpgs in the order I set them in setting up the product.
Not sure my order was correct, but again it's what I did.

Have a look at these please compare with your own if different, say why if you know. If not we wait for Mike or Stem to help us. That's the way I work or you get blown like the wind all over your settings.

 

and more here

 

last one for now, these are the rules we are interested in.

If you click on the buttons at the bottom which are nearly covered over in the fixed window you can edit them add a new rule of your own and bind it to an application/exe or delete the rule completely.

Having just worked 80= rules in Kerio I note that only 2 protocols are dealt with in this rule side of OA. If memory serves, there more protocols? Stem? Mike?

In Kerio the order of the rules mattered, Here

In Kerio any connection not allowed by rules were blocked. Here

That should keep people busy til Monday

 

There is a help file in the product which covers most things. I've uploaded it to http://dl1.online-armor.com/downloads/oa_ena.chm

It is incomplete, but it does cover a lot of the basics.


Mike

(PS. Why do I get my name in quotes "Mike" spends many hours... )

 

Not covered here.

Gerard

 

Escalader,
Thanks for starting this thread. I've been reading this forum for awhile and following the adventures of OA2.
I use XP Pro with SP2. I'm behind a D-Link 655N router and use Network Magic(mostly for it's ability to fix my pc's connection problems when they arise).
I use Avira Personal Premium AV and am trialing OA2 paid version.
In #19 you showed that we could, if we wanted, change the defaults to a tighter security.
I did the same as you for the ICMP. Didn't change anything else.
And kept getting disconnected from my cable provider.
When I returned ICMP to the default state my problems went away.
Which of course is why I have Network Magic. To save me from me.
I'm a novice and I'm wondering if I did something wrong.
Thanks.

 

Some cable companies apparently need to receive icmp responses from you. FWIW, I don't thing there is anything wrong with your server being able to be pinged. "Stealth" is basically a marketing thing - the only reason it's in OA at all is because people want it.

As you describe yourself as a novice, I would recommend that you use OA's firewall in standard mode and let it take care of you.


Mike