Online Armor Free

am not sure about this. you always have to go through the setting up where it ask you about programs, startup, etc you have after installation or even install overs.

anyways, i really don't mind doing that each time I upgrade 'cause that is understandably one of the limitations of the free version.

 

I would not have said it was non trivial, if it wasn't. In Online Armor, activation licencing and several other things are tied up together.

I didnt say it was impossible, but it is not something I can just have a guy comment out a line of code and life is good.

 

If someone has a problem, they can simply whiz me a PM or post at our forums, in which case I will, as soon as I get the message -

a) apologise for the inconvenience, and
b) quickly send them a key

Until such time as I figure out why the hell this problem is occuring.

 

so, it's actually easier to disable some of the advance features closely tied to the core of the program than online activation?

 

We all know the World is imperfect and sometimes things do not go the way we expect them to go. The airplans crash, the trains run off the rails, the bridges fall down. Coming back to the topic we discuss. I think you could make the World much better if you proposed your help in fixing imperfectness rather than by just complaining. As I see Mike is a type that welcome healthy criticizm and not reject a help. Just contact him, help to fix the bug and it may be you will get a full version which was promised to everybody who find and help to fix a bug. We all will be the winners in this case

 

Yes, the activation and licencing is extremely complex. It is not just "check key against a server" there are also anti-tampering and anti-piracy protections in there.

For example, part of the key is used to encrypt certain settings to ensure that an attacker cannot simply replace them to circumvent OA protections.

Again - I am not saying it is impossible - but just not a trivial fix. Because this is throughout the code the potential for problems could be large.

Better to fix it, which is the current plan.

 

A fix for this is (still) in testing

 

Well unless you are seeing it from alot of other people with different systems/setups then its not as big a deal for you all.

 

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

===
Latest news
2007-11-02: A response from Tall Emu Pty Ltd, the vendor of Online Armor has been added.
2007-11-02: We are working on new leak-tests and we have suspended leak-testing until the new tests are finished. However, we have received direct request from two vendors of personal firewalls to make one more testing of their products as soon as possible. We have satisfied these requests also because both vendors promised 100% protection against all known leak-tests.

Lexicographically first product is Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.19 Free. The new version passes all leak-tests on its default settings and scores full 9625 points, which is 250 points more than its previously tested version.

Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 6.0.2162.205.402.266 also fulfils the promised perfection. This means that Outpost also scores 9625 points, which is 925 points more than its previously tested version.

Congratulations to both vendors for the perfect scores!
===

Congratulations, Mike !! (and also all of us, who like Online Armor)

 

I STILL can't install OA free because of the serial number farce

 

An interesting battle between various vendors.

Impressive work by OA and Outpost.

 

Well Ill be damned. Amazing job Mike!!

 

Readpost#453

 

It is now quite obviouse where to the most OA team efforts were directed recently. Once the goal is achieved there is a good chance they will take care of the free version registration issue. As OA betateamer I can say all you need is just a bit of patience

 

Hopefully, thanx to Mike my problems will soon be over

 

Look a few posts up (#462) and youll see Online Armor does very well with leaktests. But also it is easy-to-use, does not bombard you with popups, and it handles p2p/gaming well.

 

You should have received a key now...

 

I have tried OA Free in the past, but it seems to conflict with Antivir Premium. When I click on the Antivir icon on the system tray it gives me a fatal error. I have to click on the icon on the desktop to bring up the antivirus, etc. Sandboxie crashed as well. I also had a super delay when I rebooted after install!

 

Wow, thats awesome Fast support, Thanks for the Key!!!

 

Can someone please tell me what is the change from 18th build to 19th.I am using the 18th build and very happy about it.If the change is about the leaktests than I have to reinstall.I could not find the version history anywhere.

 

Congrats Mike,

I wonder what the marketing value of the best free FW is. Seems you made a correct choice (let the internet community make the noise). Soon all the popular information portals/on-line magazines/security sites will take over this ranking and do the ads for you.

Some remarks:

With such a wonderfull product for free you have to develop a clear proposition of the added value of the paid version. So a specific webpage explaining the benefits of the paid over the free is key. When I look at the comparison chart (the best I can find to explain), I noticed that the options of the comparison chart and the menu list on the left, not exactly correspond.

An example: an advantage of the paid is the "On-line banking mode". I can not find that in the left menu column. I do not mention this to pester you, just to hint on the fact that your original site was directed at convincing the potential buyer OA was worth the buck. This has now been changed to why should I buy the paid when the free is already that good.

Good thing from changing from the HIPS market to the FW market that potentially you increase your market protential from somewhere between 2 to 8 percent of the home PC users to 75 percent of the PC users (in a recent consumer market survey 25% of the people questioned using a PC did not know what a FW was, about 8 percent knew that an intrusion detection/prevention was a sort of security program and thought that their anti spyware covered that, only 2% had an idea of what a HIPS like program did).

What I notice is that some features (like Web, Mail, Phising filter) are offered by a lot of programs (webbrowsers, search engines). Others are 'insiders' options (DNS spoofing), others are irrelevant for the average user when the out of the box capacities are so good (transparent blocking, advanced mode), remember with the number 1 firewall you just entered the average PC user arena.

So from a average customer perspective I can see that paid gives on-line banking and more key-logger protection, some options my browser offers (or a plug in like Mcfee SiteAdvisor), some I do not understand (to technical or why do I need it when the free is the number 1).

Organise a brainstorm with your team and some people outside the security incrowd (with some beer afterwards to un-wind/ease up) and decide what really makes the difference (between paid and free), what to communicate (remember the target audience has grown and has different perceptions and understanding). Often less is more

When you insist on telling your audience that you have a lot of features, make a page which says "all other things covered" and explain what other vendors might communicate as features/special, you consider standard (business as usual), nothing special because OA is the numbero uno!

Regards Kees

 

Precisely the same problems I had. Worked for a while to determine the cause, but extremely slow bootup caused me to uninstall.

 

I tried OA free yesterday on my testing snapshot from FDISR and indeed it seems that there is a conflict with Antivir Premium.

After reboot my system was very slow and some of my applications would even freeze for a while.

 

Might be something with OA free because I'm using OA 2 (paid) along with Antivir Premium and I have no conflicts.