anyone heard of Online Armour?

Hi Blackspear,

You need to uninstall Advanced Mike-Stress Generator v1.1. It really is not compatible with OA

I had some probs with wilders later yesterday - tried from home (with OA) and then from a remote site over RDP (with no OA installed) - timed out.

That said, you have probably found an evil bug somewhere, or an incompatibility. I'm going to pop a new special build up today (will post here when it's done) and would appreciate you breaking it for me


mike

 

Re: New Online Armor

That's just plain evil. I did a quick hunt on my PC and I actually found a few of these little puppies on my system.

I'll get this feature into an OA release over the next week or so.


Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you but I have been a bit busy...

You will be happy to know that the problems with The Bat! have been fixed.

I however have something new I noticed with the new version. It has now reverted to a 30 say trial version where before it was the regular full version...

Thanks for your prompt and efficient help in sorting out the problems...

 

Thanks for your help with this, it's much appreciated. On the "Buy Now" button and 30d trial... now that we have actually gotten things fixed, we're just looking at a few things which will let us actually sell the product.

Just ignore this - everyone who I have said gets a free licence gets one - I may need to re-issue them once we have moved to the new "live" Online Armor server.

I'm going to be putting a new version up soon (next hour or so) which includes the Bat fix, and a fix for Notok's Pocomail problem, plus a fix for those of us who have 40,000 entries in their hosts file...


Mike

 

Hi again Mike,

This might be a silly question since we are supposed to be helping to test this for you by running it, but how do you disable OA from starting up when Windows boots. Unless I'm overlooking something (which is usually the case), I don't see that option anywhere.

 

Hi - I haven't had this option put in the GUI, because in order for OA to be effective it needs to start when windows starts.

Imagine this screnario:

Boot PC
Login
Autoruns
Start OA

Inside Login, or autoruns could be malware products. OA won't block them, because it's not started.

Usually, it's

Boot PC
Start OA
Login
Autoruns...

Very simplistic description, but you get the idea.

Anyhow - if you want to prevent OA starting - go into the control panel, settings, administrative tools "Services".

Find Online Armor - set its startup mode to "Manual".


Cheers


Mike

 

Thanks for the quick reply Mike. I guess that's why I couldnt find it in the GUI. .

I completely understand your reasoning behind that with the scenario you laid out. But wouldn't turning off program blocking also go against that? And the user is given that option. They could turn off all three services if they wanted. I guess I was just thinking if they are given that level of control already a "Disable on startup" option would not be a step too far to the left. Of course with a stern warning laying out what that option means in regards to OA's ability to offer protection.

Coming from the mum and dad perspective, if they wanted to disable it for any reason, they would have better luck doing it from within the program than trying to go to services to do so.

Maybe I'm just completely off base and I need some sleep. Still lovin' the program, and despite my curiousity about disabling it, it's still going to keep running

 

New Online Armor

Hi All,

It's been a long few weeks but I think we're finally there. I've uploaded a new Online Armor to the website, and put the last release on Auto updates.

Phew! This version fixes:

* The BAT! crash/hang problem
* Ultra-massively-massively-large host files causes hang (Now, I have 40k entries in my HOSTS file)
* Poco CPU spiking on download
* CPU spikiness in general (I hope! I really hope!)

Unless I've just broken everyone's OA for the weekend, this will be the last OA update prior to commercial release. The "only" thing we need to sort out now is our ability to actually sell it. The payment gateway is done and will be activated in the next day or so - and once that "Buy Now" button is fixed, that should make the release version.

So, what happens next? As of Monday, three of my senior developers will be on a well deserved (but ill-timed) holiday. So, we'll be focusing on getting the new website up to speed, content for that, FAQs, support and so on. A new support guy is due to start in the next week or two (his offer letter is going out after this post), and I should also be getting a support guy in the US to help people when normal, sensible Australians are asleep.

I'll be still collecting feedback and ideas for version 1.2 (and, probably some bug fixes as well :-( ) - but I think that we have a good 1.1 release to go with *disclaimer above about breaking everyones OA with the new release

So - a slowdown in new releases for two weeks while we catch our breath and get organised - then, back into it for release 1.2 and any interim releases.

I'd like to thank everyone who has helped with the beta testing of Online Armor - particularly those who have repeatedly installed logging versions and really tried to help nail down the obscure issues that we had.

Now it's 5:30pm on a Friday, and I think we've earned a nice cold beer

(Of course, I'll check in a little later for the flames if I have broken things


Mike

 

Whenever I reach a hard decision, feedback tells me what to do. Previously I'd thought it best not to give the option of deactivation completely, just three basic options - I guess we could make it 4. So - we'll put that option in an updated release...

Incidentally, even though you can turn off program blocker, etc some features of OA always run - like the keylogger detector and hosts file and startups monitor.

But, it won't be hard to put that last option in - so I guess we'll do it

Cheers


Mike

 

Nice work Mike and crew. I'm sure we've been keeping you busy. Looking forward to the future. First round is on me.


EDIT: Man you post quick! (or I post too slow) Was just a suggestion, maybe others feel differently. Either way go have a beer.

 

Lol, Chia are you saying :

1. I don't want to do it, I just want to be able to do it
2. I know it's bad, that's why I want the option of being able to do it; or
3. Not being able to turn it off gives me a creepy feeling...even though I know keeping it on is good for me

and lastly

if you had the option to turn it off...would be able to resist just 'testing' it ?

 

And even worse - my reaction - Sure, I'll let you do it, even though it's bad for you

 

I guess I'm too much of a control freak. It's now time for my medication...

 

Re: New Online Armor

Crap! No TrojanHunter scanner "fix" (LOL). Oh well, I'll still download the latest beta to try it out, without the use of Total Uninstall for the installation this time. Who knows, perhaps the TH scanner will work and all will be well. If it still doesn't, and you'd like me to run a log, Mike, just let me know.

So, did you go with the Program Guard, Mail Guard and Web Shield suggestion?

Congratulations, Mike, and best of luck with OA. I've been impressed with it, regardless of the couple of issues that I personally ran in to. I think you've got a winning product that should serve it's customers well and do well in the marketplace.....

 

Re: New Online Armor

********************************************************
PLEASE install the latest version of Online Armor by downloading it from the site.
********************************************************

Its perfectly fine as a clean install, but in the case where you have a massive hosts file, it will hang your PC on reboot.

Edit:
Now the word is out, I can edit and add more information. I've taken the new release off Automatic updates.

Why? basically the "final" OA uses a different data structure to manage HOSTS files. It doesn't like it very much if the old data structure is there (and you have a gazillion host entries, like me).

Therefore, if you currently are running OA you will need to manually install the latest version.

Sorry for the inconvenience,


Mike

EDIT2: If you have already downloaded from Automatic updates, but not yet rebooted then:

1) Please set OA to start manually in the service control panel before you reboot.
2) Reboot
3) Add/Remove programs to get rid of OA
4) Install latest from the site and all will be well.

Just to note this is only an issue if you have a very very large HOSTS file.

 

Hi Mike. Hope your programmers enjoy their time off.

For when they get back, I have a GUI enhancement request in relation to the Trusted Sites tab. Currently, to delete a site, you have to highlight it, click delete, then click yes. If a heavy surfer were to leave this tab untouched for any length of time, it could be quite irritating repeating that sequence over and over again.

Could we have a way to tag sites we want to delete, so that we just have to tag every site we want deleted (or trusted/untrusted), then we only have to hit delete/trusted/untrusted once. And perhaps a 'select all unmarked sites' button, so if we don't want any new sites added we just click 'select all unmarked sites'/'delete'/'ok'.

 

Hi Guys,

Panic over

Basically, the latest version of OA should not be used with massive hosts files.

When the PC reboots with a 40k hosts file, it's not pleasant. I'll get that sorted.

I've never been more grateful for kicking out a power cable in my life.


More news as it happens - but the summary is this:

OA - good
OA with large HOSTS files - NASTY!


Mike

 

Oh, so you can break software like I can

 

Hello,

OA updated itself to version 1.1.0.25 but can't update its definitions any longer. Whenever it wants to connect, a window pops up saying

"Internet connection error. OA needs to access the Internet but is unable to do so. The actual error message was 'not found'. Please check / change Internet settings in Configuration dialog".

Before the update OA was acting as normal.
Nothing was changed in those settings and I've normal internet connection.
Any ideas?

Kind regards,

PeterVO

 

Hi Mike,

In relation to the HOSTS monitoring.....can this feature be turned off? Or is this something that perhaps you could incorporate into future releases?

I have a HOSTS management program already, so OA's protection would simply overlap the existing software. It would be very good for people without any HOSTS file protection, but for others like myself that have HOSTS file protection software already, it might not serve as much more than "supplemetary" protection. Perhaps being able to "disable" HOSTS file monitoring as a feature through the SCW during or after install would solve this problem for people with large HOSTS files that have protection for them already. Just a suggestion.....

 

I have the exact same thing happening here on my system...

 

Because of a problem with an update, I yanked the update files off the server - no need to worry about this one.

Mike

 

Yep, but when I break it I have to pay for it

It will be fixed soon!

 

We may do this if we need to, but hopefully it will not be the case. It seems like a bug, because if you have a large HOSTS file, the SCW deals with it very effectively now.

A future release of OA will likely extend the management of trusted/not trusted/protected sites to also include "blocked" sites.... we were discussing this today actually when we were having the "Mike, why on earth do you have 40,000 entries in your HOSTS file, are you insane"

There are a couple of things we're kicking around there - one idea is to import HOSTS entries to a blocklist which would actively prevent connections to that site, or serve back a nice blocked by OA image.

The nice thing about that is that the "HOSTS" equivalent would be served automatically as part of auto updates, so could be configured to update as often as every hour.

If we did do a site-blocking thing as part of a new OA (and I'm talking about ad, porn stuff like that) then it would probably be something "community driven".... untrusted scam sites however is something that is already there and actively worked on in other ways.


Mike

 

OA Licence Keys and Update

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note that we're migrating to our "Live" site over the next day or so, and as a result I won't be able to issue any evaluation licences until this process is completed.

I'll also be uploading the release version of OA at the same time.

Once we have moved everything over, I'll be sending out the commercial licences I promised to the beta test team

Thanks again for all of the help - a short break, and then on to 1.2


Mike