anyone heard of Online Armour?

Hi Longboard,

We ran the kareldjag tests against OA - the ones we expect to pass we (mostly) did. Any exceptions to the passing of tests will be cleaned up in a service release, due about 4 weeks from now.

I'd certainly encourage you to give OA a try and see if it's good for you.

Regards

Mike

EDIT: Failed tests were a couple of self-protection, third-party hooking and memory protection tests. We didn't scope these into our plans for v1.1, but they'll surely be catered for.

 

Hi Mike. I sent you and email from your site, but I`ll I`ll send you another, or will that one be enough? ...and thanks very much.

 

Got it Mike and thanks alot. I can see great success coming from this program. Keep at`er.

 

Thankyou
Do you ever sleep?

Will keep watching and be on the line with the $ soon.

Regards.

 

Mike,

Thanks for a great product and great support. I have to admit that I was rather surprised to get responses so quickly over a weekend.

I've been running OA as a manual start service to avoid a startup problem that I seem to get - I don't have the large host file but do have a huge block post list in Outpost.

I've not checked the situation with the new build - I'll give that a spin tonight

 

Don't get me wrong, i think OA has great potential and i am a Very enthusiastic supporter, and wish to it succeed.

My only fear is that with all the extra bits getting added on, especially the firewall, this could lead to a major disaster, security hole, if something should ever go wrong, as it can and sometimes does.

I don't know how good the FW is, or is going to be, but i personally would disable it and use my existing one for safety. Yes the one i'm using could go down, but never has so far, and it's a seperate App.

I turn off my PC daily, but a lot of people leave them on 24/7/365. So if someones PC was left unguarded in so many ways if OA went down, then that would be a nightmare.

Any thoughts on this ?


StevieO

 

Hi StevieO...

I think I'm on record previously as saying if we can't do it right (with respect to a firewall for OA) then we won't do it at all. We're going to be very careful adding things on, and take care not to "break" anything - including the user experience.

Its too early for me to sensibly comment on the risks of having an OA firewall- I dont know right now how its going to work - whether it will be separate or one exe.


Mike

 

It appears that it is inevitable that the boundaries between firewalls, AVS, and HIPS products will slowly disappear. (ZoneAlarm 6 already incorporates HIPS-like program control into its architecture as well as anti-spyware capabilities).

It makes sense to me that a single security product will want to "track" a process from the moment it comes over the lines to the point it starts processing. I do not see this as an issue (there probably are lots of benefits) as long as the software vendors permit users to turn off features that may conflict with other products. So, for example, I turn off IDS protection in KAV, because apparently it conflicts with firewalls.

Rich

 

too much CPU use (even with no host file) Pain in the butt.

 

On my system, Online Armor is totally quiet until I start a new process, at which time CPU usually goes momentarily to 20%. I am running a 512mb, 2.5Ghz, machine with ZoneAlarm, KAV 5, Ewido, ProcessGuard, WormGuard, RegDefend, and UnHackMe (set to 60 minutes) running concurrently. No conflicts. However, I did notice a big conflict when trying to also run BOClean concurrently and then trying to start up a financial program that uses lots of memory. I believe the machine started to thrash at that point. I was testing the stress point of my system.

Rich

 

OA should consume hardly any CPU at all - which version are you running, and are you running any software which could possibly conflict?


Mike

 

Hi Starfish,

When my wife wants to talk to me, she posts something on our forum or logs a helpdesk job

Can I ask that you please uninstall the current version of OA and grab the latest version from our site? You'll need a new key - we've been busy moving from our test servers to the live servers since Friday.

Regards

Mike

 

Exactly. If a single pair of eyes watch something like a hawk and see all of the detail, you can make much more informed decisions as you have all of the information available.

For example, lets say that you have an unknown exe trying to start on your PC, and your program posts an alert.... "hwvmnnb.exe is trying to start" What is the appropriate action to take?

If you (or rather, the app) knows that this exe was downloaded from adobe.com, by the program updater.exe which was authorised by the user (or centrally as a trusted app) then the decision is that much easier and the confidence in making the right (or automatic) decision is increased.

I'm sure many other advantages of integrated systems will popup over the coming months from Tall Emu and other vendors in this space. It should prove very interesting.


Mike

 

I don't know. Doesn't it update when you run the wizard?

It would be easier for you to tell me which could possibly conflict.

 

Hi

Yes, it does tell us what software has been trusted, or not - but I have no way of telling what is installed on your system - even if you are the only user of it.

The only products I could think would cause a conflict would be security related products, although with a few exceptions (most of which are fixed) we have had no conflicts. I know there is an outstanding issue with Trojan Hunter.

Can you also give me your system specs please, and the version of OA you are running (its on the "General" tab).


Regards

Mike

 

I have the typical layer of security apps as those who are members here with the exception of Trojan Hunter. I'm not going to bother listing them as I have uninstalled OA. The worst of the usage occurs at boot up. While using my computer, it's the only app that uses high CPU (25-99) for a longer period of time - will cut to low CPU then again to high for several minutes.

My system is 2.2GHz with 1gb ram.

 

Ok, well I'm sorry for any problems that OA has caused you.

regards

Mike

 

No problems, just frustration. Thanks.

 

Just like everything, I believe that this will be cyclical. Cyclical in the sense that businesses will want to incorporate an "all in one" security package, to try to secure ALL of the business, or at least ALL of the busines that they can get! The current trend is that they don't exactly want to leave the "choice" to consumers, in many ways. Consumers will initially think this is a great idea, for simplicity purposes. But after a while, when discovering that "their" firewall incorporated into a HIPS program doesn't work as well another one, or they can find a better price with someone else's product, etc., consumers will then want the choice option BACK! And at that point, some vendor will break ranks with the others, and go back to producing and offering "individual" product lines, etc. I just hope the wait isn't a long one, and it's sooner rather than later....because personally, I like choice and being able to hand pick what products I want rather than "settling" for what I am more or less mandatorily given......

 

Hi John,

I don't know how well all of the functions can be technically contained within one software package. However, there are plenty of security advantages in tracking a process from the time it enters into the machine until it finishes its work. Lots of information about that process can be aggregated, while it is processing, the aggregate providing lots of clues as to whether the process is trustworthy or doing something malicious. In this case, it has less to do with marketshare, and more to do with providing the highest level of security possibly. Sort of like a camera tracking a person from the time they enter into a store, what the person does while in the store, and what that person does as that person is leaving (checking out).

Rich

 

Hey JR - Don't worry, I won't force a firewall on you if you don't want one - but it will be there if you do

Mike

 

That is truly great to hear, Mike, and I believe that also answers a question that Stevie O or somebody had earlier about using their own firewall. If Online Armor has THE BEST (or better than what I have currently or am using at the time) firewall, then of course I will want to use it....and others likely will as well. But it's nice to know that the choice will still be there, and that it will still be compatible with existing firewalls, AVs, etc., in that sense (because the trend does seem to be for some software vendors to seemingly "require" the use of their product in order to be 100% compatible, in a sense). I know Notok and Vikorr will read this and set me straight, but one of my big turn offs with Prevx1 was that IT SEEMED....as though they are incorporating THEIR OWN AV into their software, and I like having the choice of which AV I want to run. I hope that makes sense (and like I said, Notok or Vikorr...please correct me if my understanding of that is incorrect).

And Rich, I completely understand what you are saying....that was a good analogy that you used. I guess I was looking at it from a "simplicity to the end user from a BUSINESS standpoint" rather than a "simplicity to the end user by having a consistent reporting and following of events" standpoint......

 

Bug in latest OA

Hi Everyone,

Can you please uncheck the option to share data with Tall Emu on the "General" tab of Online Armor?

The reason for this request - there's a bug in the current version which does not correctly show that the data has been sent. So, it sends it again.. and again... and again...

As well as consuming your CPU and bandwidth, it's also doing a fairly good job of hosing down our central server..

Thanks in advance. Apologies for the inconvenience, we'll get a patch up ASAP that fixes it.


Regards


Mike

 

Well Mike, even if the problem between OA and TrojanHunter hasn't been worked out, I'll always be thankful for another "AussieHunter"

http://img284.imageshack.us/img284/6132/rachelhunter6ny.jpg

Or is she from New Zealand? Ah well, doesn't matter "The Land Down Under" can claim her, fine (as she is, and) with me!

Also, I'll always be greatful to the Aussies for Angus and the Boys as well....

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1659/acdc5kw.jpg

But back to OA for a moment .....thanks for all of your hard work and attention to detail to keep everyone up to date and in the loop on how things are progressing, Mike....startup company/product or not, you've definitely impressed me with your thoroughness and desire to keep the latest news as current as possible....

 

Just a quick update - that background update loop problem also appears to explain excessive CPU consumption.

Scott's looking at it now, more news as it comes to hand.


Mike