anyone heard of Online Armour?

Hi Mike,

Looking at the screen, I don't think I would call it Mail screen and Web screen. The use of "screen" is not obvious. I would call it something like Mail Protect, Web Protect - or something like that.

Rich

 

hey mike - is there any option to decide what u want OA to protect or not protect? this would be handy if u use many programs that overlap. for example regrun can take care of the startup section, tho thats the only i can particularly think of. sp2 can take care of ie extensions but im not sure how well it works. spysweeper could cover the hosts file but i dont use it.

 

@JR - I think we'll go with Program Guard
@Rich - and for consistency Web Guard and Mail Guard


Mike

 

Hi WSFuser

The only options allowed in OA are currently whether or not the Program Guard, Web Guard and Mail Guards are activated.

We did it this way so that the "mom" users out there aren't assaulted with an array of options... HOSTS, DNS Check, Startups, etc...

However, enough people have asked for various things that we will probably have an "Advanced" mode in v1.2 which will allow finer control of settings.


Mike

 

Awesome! Thanks for the patience in testing this guys. The list of issues is getting shorter.

 

Thanks, Mike...glad that I was able to provide SOMETHING useful

I kinda like "Web SHIELD", though, for that protection, in all honesty

How does:

Program Guard
Mail Guard, and
Web Shield

sound? Kind of breaks up the monotony and sound of alliteration in regards to the use of the word Guard. Besides, a product with the name "Armor" in the title should have SOME referrence to a "SHIELD", don't you think?

(Marketing and Sales is my background, Mike, so please don't take offense....it's just in the blood, and an old habit that's hard to break - LOL)

edit: oops, sorry...my bad. I see that is WAS referred to as "Mail SHIELD". Oh well, I still like WEB Shield for that aspect....

 

Any idea what THIS was all about

Not much of a follow-up, just that "Prevx killed OA"......

 

Someone showing me OA is no good? I'm not sure... I enjoy "battling" the various programs out there on my system

OA is designed to stop stuff getting onto the computer without user consent. If you deliberately install something, you've invited it into your "home" and if you do that, then it can stop security programs if it installs at a low enough level.

The trick is to stop the programs getting on. As OA gets popular, it will become a target in much the same way as Norton, etc. We've got some protections in there, and OA will continue to improve as time goes on.

I get a kick out of using OA to stop MSAS for example, but at the end of the day, PrevX *should* be able to stop OA, and OA *should* be able to stop MSAS if that's what the user wants to do.

 

If I remember right, the setting for 'Buffer Overflow Protection' in PrevX is 'deny', not 'ask user' like most of the other settings (I no longer have that version, so I can't double check it's settings)

 

Have you received any kind of message like this running OA with your current PrevX1 version, Vikorr? I know that when I trialed PrevX, it would alert me to any and everything (especially during installs, but basically anytime an app tried to run or make a change, even if I was the one making that change)....

 

Prevx (not PrevX, I even asked one of the developers) does that with several apps, it's an FP. SpySweeper was the main one that did it, which is why it has it's own setting in Prevx.

 

Thanks for that info, Notok. But as far as "Prevx versus PrevX" goes....I've seen it written that way SO many times that it's simply an old habit that's hard to break (LOL)! I'm sure I'm not alone on this one.....

 

Hehe, I think everyone just kind of assumed and it caught on

 

Prevx1 and OA are happily running side by side on my machine.

Also, I read in the support section that Prevx1 doesn't yet protect from buffer overflow. Just a FYI.

Btw, does OA protect against IM worms and the likes ?

 

Hi Vikorr,

The honest answer to that question is "I don't know". It depends on the worm, and what it does.

If it gets onto your system, and drops an exe that it tries to execute, then yes - the Program Blocker will pick it up, ask for permission to run it, and assuming permission is granted - log what it does in case that permission is later revoked.

There are plans to significantly extend the protection OA offers - I've mentioned some, and hinted at others - we have a 40-odd page doc full of things to consider


Hope this helps


Mike

 

Thanks. I suppose OA needs to be protected by PG from Px and other apps that may shut down OA?

 

In the beta release of OA, there is some protection from illegitimate shutdown of the application. We will be taking this further, but since it's in beta, we dont want to completely lock it out just yet.

What's in there now - protection against service shutdown or process termination. We also need to protect against injection, memory access and ensure that it always auto-starts unless the user disables that feature.

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news....but the TrojanHunter scanner error reappeared after installing OA. Here is a screenshot:

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4076/therror4ma.png

And Total Uninstall continues to try to go through the installation process again....every time I reboot the PC. Here is a screenshot I took after once again having to select "Next" (to continue the installation. This time, it didn't seem to matter whether or not I chose Next or Exit, it continues with each PC reboot:

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/2966/tureinstalling6tr.png

I am going to uninstall again, and try an installation this time without Total Uninstall. I'm still not sure if the "ZIP" format may have something to do with this or not. As I mentioned to you in a PM, I personally hate ZIP installs, so hopefully the full version will have an internal installer application built in (that would be very nice).

Anyway, I got the screaching and popping sound when McAfee Security Center started loading one out of the three times I rebooted. All other software program applications (MusicMatch, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, etc.) opened and performed as usual. I received a few OA alerts, but after I notified once to allow, I could open the application a second time without any warnings. The Web filter did it's part of notifying me of Active X being used by certain sites (Yahoo! Who knew!)...but these were sites I am comfortable with so I allowed them. One was checking box scores of baseball games.

Anyway, I'm going to uninstall, and then try reinstalling again....without the use of TU this time. We know that Total Uninstall has a problem with repeatedly installing Online Armor, but I don't know that it has any affect on the TrojanHunter scanner.....but I'll find out and let you know after the next install.

 

I am watching the development of this product. Not using it yet but just observing. Here is another company that does more action and less talking....what a novel concept.



Starrob

 

Hey JR - thanks for that - I'm going to get someone to look into the trojan hunter error as soon as poss.

OA does have a clean uninstaller, so you should be fine to use it without Total Uninstall.... so I think for release one, the TU issue will be a "known issue"... ultimately, we'll figure it out though.

On the McAfee issue... I may ask you to run a logging version - but I'm pleased at that program blocker, web filters and so on seems to be working well for you, depsite the strange problems you've had.

Look forward to the retest results.

MIke

 

You're welcome, Mike. I'll give it another try in a day or so, calling it a night now.

I will just add that while observing through Windows Task Manager, the memory usage was very reasonable (ranging from around 9,000-13,000K) and CPU usage was VERY good (occasional spikes every 12 seconds or so to around 6....when McAfee VirusScan was running it was around 10, but other than that, usually ranging from 0-1 jumping to the 3-6 range every 12 seconds or so).

I didn't notice any visible slow down running either the Firefox or IE browsers. AT first....some software programs were just a little slower to open, but after opened that first time, there was no noticeable lag afterwards.

Anyway, sorry that I don't have more to share.....but maybe I will within the next couple of days.

edit: oh yeah, both Outlook Express and Thunderbird behaved normally as well....just wanted to let you know there is no problem with the mail guard on my end

 

I didn't have any problems installing OA with TU, sailed right through first time, including the customary needed reboot part way through.

So far i've noticed it is quite resource hungry, up to 50% or so. But it hasn't crashed or let me down otherwise. I think it has great potential and look forward to the usual to be expected in a Beta bugs being solved. I'm sure they will be with Mike on the case.


StevieO

 

I'll challenge you to an Unreal tournament competition (with me running OA) any time ;-)

Seriously - what are your specs - if you're paging to disk due to insufficient ram, it's gonna gobble CPU. I've also noticed that on 98 in a few cases people have complained of CPU - but only when running in low ram configuration as I recall.


Mike

 

Mike I have had a quick look through this thread but didnt notice any posting so shall ask you about the help tab. When will this be included and is it going to be a help manual etc . Also I notice that there is no listing for OA in my start > programs . Is this normal for now. OA loaded up effortlessly on my system and plays nicely with every thing . thanks . Another great down under product.

 

Hi Solarpowered -
There is a help file included - start --> programs ---> Online Armor --> Online Armor Help...

We've just done an edit of that - and will be continually improving it over the coming weeks.


regards

Mike