NOD32 and Online Armor Firewalls?

I know, neither of these programs are out yet. But what are your expectations?

If you run both NOD and online armor, will you try both of their firewalls?

Although I don't yet run a HIPS based secuirty program, I kind of like the idea of having your Firewall and HIPS all in one package. That way, you can avoid your firewall duplicating some of your HIPS protection.

 

I run Nod32 and OA currently. I would prefer to use the OA firewall as I also like the idea of controlling application network access with the same app as my application running control. I also believe the OA one will be a free update (not sure about the Nod32 one). If the Nod32 has any significant advantages then I might consider it. Both are still very much vaporware so I think we need to reserve final judgement until we at least see them in action.

 

What about your expectatons?

Ihaven't used OA yet, so I really don't have any expectations. Though I have pretty much only heard good things aboit OA, so you would guess that the firewall would be good too.

As for the NOD32 Firewall when it is released, I am expecting a world class firewall as good if not better than any firewall on the market. That is what I have conme to expect from NOD. That said, I half expect it to be far beyond my "Zone Alarm Free" level of expertise.

 

The key for me is that the OA firewall should benefit from the other modules in OA. E.G. if a program is trusted in OA to run (whether by the user or via a provided white list) then it is logical that program should be allowed to access the internet as well without prompting the user again. I'm a beta tester for OA and although I've yet to see a version with the firewall I'm very optimistic about what I've heard so far. I also think that if you run a hardware router and a HIPS program you have eroded a lot of the dependancy that there once was for a software firewall and so it make sense to integrate the firewall function in to the HIPS program.
Also with OA you get world class support.

 

Hi b00sfuk,

You should see the OA firewall in early (private) beta in the next week. Regarding the HIPS integration comment...

The OA firewall runs in two modes (as well as on/off). "Standard" which is the default, and "Advanced" which can be selected by the user. There are also a few options.

In standard mode, If a program wishes to access the internet, you get asked, once. If it is a trusted program - it can now access. This allows people the ability to run a trusted program, but potentially still prevent them from accessing the internet if they choose to do so. For example, Internet Explorer may be trusted - but do you want it to access the 'net without your authorisation (at least once).

There is an option to Autoconfigure trusted programs. In such case, no questions are asked at all. In advanced mode things are a little different.

And yes, OA FW will be a free update to anyone getting OA auto updates.

Mike