The Free Ones: ZoneAlarm vs. Online Armor

Yes, you can set it to "Ask" for just this session on the popup that you get.

If you are handed a "private" IP address then OA Free will assume you are on a trusted, private network. So, in such case machines on the same network would be treated as trusted. This is something we will fix in an upcoming release.

If you're concerned about the points above and use wireless access points regularly then I'd recommend you don't intsall OA Free right now - esp. if your other firewall is working.

If you're running at home, then it's a personal choice to give it a go or not.

 

MikeNash,

Thanks for your prompt and honest responses. I will keep an eye on OA and future releases and just stick with what I have for now.

 

Online Armor folks actually care about their product. While I have not used it, I have used ZA. I would surely go with Online Armor, as I am seriously considering it myself.

What did you not like about OutPost 2008 as you can see I am using a very old version?

 

Hi, Mike:

You have my respect as an expert in your field. And like anyone else on this planet, you deserve some private, enjoyable moments, sorry to disturb you. I deeply thought you are a workaholic.

Since you are very clear about what OA is doing and why. But we, users do not have that kind of privilege to stay smart. That is exactly why the OP in other thread asking you a question, I am sure others would have the same doubts too. You may have an excellent product, but if you intends to evade users' sincere question, and holding back those privileged info. I, perhaps many others may have this question over our heads all the time : what else we do not know ?
Be transparent about your product, you can hold off trade secrets, but other than that...... I have seen too much of those mentality of big/fat enterprise, and hoping you are far from that yet. Take care.

 

Sure, we're always open - but I did a search here for Online Armor, phone home - cannot see the thread you refer to That's what I was asking - "where was the question ?",because I did not see it

We have and abide by our published privacy policy: http://www.tallemu.com/privacy_policy.html

It's linked from almost every page on our website.

Anyhow, I can tell again, that OA connects to the server for the following reasons:

a) Licence key validation.

b) Check for updates, and download of updates. This can also include Kaspersky servers if you are running Online Armor AV+

c) Tell the server about programs and actions/behaviors (for example, foo.exe was run, user allowed or blocked it, or bar.exe exhibits behaviour type "keylogger). This behavior can be opted out of of general tab.

d) Trusted DNS validation (when a site is protected, we check your local DNS lookup against a trusted server's DNS lookup to protect against local or ISP-level DNS attacks).

With all data that we handle, we take deliberate steps to anonymise it.

Thus, I can tell that (for example) 50,000 people have program "boo.exe" on their system, and 20,000 blocked it..... but I cannot tell that *you* have it or not - and I don't want to know.

The reason we want to get this data about programs out there is so that we can make a determination about them. Each program we assess is potentially (for example) 50,000 users that do not receive a popup. The more popups we prevent, the easier it is for people to use Online Armor. We try to assess as many as we can, as fast as we can for this reason.

So, if you have OA installed and sharing of info active then you help us to assess the programs more quickly that are installed on your PC.

The exception to this could be if you run a logging version of OA and send me log files. Then I can tell exactly what's on your PC - because it's logged, and you have given me the data. But, even these log files are destroyed after use to solve the problem.

If you (or anyone) has questions about the data we capture or what we do with it and why that is not covered above, then feel free to reply - or probably, make a thread.... or if a mod knows the thread that Perman is referring to move the post, etc

Mike

 

Hi, Mike:

Thanks for your speedy response.
There is a thread regarding to OA's phoning home. Since you have kindly answered that question here, where to locate that very question is not important anymore.

Your reply has clearly removed any doubts casting on OA free. If any other security app developer can have just partial portion of attitude exhibited by you ,we, users of any security app will have more confidence in them.

Again, congratulation, you have once again demonstrated you are truly different from others. I am sure many others, including me, will feel more secured using your product. Take care.

 

Like I always say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Just keep in mind that one of these days you'll want to upgrade and you could have problems. Then you may want to uninstall. I would get the uninstall complete instructions just in case.

 

I would definitely switch to another program rather than upgrade. I do have the ZA uninstall instructions (the most complete I could find) but it's still a pain in the rear as far as I am concerned. If and when I do switch I want to be sure about the new program because I don't want to go through the ZA uninstall mess for nothing.

 

I think that there is a 3th choice : comodo 2.4 which is very good ! And to my opinion it's even better than the new upcomming version 3 (which is NOT user friendly IMO) Comodo can compete with OA free and ZA : for proof look at the matousec site : http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

I use OA free and Comodo 2.4 and I'm happy with both (on 2 different HD's that is )