TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall

[Don Penlington]

Mike wrote:
>I don't know if the Armor/Norton issue is what caused my problem or not.>>


Most likely it was. Each firewall may see the other as interfering with 
system processes, so they can easily end up in an infinite loop, which will 
prevent your shutdown. Norton's has a reputation for not playing nicely 
with other similar software. If you are going to uninstall it, you must 
make sure you get the proper Nortons uninstall program, otherwise it may 
leave many remnants in the registry.

<<Just what procedure should I use to safely get on the internet, download 
and install Armor, and meanwhile turn off Norton.  I'm afraid to turn 
Norton off before going on the internet. >>

Quite right. Just pull the phone line out of your modem, or power off the 
modem. This will isolate you from any internet nasties.

Your modem should dial out automatically once you reconnect it.

<<Any comments about Avast and Avira?>>

I've never heard of Avira, nor Armor, but Avast is the common alternative 
to AVG. It's very popular, and well liked by those who use it. As with 
firewalls, don't have more than one active at the same time. Just use the 
2nd one for manual scans. You can have as many a-v progs as you like, but 
more than 3 would be overkill.

You will need to be sure that whatever you use is written for Vista.

One would have to wonder who was doing the testing to rate ZA "poorly". 
It's the firewall of choice for the vast majority of personal computers, 
and has been for a long time. Some "tests" may not be very valid in the 
real world. Depends entirely on the test parameters. If, for example, the 
firewall tests were being mixed up with antivirus protection, then of 
course the firewall would rate poorly, because that's not its 
purpose.  Many people get confused between firewalls and antivirus 
protection.  They are 2 quite different animals, though these days many 
"internet security suites" combine the two in one interface, so the 
boundaries may appear to be blurred.

Once you have given any program, such as your browser, permission to access 
the internet, the firewall will allow anything which comes in via that 
program. It does not distinguish between good and bad. That is the function 
of your antivirus, anti-spyware, etc.  Most firewall software now comes 
with this added protection as a paid extra, the free version being firewall 
only. eg ZoneAlarm free (firewall only) or ZoneAlarm Pro (full 
firewall/antispyware suite).

It also depends on what you want. Some users like to "set and forget", in 
which case you elect to throw out good with bad, or admit bad with good. 
Others like to be prompted for a decision in each case, which can get quite 
invasive and tiresome, even though the firewall will gradually "learn" from 
each decision. Some are better at that than others.

Perhaps your test was testing the ZA Pro suite for its anti-spyware 
functions---in which case it's quite possible it could rate below others. I 
don't know. I have used it myself for several years and have never had any 
problems with it.

For what it's worth, my own system comprises:

Firewall and active anti-malware:  Zone Alarm Pro.
Antivirus:  AVG
Other security not covered by above (eg BHO's, startups): WinPatrol

Plus for occasional manual scans:  Spybot, AdAware, A-Squared, Ewido.

I'm not saying this is the ultimate--it undoubtedly isn't.  But at very 
little cost, it's kept my computer clean for several years, apart from the 
odd harmless tracking cookie.

The ultimate form of firewall is a hardware firewall, but that's another 
story and beyond most of us.

Don Penlington





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