TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall

Tue Dec 18 12:03:26 EST 2007

This site has what's described as a  Vista Firewall Control program:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64950/description.html

Looks like there's a free and not free version. There are a few reviews 
you can read also. I haven't tried this so you're on your own.

H Davis

Russell W. Coover wrote:
> Ron, 
>
> If you reread my email (below), you will find the steps necessary to "turn
> outgoing monitoring on". Basically, it involves running wf.msc, a program
> which is on every Vista machine but is hidden. It will also allow the
> machine to log every attempt to access it from outside your network. It is
> at least as good as Zone Alarms attempt to run on Vista ... perhaps better.
>
> Russ Coover
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
> Behalf Of rbrunton at accesscable.net
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 3:51 AM
> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> Subject: Re: TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall
>
> Actually the Vista firewall, unlike the XP version, will monitor outgoing
> traffic, but that is turned off by default. I don't recall the steps for
> turning outgoing monitoring on, only that it is a bit involved. When I get
> back home (I'm in a hotel room right now) I'll see if I can find those
> details. 
>
> My XP systems all use ZoneAlarm, but I have not been able to make ZoneAlarm
> and Vista play nicely together, despite the claim by ZoneAlarm that it's now
> Vista compatible. I also have a hardware router/firewall for my home
> network. Everything I've read indicates the hardware version trumps any
> software firewall rather handily and there are quite a few writers who think
> adding a software firewall to a system with a hardware one is just a waste
> of system resources. I had purchased ZoneAlarm Pro for my XP system, but ZA
> has not released a Vista friendly version of ZA Pro.
>
> HTH
> Ron
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Russell W. Coover" <coover at fastmail.fm>
> Date: Monday, December 17, 2007 9:53 pm
> Subject: Re: TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall
>
>   
>> Mike,
>>
>> I don't know a thing about the Armor Personal Firewall except what 
>> I read in
>> your post. However, I do know something about the Windows Vista 
>> Firewallwhich you said "I understand is not much good anyway."
>>
>> Windows Vista Firewall may not be the best Firewall available for 
>> Vista. But
>> for most of us, it is enough to keep you safe. Actually, it is a 
>> pretty good
>> firewall. It's main weakness is that it (like previous Windows 
>> Firewalls)does not stop applications on your computer from 
>> "calling home". That is, it
>> monitors incoming internet communication, but it does not monitor 
>> outgoinginternet communication. At least that is the way it acts 
>> as a default. It
>> also, by default, will not allow you to create a log of attempts 
>> to contact
>> your PC from the outside.  
>>
>> The Vista Firewall, is, however effective if you are careful about 
>> what you
>> download on the internet, and, frankly, I use it on all three of 
>> my Vista
>> machines. In addition, it is possible to go into the firewall a 
>> change it's
>> configuration to block outgoing messages. Microsoft did not make 
>> it easy to
>> do so because they (probably correctly) felt that novices may be 
>> terrified.It is done by opening up the Search box, and typing in 
>> "wf.msc" without the
>> quotes marks, of course) and then dowuble clicking the result. Or, 
>> if you
>> have added "Run" to your Start Menu as I have, you can type it in 
>> there. 
>>
>> Using that applet, you can configure your computer to stop 
>> software from
>> sending outbound communication and you can make Windows log all 
>> attemptsfrom the outside which you can read with Notepad.
>>
>> The Windows Vista Firewall is good, and can be made very good.
>>
>> Russ Coover    
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-
>> bounces at tsgserver.com] On
>> Behalf Of Mike Ferrell
>> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 3:03 PM
>> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>> Subject: TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall
>>
>> I recently saw a rating of several paid and free firewalls.  At 
>> the top was
>> the free Online Armor Personal Firewall so I decided to try it 
>> out.  After
>> installing I immediately had PC shutdown problems and had to 
>> reboot in safe
>> mode.  Ultimately, I ended up uninstalling it and doing a System 
>> Restore to
>> alleviate the problem.  I just recently bought this new PC with 
>> Vista.  It
>> came with Norton trialware so I have turned off the Windows 
>> Firewall which I
>> understand is not much good anyway.  
>>
>> Does anyone here have experience with this Armor Firewall in 
>> combinationwith Vista, or do you have any suggestions or comments 
>> for me?  I understand
>> that two different firewalls sometimes don't play well together, 
>> but I did
>> not have the opportunity to turn Norton off before I had the 
>> problem.  The
>> Armor installation software shut down the computer after finishing 
>> up and
>> before I turned off Norton, and that's when I ran into the shutdown
>> problems.  I don't know if the Armor/Norton issue is what caused 
>> my problem
>> or not.
>>
>> I'm thinking about trying again.  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.  I
>> would very much like to use Armor if I can.  Note, in the past 
>> with XP I
>> always used Zone Alarm, but it was rated "very poor" in the same 
>> study.  
>>
>> If anyone is using Armor Firewall please let me know how you like it,
>> especially if you have Vista.  
>>
>> Meanwhile, I also found a couple free virus scanners that I am 
>> thinkingabout using in conjunction with my AVG Free.  These are 
>> Avast and Avira.  I
>> know one antivirus won't find everything, so I would like to have 
>> at least
>> two.  Any comments about Avast and Avira?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike  
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-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com