TSGL: Online Armor Personal Firewall

[Mike Ferrell]

Russ,
I changed the Vista Firewall to block outbound communication as you 
suggested.  Now I'm wondering exactly what are all the ramifications.
Exactly what will it prevent?  Does it prevent something that I may want to 
do?
Mike
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russell W. Coover" <coover at fastmail.fm>
To: "'Tech Support Guy Mailing List'" <list at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 8:53 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 Firewall
> which 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 outgoing
> internet 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 attempts
> from 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 combination
> with 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 thinking
> about 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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