Online Armor Free Firewall V3.5

This post was written by admin on July 9, 2009
Posted Under: Free Firewall,Free PC Security

Online Armor Free Firewall Version 3.5 has had a few tweaks made as it caused problems with installing on Vista.

Before installing any new firewall it is important to uninstall any existing firewall and reboot.

I have this installed on one XP machine with no problems, however, when installing on another XP machine, after the reboot to initialize the firewall I was greeted with a black screen.

The same applied to installation on Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. I did eventually get it to work on the XP machine after three reboots, not a good start!

Each PC is configured differently, therefore this program will work without problems for many and for others it won't work at all.

It is an excellent firewall and provides strong protection, but it is not compatible with 64bit machines and is also known to cause some users problems with Instant Messengers.

Features include Kernel Mode Security, Execution Protection, Termination Protection, Limited Autostart Protection, Simple Mode, Keylogger Detection - Hooks, Tamper Protection, Script and Worm protection and Process Guard and it also protects the hosts file with its HIPS feature.

Online Armor's latest version provides superb protection from inbound threats and complete control of data leaving your computer for the internet.

In standard mode, most decisions are made automatically based on Online Armor's whitelist, but as with all firewalls, it will provide popup windows when new applications want to access the internet.

This is an easy to use firewall once installed and the usual bunch of popups soon settle down once permission has been granted or blocked for each application.

It performs well in the Matousec challenge - link at end of article - and is just behind Comodo and ahead of PC Tools Firewall Plus at the time of writing. All are free versions.

On my main machine Online Armor works well and has no conflicts with other applications, but I use other firewalls and applications on my other machines, one of which is purely for testing products.

This would be my first choice of firewalls followed by PC Tools Firewall Plus. As with any program, the important thing is that it works for the user and they are comfortable using it.

System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista (32bit)
Download file size 10.29MB
Memory Used: 16 - 20 MB, CPU Load 0 - 5
Click here for Online Armor support forum
Matousec Proactive Security Challenge results

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Comodo Firewall - Free
PC Tools Firewall Plus - Free
ZoneAlarm Firewall - Free