He has sent me a link for a beta download (which I unfortunately can’t use because it’s the wrong version for me) and indicates that his forums will be updated and the beta release links made public shortly.

Hopefully this will all work out the way we all want it to.

The developer and company (Matt Milano, Infinity Data Systems in Georgetown, KY) apparently have recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You can find Matt and Infinity’s name under the Chapter 7 listings for Lexington here: http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/375594.html

Oddly enough, this listing was posted on Apr 14, the day before IDS started accepting pre-registration payments for Odysseus (at least according to IDS’s website, the pre-reg started Apr 15). It also seems odd that, the last few days, they have been promising in their forums that they have an open beta done that will be posted shortly and was delayed last week primarily due to a “server upgrade”.

By the way, Chapter 7 means that a trustee is appointed and assets are sold off.

I’m sad to be the bearer of bad news, and really dissapointed if Odysseus doesn’t happen. But I think people are getting their hopes up for nothing, at minimum. And worst case, people may be sending in their pre-registration money for something they might not see for a very long time if ever.

If you find a better firewall for your application, I’d be interested to know about that. Have you tried Comodo? I’m also wondering whether you use or have tried Eset NOD32 (not the firewall, just the antimalware/virus product)?

– Scot

I have been using A Small Orange (http://asmallorange.com/) for several years now. The service is good, with only several minor problems (generally server outages). The range of features is very extensive and the price is reasonable.

Highly recommended.

Peter

Thanks for any current info. I’ve explored on Google and gotten nowhere since something in February ‘08.

I didn’t research and am not technical enough to know all your parameters, but feel sure you’d want to do that yourself. Good luck.

I use, and have switched a number of my clients over to: http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9025464

I have been using the Linux Business Package for years now, which provides lots of space/features at a great price.

Check it out…

What you said is very clear for me and I cannot ask you for more than that. I believe I have seen also in Tall Emu site, that tweaking the white list for the originally allowed programs is a part of the advanced mode available only in their paid version, I’ll double check on that.

So, Online Armor will not do for me any better in the time being, mainly as I cannot buy on line (NOD, OA, or any other software because of the hard currency transfer regulation in my country, but this is another issue which has nothing to do with computing and I don’t want to bother you with that too). I will continue to follow up the evolution of firewall softwares to make the change as soon as I have the confirmation of the availability of better and more suitable version.

So thanks a lot and I remain grateful for your valuable help.

Regards
Mamado

I understand that people are coming to me as a trusted source of information. I am unbiased, and I will do my best to interpret this complex area, but when it comes to figuring out issues among multiple products in two different product categories — I cannot speak definitively without doing lots of research testing and cross-testing products against each other.

My bet is that you might be able to get more information about this issue in the Wilders Forums, which has numerous product-specific forums. I consider it to be one of the best sources of security information on the Internet — although, like any forums, you have to keep in mind that it often represents opinions, not necessarily facts. Still, the level of expertise of many of the posters at Wilder’s is very high.

That said, my understanding is that the use of a local proxy in more and more antivirus products affects HIPS-based products more or less across the board — although some may have implemented workarounds or fixes already. My advice about this has been crystal clear: Use NOD32 2.7. It doesn’t use its own proxy, and it works great. Eset continues to sell 2.7 — and there’s a link to the page where this is shown in the article this comment thread is linked to.

About your second question, and this is perhaps the most important point: Both OA full and OA Free offer the same exact setting that Mike Nash referred to that disables the pre-trusted or whitelist applications in Online Armor. You’ll find it under Options > Firewall, and the setting is a check box at the very top of that dialog labeled “Automatically allow Trusted programs to access the Internet.”

So, no, you don’t have to buy the full version to control this feature. I think I may have inadvertently given you that impression. My point was that, in general, there’s a notable increase of control in the paid version — and that, based on your questions, you would prefer that version. Not that you needed to buy the paid version in order to turn off the pre-trusted whitelist.

Note that, if you turn off this whitelist, you will be faced with a far more intense blizzard of pop-ups in the early going after you first install Online Armor. Although it is implemented a bit differently, Comodo also uses a whitelist. And many other, newer HIPS products do the same. This is not a new thing, though. Norton Personal Firewall and other products of its ilk did the same thing with their more rudimentary application control modules six or seven years ago. This is not unusual, and not considered poor security — so long as the HIPS is properly identifying the applications it pre-approves.

– Scot

Please correct me if I am wrong.
On the other hand I fully agree with Scot that the paid version is the best choice.

Regards
Mamado