Armor2Net Review If you have an internet connection then you need a firewall. Make no mistake about it, there's a legion of jerks out there just waiting to put all sorts of garbage on your pc and an internet connection gives them an easy way in. Many Spy/Adware programs claim to cause no problem to your PC but the cumulative effect of several of these programs will make your pc useless through performace reduction. A computer virus doesn't bother to hide behind the veneer of respectablity but exists only to damage your data or use your pc as a platform to launch attacks. I don't think you bought your computer to be used this way and with Armor2Net, it won't be. Loaded with full firewall features, Armor2Net also removes spyware, stops popups and more. You may wish to download Armor2Net now, install it and follow along. Please keep in mind that Armor2Net is a firewall program. If you're interested in e-mail and virus protection, check out some of the many programs on the Security page. If you're interested in internet privacy while surfing, then Ghost Surf would be a better solution. Firewall Basics The proliferation of small office and home networks has boosted the use of routers in areas where they weren't found even a few years ago. Ask about a firewall and the ever more common response is "I don't need one, the router takes care of it!". It's true that many routers use a NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall. A NAT router offers protection by showing one IP address to the web while concealing several others needed for your network. The visible IP address is the one that's the target of malicious attacks but, since the router doesn't run windows, the IP Address it runs is immune. Recent attacks like Blaster, Sasser and many of the windows protocol attacks are stopped dead by a NAT firewall. Unfortunately, your PC can be hijacked right through the NAT firewall if it gets infected through email by something like MyDoom. Obviously, a good firewall has to do a little more, such as: 1) Monitor and stop unauthorized incoming traffic 2) Put your computer's ports in "stealth" mode, making them invisible to hackers. 3) Monitor and stop unauthorized outgoing traffic. Armor2Net performs all three functions and, unlike many other firewall programs, does these things as well: 1) Removes spyware 2) Stops popups 3) Has an option to lock out all internet connections Configuration When installing the program you will be asked if you want to configure the program. Click no; you can set up the options once you've been shown how they function in the next section. After the program is installed, this icon should be present in your taskbar Click once on this icon to open the Armor2Net window shown below. Firewall Features - Stealth Your PC has thousands of ports that can be connected to on the Internet. Some programs called port scanners roam the internet looking for open ports. If your PC is on, connected to the web, and has no firewall, port scanners can access your PC and do all sorts of nasty stuff. To put Armor2Net into stealth mode, just click on the Stealth button on the menu bar. Some of these buttons will change to reflect an active or inactive state. The buttons appear like this when the features are INACTIVE The buttons appear like this when the features are ACTIVE A great firewall reference page on the web is called Shields Up which contains tests to check firewall functionality. To check for port shielding, go to the Shields Up site and run the service ports check. The first page should show your IP address and give you some information about it. If you're running GhostSurf, you'll see that your IP address is hidden and your PC can't be tested. Turn GhostSurf off and reload the Sheilds Up page. Click proceed. On the next page there will be a number of selections on a menu bar in the center of the page. Click "All service ports" - your system will be evaluated for open ports. Run this test with Armor2Net's stealth mode in the inactive state and then rerun it with the stelath mode active. Depending on your system, you may get various results but here's some common ones: All Green - this is what you're looking for. All ports are invisible to hackers on the internet. Putting Armor2Net in stealth mode should give you all green. All Red - all ports are open so you have no protection. All Blue - all ports are closed but hackers can still see you. All Green except port 113 which is blue - you're probably testing Armor2Net behind a NAT firewall. This means the router is being tested by the Shields Up site and not the PC you're on. To be sure the PC you're on is being tested, run it with Armor2Net Stealth active and then with it inactive. As for port 113, many routers keep it visible to make sure it runs the "Authentication Protocol" for connecting to old servers. More information on port 113 is available by clicking the box on the Shields Up site or by searching the web. As you can see from the test results, Armor2Net is protecting your ports. Firewall Features - Data Traffic: Incoming and Outgoing A NAT firewall may cover your ports but does nothing to monitor internet traffic. Along with covering your ports, Armor2Net also monitors both the incoming AND outgoing traffic on your PC. Some trojan horse programs run in the background, open ports and send all sorts of stuff over the internet. If your firewall is just checking the incoming traffic, you'll never know that someone else is using your PC for their own purposes. You will notice a deterioration in PC performance due to the crap running in the background and perhaps resort to drastic measures like buying a new PC. Here's how Armor2Net monitors web activity. Everytime a program tries to connect to the internet, Armor2Net creates a small pop up box that asks if you want to let it pass or not. This would get REAL tiresome if you had to click this every time but Armor2Net allows you to pass or block some programs through all of the time. The image below shows that Armor2Net is blocking a keylogger. Clicking on the Program Filter Tab brings up the following window: Each time a program tries to start, it gets put on the list where you can give it a free pass, block it or be prompted each time it starts. Right clicking on the application name brings up an information box that give you a description, its location on your drive and other information. If you don't think you'll use a program again, you have the option to delete it from the list. It will be added again when it is rerun so you should only delete programs you don't intend on using again. Clicking on the Net State tab displays the above window. This is a list of all of the programs that are currently accessing the internet. If you don't like a program that's connected, just click the "Shut" button to the right of offensive application. If you want to make sure you never connect to a site, right click on the first box (Remote Address / Port) of the row containing the site and click "Add to banned sites" from the pop up window. Clicking on the Logs tab changes the center of the widow as shown in the image above. This give you a history of Armor2Net activity. The remote address is the location that either tried to access your PC or the location that a program tried to connect to. Action is what Armor2Net did and Local application / port is the application that tried to connect or the port that someone tried to access. You can shrink or expand these fields to display or hide informtion as you wish. Like most users, you may have trouble figuring out what is a needed program and what is spyware; the names aren't very intuitive. To get more control of the processes running in the background on your PC, download and try WinTasks 5 Pro. Firewall Testing Once again, don't take our word that Armor2Net has great firewall features, you can test them for yourself. Some firewalls only check incoming traffic and ignore trojans on your PC creating outgoing traffic. The Shields Up site has a simple test program called leak test that you can download. Running the test is simple 1) After downloading the Leak Test program, make a few copies. 2) The idea behind Leak Test is that you rename it to a program like iexplorer.exe that would have free internet access through your firewall, run it, and check to see if your firewall notices that it's a different program. Some can't tell the difference but Armor2Net can. In this example, I've renamed the two copies opera.exe and iexplore.exe to match the web browsers Opera and Internet Explorer. 3) Go to the program filter on Armor2Net and make sure that the access right is set to pass for the program that you named after leak test. For example, if you renamed leaktest iexplorer.exe, make sure the access right for Internet Explorer is set to pass 4) Click on any of the renamed programs and this window will open. 5) Click on "Test for leaks" and this pop up window from Armor2Net will appear Please note that Armor2Net caught the unauthorized program even though it was renamed. 6) Click "Block" on the pop up window and it will vanish. The leak test page will show that the connection failed as shown in the image below. If you have the misfortune to have spyware on your PC, you'll see pop up boxes appear when they try to connect and send information out. Armor2Net will block them and give you the program location by right clicking on the program in the program filter page. Having the location is a great help if automatic removal fails and you have to do it manually. Spyware Removal The great firewall features make Armor2Net a great program but it also has Spyware removal functions as well. To check for spyware, just click the "Clean Spyware" button on the top menu bar. The scan will begin and a small window will open that tracks the progress. When it is done, it will tell you what spyware was found and ask if you want to delete them. Unfortunately, some very popular software is "ad supported" and the ad programs are identified as spyware. Personally, I don't like "free" programs with spyware attached but some users are willing to put up with the nuisance caused by spyware programs running in the background in order to use another program for free. Armor2Net takes this into account by allowing you to REINSTALL the spyware you delete if it's needed to get a program running again. The spyware definitions for Armor2Net will automatically upgrade when new ones become available. Other Features Armor2Net allows you to cut of all internet access by clicking on the Net Lock button on the menu bar. I don't advise that you leave this function on if you plan on deleting the program. I've seen internet access locked on a PC AFTER Armor2Net was deleted with Net Lock being active. The PC in question was also loaded with spyware so I can't be SURE that Armor2Net caused the problem. Reinstallation of Armor2Net and deactivating the Net Lock function resolved the problem. Armor2Net also offers a popup blocking function. Like most popup blockers, it gets some and misses others. To activate this feature, click on the "Stop Pop-Up" button on the menu bar. The active and inactive states of these buttons have been shown above. At the bottom of the Armor2Net window is a bar with the words "I want" on it; clicking this brings up several configuration options. 1) Banned sites - sites added to this list will be inaccessible. 2) Exceptions on pop ups - pop ups on this list will be allowed. 3) Restore spyware - puts spyware back that you may need to run "Ad supported" software. 4) Exceptions on spyware - spyware on this list won't be removed. 5) Options - modify various settings for Firewall, System, Stop Pop-up, and Spykill features. Conclusion and Registration Unauthorized use of your PC ruins it's performance and you really shouldn't have to add expensive memory sticks just to make sure you have room for ad/spyware programs. With Armor2Net, you won't have to. Great features, added security and a low registration fee makes Armor2Net a welcome addition your PC. Unlike an AntiVirus program, Armor2Net will detect and remove spyware. Unlike a hardware NAT firewall, Armor2Net will detect and block outgoing traffic from trojans or spyware that is on your PC. Download and test Armor2Net using the guidelines listed above. If you decide that Armor2Net provides the security you need, use the buy button in the program to register it. You can download the trial version of the Armor2Net by clicking on the button below. I hope you find the program useful and would like to hear your comments at - The Genie - News || Reviews || Utilities || Home/Office || Web Tools || Web Utils || Graphics || Security || Games || Other Categories || Program List || FAQ || Forum || About Us || Contact Us || Home Strategy Games || Action Games || Puzzle Games || Card Games ||