Online Armor Free Personal Firewall 2.1.0.131

Just installed the above (free) firewall and have a question about it. The reason I switched from the previous FW because the (paid?) rated as a 10 on matousec.

Under "hosts" it shows TONS of programs/websites that I've never seen before by any firewall I had previously. :confused They show all as allowed. See attached view which is only a very tiny part of it. Do I need to block all of them, since they all look VERY "fishy" to me? Thanks.

 

anything that looks suspicious i would block, but if you arent sure google them to find out if it is something you want

 

Thanks, but there are hundreds of them, perhaps up to a thousand. I just can't disabled them all since one has to disable them one by one? Or is there a shortcut available to have them all disabled? Thanks.

Additionally I don't know anything about that thing "host". :confused

Perhaps someone using Online Armor FW can give me some advice in what to do?

 

I think what that list is, is a list of known bad sites and they are currently not blocked. Online Armor has a feature similar to Spyware Blaster or Malware Immunizer (for example) where it has a pre-compiled list of web sites known to be bad, and it can set up rules automatically for these sites. Since you haven't selected otherwise, it will allow them by default. All you have to do is select Deny All or whatever it is. Be sure to do this as the sites in that list are definitely 'fishy'! You can probably select them all by right clicking on one in the list and choose 'select all'.

 

Thank you dlb. I disabled them all because I wasn't sure if there were some sites that would be OK. Is that OK? Now the "local host" (on the 1st line in the pic) has disappeared in that list. Is that OK also? I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to access some safe sites if there would be any on that humongous list. See, I blocked them before I read your reply instead of deleting them. I don't know yet if after having disabled them if I can still delete them? Thanks.

No, I couldn't find right clicking on the list and choosing "select all", therefore I had to disable them page by page.

What is "host" anyway....?

 

http://www.tallemu.com/hosts_checker.html

 

I still have one question outstanding and that is:

Is it safe to delete these entries in the host file or should I leave them as disabled? See there are 3 choices: allow - disable - delete.

PS: I noticed that the computer has slowed down a lot and think it's due to the humongous amount of entries that are shown in the "host" file.

Thank you.

 

It may be Spybot Search & Destroy (or any other software like this) that puts these entries in the "host" file. That's according to this link: http://support.tallemu.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=1697

BTW: I have Spybot so that may be it....

 

Thanks a bunch plodr!! I have "enabled" these entries in "host", the same as when I saw them for the first time. Figured it must be the right thing to do otherwise I would be disabling the security software from doing it's job, right? Thanks.