Active Armor vs Router. Which would you opt for ?

[Mindoculus]

i was hit with a nasty array of malware trojans. i'll never rely on a software firewall again, as it, along with my anti-virus and few other security related apps, got killed off by the trojans.

what is the general or professional opinion on nvida's active armor feature ? is it as good or better than a separate router ? if i can save some money, i'll upgrade the mb, which i can do now for a much better reason than to increase the fps on ut2004.

thank you.

 

[IceWindus]

Its not too bad and definently better then nothing, but it will not replace a high quality router, ever. Even mid grade SOHO routers will perform much better then anything Nvidia can incorporate into a mobo.

 

[Mindoculus]

Its not too bad and definently better then nothing, but it will not replace a high quality router, ever. Even mid grade SOHO routers will perform much better then anything Nvidia can incorporate into a mobo.

thanks.

but i would think any hardware firewall poses the same insurmountable hurdle that could not be found in any software firewall. even the most basic hardware solution would be night-and-day compared to, say, zonealarm pro, kerio, etc.

active armor allows for 'predefined security profiles', which i beleive means application based rather than simple port based scanning, allowing the same kind of rules control feature that software models provide.

 

[SJConsultant]

There isn't a security solution in the world that is 100%. Maybe a better question to ask yourself is "How did I get infected?".

Hardware appliances have their basis just as software for layers of security. Perhaps if you provide us with a rundown of what protections you were using, what malware infected your system, and how you discovered this infection, we may be able to provide some insight into how you can enhance your current setup.

 

[Mindoculus]

There isn't a security solution in the world that is 100%. Maybe a better question to ask yourself is "How did I get infected?".

Hardware appliances have their basis just as software for layers of security. Perhaps if you provide us with a rundown of what protections you were using, what malware infected your system, and how you discovered this infection, we may be able to provide some insight into how you can enhance your current setup.

thanks so much.

online scans at kaspersky and bit defender revealed 11 instances of 'ppdoor.v' and one
instance of 'downloader.smart.wv'. these trojans disabled my software firewall, anti-virus,
ms anti-spy, and prevented me from running spybot and a few other security related apps.

i went through a manual safe mode cleanup, where i was able to use some of the above
mentioned apps, but the problem persists.

the trojan(s) open about a dozen ports that dial out to about the same number of alien
addresses. everytime i delete the culprit executable - which isn't difficult to locate -
another is generated. the queen continues to elude.

------by the way ---- with regard to the original point - - - - - - - -

here is a great article that examines some of the major failings of software firewalls -

securityfocus.com - software firewalls: made of straw ?

i'm not looking for 100% guaranteed protection, just 99.99999 . .. .

 

[da sponge]

I can see your reluctance to use a software firewall after what happened, but using a hardware firewall isn't going to solve your problems completely. You need to prevent yourself from getting infected in the first place. If the malware didn't use a vulnerability to penetrate your system from the outside, YOU let it in somehow. Using a hardware firewall will not increase your odds of protection from the same attack again.