Active Armor

[Oline61]

I'm new here, so bear with me for a minute.

I recently purchased an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum to serve as the foundation of my computer. It is based on the nForce 4 chipset, which contains an embedded hardware firewall called "Active Armor".

I am currently running NIS 2k5, but I would like to switch to Active Armor if it proves to be a superior firewall.

I would very much like to hear from anyone with experience on the Active Armor firewall. I am particularly interested in it's application access control quality and ease of use (configuration primarily). Also, would it be plausible to run NIS and Active Armor at the same time?Can anyone give me a recommendation?

[Embracer Of Darkness]

AFAIK all you need to do to enable ActiveArmor is to plug your connection into one of the ethernet ports on the motherboard itself (not a NIC card). Just make sure you didn't disable the onboard gigabit ethernet controller in BIOS when you installed the board, or if you're already using that ethernet socket then all the better.

If you're using USB to connect your modem to your PC, I you may find that you can't use ActiveArmor.

There is software available to configure ActiveArmor, which will be on the CD that came with your motherboard. Oh, and yeah you can use software firewalls while using ActiveArmor. In fact, I'd recommend it.

[Oline61]

What exactly does Active Armor do when it's not configured? I didn't notice it blocking anything (although this PC is behind a router with no ports forwarded right now).

I've installed the forceware network access manager, and it provides me with a way to turn the firewall on and off, change firewall strength and an Apache based in-browser configuration tool. So far so good.

Do you know if it works on my second GigE port (Marvell I think)?

[Embracer Of Darkness]

What exactly does Active Armor do when it's not configured? I didn't notice it blocking anything (although this PC is behind a router with no ports forwarded right now).

When it's not configured, it's monitoring default ports, and it will only alert you if it needs your attention (say, when an application accesses a port that it's not monitoring/blocking, or when it detects an actual threatening event.)

I've installed the forceware network access manager, and it provides me with a way to turn the firewall on and off, change firewall strength and an Apache based in-browser configuration tool. So far so good.

Yep, so far so good. Sounds to me like you've got it set up correctly.

Do you know if it works on my second GigE port (Marvell I think)?

AFAIK ActiveArmor will only work for the ports that are on-board (built-in) the motherboard. If you're talking about the second (and possibly third) ethernet ports on the mobo, it should protect those too.

[Oline61]

Excellent, thanks for your help.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Excellent, thanks for your help.

You're welcome.