Online Armor Premium Review

Review summary

Good points

Bad points

Our verdict

Online Armor Premium works well as a firewall, but some this software's features are a little difficult to use. Other features, namely keylogger protection, do not work very well at all. Despite its faults, Online Armor Premium is a great piece of system-security software that we would easily recommend to experienced computer users.

Full review

Developed by Emsisoft, one of the leading system-security companies in Europe, Online Armor products have a large base of dedicated users. We decided to test Online Armor Premium, Emsisoft's advanced firewall, to find out how it compared to competing products

Setup

Unfortunately, Online Armor Premium is not compatible with all versions of Windows. While it supports both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, it only supports the 32-bit versions of XP and Vista. If you have one of the supported operating systems and at least 512MB of memory, Online Armor Premium should install without any issues.

On our system, which runs Windows 7, Online Armor Premium installed in just a few minutes. While going through the install wizard, we were required to click through a few menus, but it was a pretty straightforward process.

Firewall

Online Armor Premium's firewall is very effective at its highest levels and adequate at its lowest. Protection levels are divided into home and public zones for the convenience of users. It is easy to drag the slider bars between high, medium, and low-security settings. These settings each offer various levels of protection from web-based attacks. For example, when medium-level security is selected, systems are protected but visible, and they are capable of using various network services. Ultimately, the tradeoff between security and usability is left up to the user, and all levels have their own benefits.

Security

In addition to standard firewall capabilities, Online Armor Premium claims to protect users' systems with several other useful features, including:

Program control – Online Armor Premium's program control prevents potentially malicious programs from accessing the network. Some programs, such as Internet Explorer and Skype, are already on the whitelist, and they are granted access automatically. When an unknown program requests network access, users are required to make the final decisions. Also, when unknown programs attempt to make certain changes to users' systems, such as creating registry entries, Online Armor Premium prevents these changes from occurring without users approving them first.

Keylogger protection – While Online Armor Premium claims to offer protection from keyloggers, this protection is not very good. Not only did it miss the majority of keyloggers and screen loggers that we deliberately ran, it identified several legitimate programs as potential keyloggers.

System performance

Online Armor Premium does a lot for very little. Over the course of our testing period with this software, we were pleased to note that it used only minimal resources. Since firewall software should be running at all times, resource-hogging firewalls can really cause systems to run sluggishly.

Features

Online banking mode - Banking mode was designed to secure users' online-banking sessions. By ensuring that systems in banking mode can only connect to trusted domains, Online Armor Premium ensures that users' banking information is completely protected.

Web shield - This feature uses DNS checking to ensure that users are not redirected from legitimate websites to phishing sites designed to steal sensitive information.

Ease of use

Online Armor Premium is not the easiest firewall to use. Having said that, however, it does offer many more features than the average firewall. When used strictly as a firewall, it may still be a little overwhelming for some users, but a fair degree of its functions can be automated. Regardless, learning how to use Online Armor Premium is going to require a little time and patience from most users.

Help & support

Emsisoft provides customers of Online Armor Premium with great support. The Emsisoft website hosts an active support forum and a comprehensive guide dedicated to Online Armor Premium. If customers have questions that cannot be answered in either of these areas, they are encouraged to e-mail Emsisoft's support team.

Overall

Those looking for a firewall that offers powerful protection and comprehensive features will find a lot to like about Online Armor Premium. It offers more than many competing firewall products, but it is not without a few faults. While most of its features do work well, some are not especially impressive. Also, novice users may find this software's higher-than-average learning curve slightly overwhelming. If you are willing to spend a little extra time learning how to use it effectively, Online Armor Premium is certainly worth the effort.

Looking for personal firewall software reviews?
See our side-by-side comparisons and in-depth reviews

Overall
Setup
Firewall
Security
System performance
Features
Ease of use
Help & support