Can someone explain how att active armor works? And how is it different from the regular smart home manager am I able to see what the devices on the network are doing and when on do things like MAC address randomization not work?
active armor actively monitors ALL of your traffic. It is there to help against online threats and to record your data so AT&T can sell it.
My educated guess is that it’s an on-demand VPN. It probably sets up a tunnel to your RG. At that point, your ‘internet address’ is a VPN device sitting in an ATT datacenter somewhere else. Traffic to/from the internet goes through that VPN device, then is tunneled to your RG to get to you. Inside that device or the network chain around it is where the packet inspection / firewall rules / other security features happen.
First there are 2 parts to ActiveArmor on Fiber. The free version which focuses on Internet Security and the subscription version provides a VPN, Threat Activity Dashboard, ID mono tiring, and some Content Control.
The subscription version is currently $7 per month on Fiber 1000 and lower. It is included at no charge on Internet 2000 & 5000.
https://www.att.com/security/advanced-internet-security/
Smart Home Manager does nothing with security. It does allow you to setup profiles and assign devices to a profile. You can pause a device that SHM knows about devices it detects on Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Cellular. You can pause devices (limited function). You will be able to see what devices are connected to the network and even block them but it is rather hit or miss.
u/badtlc4 ActiveArmor simply does not monitor ALL your traffic and it does not record your data so AT&T can sell it. Paranoid much?
By using a simple encrypted DNS, all DNS quires and replies are passed without AT&T snooping. By using a VPN your data passes in an encrypted tunnel through AT&T.
You can’t even stay on a simple topic. Nobody can take you seriously. at&t discloses they keep your data and use it at their will including selling it if they so choose. This has nothing to do with…
If you are using VPN, then you are not using active armor as you are bypassing it. Although at&t DOES admit they use deep packet inspection on VPN packets. Yes, there are ways to prevent at&t from watching everything but that is not the default setup and if you are going to get the benefits of active armor, you have to use their default setup.
u/badtlc4 Ha ha ha you went off-topic with your response about AT&T using ActiveArmor to record all customer data so they can sell it. AT&T would not allow customers to chose if they want any flavor of ActiveArmor or disable it.
Next time I need the Comment police I will add you…
Look how disliked you are. No one wants you here. You aren’t helpful. And I’m beginning to wonder just from the ferocity of your shilling and “AT&T can do no wrong” attitude if you work or have financial stake in AT&T.