VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware is now released

[maymoons]

-{ Quote: "Today, I’m pleased to announce that after a very long development and beta testing effort, we have released VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/VIPRE). This is the consumer version; the enterprise version (http://www.vipreenterprise.com/) will be shipping next week. Company propaganda here (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Press/Releases/?id=237), earlier beta announcement (with more information) here (http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/later-this-week-vipre-goes-to-beta_02.html). Some reviewers also took an early peek at the beta — including Robert Vamosi at CNET (http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-security-and-firewall/vipre-antivirus-antispyware-beta/4505-3667_7-32896224.html?hhTest=1) and John Hawes at Virus Bulletin (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/documents/vipre-virus-bulletin-review-july-2008.pdf).
Those who have been following this blog may have read some of my prior postings, which started out with a blog post early last year entitled Evolving the Antimwalware Technology Model (http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/evolving-antimalware-technology-model.html). In that blog post, I discussed how antivirus products have had to adapt to a rapidly changing environment." }-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/

[cupez80]

time to try :D

[lodore]

Hello,
i think the concept is great.
the product does work very well.
i only have two issues which are easily solveable.
it has an awesome name and shortcut on the desktop. but why do the tray icons look so rubbish? its a minor issue and shoudnt deter people from a very decent product.
lanching programs such as process explorer a known product from microsoft generates a few prompts.
overall a fantastic product.

[ronjor]

Off topic post removed. Stay on topic please. -{ Quote: "VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware is now released" }-

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
i only have two issues which are easily solveable.
it has an awesome name and shortcut on the desktop. but why do the tray " }-
I'm currently testing VIPRE and yes, the tray icon doesn't look as well as the desktop icon. In fact, it's the first thing I've noticed.

Other than that, it is indeed a fantastic product.

[Ro4dRuNn3r]

-{ Quote: "[...]
Other than that, it is indeed a fantastic product." }- Yap, nice program, but, open a directory with many *.exe files..... :-\

[Fly]

Well, I'm waiting for some comparatives review ... (not necessarily
av-comparatives).

I presume that the software doesn't have something that protects you from bad sites, like the SiteAdvisor, the similar thing from Zonealarm, or the Spy Sweepers communications shield ?

I also wonder how they got that malware (in particular virus and trojan) database, purchased or improvised ? Old viruses can still be dangerous.

[Malcontent]

-{ Quote: "

I also wonder how they got that malware (in particular virus and trojan) database, purchased or improvised ? Old viruses can still be dangerous." }-

-{ Quote: "
Deep research intelligence a cornerstone to VIPRE's powerful threat protection
VIPRE's ability to provide powerful threat detection and remediation is supported by deep research intelligence from Sunbelt's Malware Research Labs (SMRL). SMRL includes some of the industry's leading malware experts, as well as broad capabilities in automated malware research and analysis. In addition to its proprietary research, SMRL works extensively within the security community, through cooperative relationships with other security companies and groups; and participation in VirusTotal, the largest online malware submission site. SMRL also provides technology to the security industry, with its Sunbelt CWSandbox and ThreatTrack threat data in use by some of the world's largest telecommunication, government, education, search engine, and security organizations." }-

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Press/Releases/?id=237

[Malcontent]

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS150968+01-Apr-2008+MW20080401

-Edited for clarity on home license and single yearly license.-

Old news but VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware will come with an unlimited home site License. The unlimited home license will cost $49.95. A single yearly license will cost $29.95.

-{ Quote: "CLEARWATER, FL, Apr 01 (MARKET WIRE) --
Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security and management
software,
today announced a new annual subscription licensing option for its entire line
of consumer security software products. The company's new unlimited home site
license for consumer security software is an industry first, where all PCs
in a single household are protected with a single site license.

"With our unlimited home sitelicense,customers pay one low annual subscription price for the product of their
choice for all the PCs in their home. We don't care if it's five, ten, or
200 computers. One price covers all the computers located in that residence."

Home Site License Pricing and Availability

The following are the annual subscription prices for home site licenses
forSunbelt's consumer products:


iHateSpam $39.95
CounterSpy $39.95
Sunbelt Personal Firewall $39.95
VIPRE(TM) Antivirus + Antispyware $49.95 (scheduled release in Q2)


The annual subscription provides protection for unlimited PCs and
includesone year of software updates and upgrades, any relevant threat
definitions,and live US-based toll-free technical support." }-

[bigc73542]

On their web site it states that a single yearly subscription will cost $29.95


New! Unlimited Home Site License
Uniquely, VIPRE is the first security product to provide a "home site license". For an annual subscription price of $49.95, all the PCs in your house can be protected with a single site license. A single user annual subscription is $29.95. All annual subscriptions include one year of threat definition updates, software upgrades, and live US-based toll-free technical support.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "On their web site it states that a single yearly subscription will cost $29.95


New! Unlimited Home Site License
Uniquely, VIPRE is the first security product to provide a "home site license". For an annual subscription price of $49.95, all the PCs in your house can be protected with a single site license. A single user annual subscription is $29.95. All annual subscriptions include one year of threat definition updates, software upgrades, and live US-based toll-free technical support." }-


Hi BigC I was wondering if you had personally tested this product out yet? I know I have appreciated your input over the past few years and was interested in this when I read about it here in the threads but being so new I am skeptical. As I am still running Mcafee (and happy thus far the past few years) I of course wanted to bolster that with an additional AS product and no longer want to purchase spysweeper as I feel it has really went south and don't want the headaches anymore. However as this new Vipre has also AV in it, I am wondering of conflicts with Mcafee. Anyway any info from your expert knowledge is appreciated.

Regards,

Atomic_Ed

[Dave2609]

-{ Quote: "I'm currently testing VIPRE and yes, the tray icon doesn't look as well as the desktop icon. In fact, it's the first thing I've noticed.

Other than that, it is indeed a fantastic product." }-

Yes the icon does not look nice, but also they do not have a lot setting for the Email Protection you can just try it off or on and change the ports, Can't choose to scan income and out going mail or just income mail etc etc.

[DVD+R]

I particularly like the option to upgrade from Counterspy to VIPRE for and Additional $9.95 as I currently have a 2 year subscription to Counterspy.

~off topic verbage removed....Bubba~

[larryb52]

I loaded up the new VIPRE & sunbelt new firewall as it's vista now. Now on VIPRE the positive is the lightest I have every seen & I have a few programs that will tell me impact from an AV, I'm glad to report none I mean it has 0 impact on this program. Also very light in resorces, very minimal. I don't get tied up over # of processes, I look for the 2 criteria mentioned above. I ran a full scan on about 65 gig & it took an hour found weather bug that has never been installed but called it a minor risk & ok'ed it & found 25 tracking cookies but no false positives & I have a game that some other 'Big' brand AV's always warn that the exe is a trojan & is incorrect and I have to use exclusions. This is very good. However on boot up this morning it took about an extra minute to scan opening files & held the wireless from connecting. My over opinion is this has promise speed up the start up scane (maybe a registry thing) and I think this AV has potential, very good start...

[bigc73542]

-{ Quote: "Hi BigC I was wondering if you had personally tested this product out yet? I know I have appreciated your input over the past few years and was interested in this when I read about it here in the threads but being so new I am skeptical. As I am still running Mcafee (and happy thus far the past few years) I of course wanted to bolster that with an additional AS product and no longer want to purchase spysweeper as I feel it has really went south and don't want the headaches anymore. However as this new Vipre has also AV in it, I am wondering of conflicts with Mcafee. Anyway any info from your expert knowledge is appreciated.

Regards,

Atomic_Ed" }-

I have not tried this product yet. I am running mcafee at this time also and am satified with it as I have used McAfee off and on since back when it came on floppy disc. Truthfully I don't need an antivirus with a bagillion modules in it. I am still satisfied with an AV and an FW and a hardware firewall. I might try Vipre in the future but have no plans to do so at this time.

bigc

[Baz_kasp]

I think it is a valiant first attempt but there are quite a few things which could be improved at first glance. I am writing up a report with suggestions/bugs that I will forward on to Alex Eckelberry once I have completed my testing.

Very "noob friendly" at first glance and doesn't bother the user on default settings.

[Durad]

Running perfect here.

[Ohmy]

How is the detection?
And which engine does it use?
Thanks.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "How is the detection?
And which engine does it use?
Thanks." }-
I'm not sure about detection. We'll have to wait for reviews.

VIPRE uses Sunbelt's own in-house engine that was developed from the ground up. It was very light when I tried it, so the "latest technologies" they've incorporated seems to be working. ;)

[Ohmy]

-{ Quote: "I'm not sure about detection. We'll have to wait for reviews.

VIPRE uses Sunbelt's own in-house engine that was developed from the ground up. It was very light when I tried it, so the latest technologies they've incorporated seems to be working. ;)" }-

Alright, thanks!
Does it have any *unique* feature of its own?

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Alright, thanks!
Does it have any *unique* feature of its own?" }-
Unique feature... if you consider the history cleaner and secure file eraser, then yes. Otherwise, it's the same as other AVs.

[Malcontent]

I contacted Sunbelt support and asked about the cost to renew a 1 year, single user license. They responded that it would cost $29.95 to renew for another year for a single user license. No discount. :(

I hope this will change.

[danny9]

-{ Quote: "I contacted Sunbelt support and asked about the cost to renew a 1 year, single user license. They responded that it would cost $29.95 to renew for another year for a single user license. No discount. :(

I hope this will change." }-

I hear that.

Discounts should be given for the 2nd and later yrs.
A few other av's should read this also, including the one I presently using. ;D

[DarkButterfly]

I've been testing VIPRE since Beta 3 and I can say it is light on resources. But, thats about the only thing in favor.

When accessing Explorer and any folder that may contain alot of files, and special large ones, it will take too much time for the system to turn stable again.

The updates are too large. They (Sunbelt) say the updates are "Small, regular definition updates greatly reduce update downloading time", but they aren't. They're lying about it.

Before you can use it, you need to update after installing, otherwise Active Protection won't activate.

In their forum we can see this (VIPRE section Downloads): "Following installation VIPRE 3 will prompt you to either enter a registration key or start a 30 day trial period for the software. Please use the following key to activate the product:"

It is a 15-day trial, not 30. Aren't they aware of what they give to people?

In my tests system I also got CMF (Comodo Memory Firewall) and somehow VIPRE, either messed with it or with command line. I just know that after testing VIPRE, I could no longer close the command line by writing exit. I only could close command line with the mouse by pressing the X.

To be able to close the command line by writing exit, I had to add cmd.exe to CMF exclusion list.

(In case someone asks if CMF wasnt the one doing this, I shall say that I had CMF installed since it exists and cmd line always worked fine.)

More issues with the PC Explorer feature and Secure File Eraser.

I also dont think that it has a single file scanning feature, yet.

Honestly, they bring nothing new (not even the fact that it is light, for other antivirus are as lighter or lighter - NOD32), except that its their own engine.

And there are better existing alternatives to VIPRE. I'm done testing VIPRE.

[maddawgz]

It's not even VB100 certified

[Someone]

-{ Quote: "It's not even VB100 certified" }-

That doesn't mean a lot.

[Saraceno]

There were a couple of minor bugs at the time of testing the beta program, and updates seemed larger than expected, but I wouldn't doubt its detection rates.

Friend's system was infected from a USB program which carried a high-level trojan. Scanned his system with a few leading AVs which alerted the file was there, but couldn't remove. VIPRE removed the file so I was impressed.

It's a new program, so give it a few more months and it should only improve and get better.

[alexeck]

@DarkButterfly

-{ Quote: "When accessing Explorer and any folder that may contain alot of files, and special large ones, it will take too much time for the system to turn stable again." }-

Well, that's not particularly good and certainly not the type of behavior I'd like to see. Are you still experiencing this with the release version? If so, contact me directly (alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com) and I'd like to get more info.

-{ Quote: "The updates are too large. They (Sunbelt) say the updates are "Small, regular definition updates greatly reduce update downloading time", but they aren't. They're lying about it. " }-

Ouch, that hurt a bit. Keep in mind, however, that you were beta testing before we implemented incremental updates. Those are going in very shortly.

-{ Quote: "Before you can use it, you need to update after installing, otherwise Active Protection won't activate." }-

Exactly and I would expect it to be that way. Without definitions, Active Protection simply can't figure out what to block or allow. The product ships without any definitions to insure people get the latest defs (and to reduce the initial download size). That's why you have to download the defs before first using the product.


-{ Quote: "In their forum we can see this (VIPRE section Downloads): "Following installation VIPRE 3 will prompt you to either enter a registration key or start a 30 day trial period for the software. Please use the following key to activate the product:"

It is a 15-day trial, not 30. Aren't they aware of what they give to people?" }-

That's in the beta forum, but on the product pages itself, we are certainly quite clear that this is a 15-day trial. I assume this is a minor oversight by Eric, who runs the beta forum.

-{ Quote: "In my tests system I also got CMF (Comodo Memory Firewall) and somehow VIPRE, either messed with it or with command line. I just know that after testing VIPRE, I could no longer close the command line by writing exit. I only could close command line with the mouse by pressing the X. " }-

We'll take one more look at Comodo to make sure we're not causing any issues with it -- thanks for that info.

-{ Quote: "I also dont think that it has a single file scanning feature, yet. " }-

Yes, it does. Right click on a file.

Alex Eckelberry
CEO, Sunbelt Software
Alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "It's not even VB100 certified" }-

It just shipped, and we're getting it over to Virus Bulletin as soon as their next test comes out.

However, the product is certified for 100% detection of all malware in the wildlist by WestCoast Labs. This is the same basis for VB100 detection.

Incidentally, VirusBulletin did write a pre-review on the product:

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/documents/vipre-virus-bulletin-review-july-2008.pdf

Also, you can ALWAYS email me directly and I get right back to you. We're very open, and we want to hear your impressions, both good and bad. So keep it coming.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software
Alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com

[EraserHW]

-{ Quote: "It's not even VB100 certified" }-

Would you give them time to be certified? ::) They released the product this week

Edit:

Sorry Alex, just saw your post ;)

[zfactor]

how about a version to include sunbelt firewall ??

[C.S.J]

Mike seems to think the detection is pretty good already, so, take is word for it.

even though i dont like the tests these days, id like to see Vipre enter just one once just to see how it manages.

~Off topic comment removed. - Ron~

[ren]

Good evening,
-{ Quote: "how about a version to include sunbelt firewall ??" }-
There is a word about it in the pre-review of virusbulletin (look at the link given by alex).

ren-

[larryb52]

-{ Quote: "how about a version to include sunbelt firewall ??" }-

I used it with sunbelt firewall is pretty soft & on my machine didn't have any FP, unlike some other bigger named ones do. I have one game that AV's love to say a couple of it's files plus all of the patches are trojans, Vipre said they were fine, I was pleased. The only thing was holding up my wireless connection for a minute on boot. It seems to want to do a brief scan before it releases the av to the sys tray & than I connect. Other than that I like it...

[Fly]

-{ Quote: "I've been testing VIPRE since Beta 3 and I can say it is light on resources. But, thats about the only thing in favor.

When accessing Explorer and any folder that may contain alot of files, and special large ones, it will take too much time for the system to turn stable again.

The updates are too large. They (Sunbelt) say the updates are "Small, regular definition updates greatly reduce update downloading time", but they aren't. They're lying about it.

Before you can use it, you need to update after installing, otherwise Active Protection won't activate.

In their forum we can see this (VIPRE section Downloads): "Following installation VIPRE 3 will prompt you to either enter a registration key or start a 30 day trial period for the software. Please use the following key to activate the product:"

It is a 15-day trial, not 30. Aren't they aware of what they give to people?

In my tests system I also got CMF (Comodo Memory Firewall) and somehow VIPRE, either messed with it or with command line. I just know that after testing VIPRE, I could no longer close the command line by writing exit. I only could close command line with the mouse by pressing the X.

To be able to close the command line by writing exit, I had to add cmd.exe to CMF exclusion list.

(In case someone asks if CMF wasnt the one doing this, I shall say that I had CMF installed since it exists and cmd line always worked fine.)

More issues with the PC Explorer feature and Secure File Eraser.

I also dont think that it has a single file scanning feature, yet.

Honestly, they bring nothing new (not even the fact that it is light, for other antivirus are as lighter or lighter - NOD32), except that its their own engine.

And there are better existing alternatives to VIPRE. I'm done testing VIPRE." }-

No file scanning ? Isn't that the hallmark of an antivirus ?
Even the Spy Sweeper (I use the 5.5.7 without antivirus version) has a file system shield, which scans files.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "No file scanning ? Isn't that the hallmark of an antivirus ?
Even the Spy Sweeper (I use the 5.5.7 without antivirus version) has a file system shield, which scans files." }-
According to Alex's post, VIPRE has a file-scanning feature.

[Miyagi]

First of all, I would like to thank Alexeck for chiming in here and giving us the in depth information. Not a whole lot of CEOs do this personally. Secondly, this is a new anti-malware which was just released from beta. It's not going to be perfect this quick. Inspector Closeau mentioned long time ago that AV is like the car when it comes to development, inspection, and certification. As long as you keep this in mind, there should be no surprises here and there.

Sunbelt spent so much money, time, and manpower to develop Vipre and they are still working on it. Give them a time break. :)

My impression with this new release is better than expected. It runs very light and the detection I don't worry too much as there are couple of experts behind the product and they sure know what's going in the malware industry.

And finally the pricing, this is probably the first AV product with 1,2,3,4 or more computers in a fair and decent pricing:

http://shop.sunbelt-software.com/licensing.cfm?product=VIPRE

Edit: spelling

[dan_maran]

Also, I have been in contact as of late with the support department in regards to the upgrade from CS to Vipre and at this time(should be soon though) the 9.95 price is not available online but you will be refunded ($)20 when you contact them.

BTW, Support is very good (Special kudos to Laura in Online Sales for all her work with me ;) )
**Since Alex is posting thought I may put in a good word.

[profhsg]

I have been trying out VIPRE and have so far found the following disappointments. First the following email problem which I posted on the VIPRE beta forum, but have gotten no response:

"I have Win XP home and use Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client. When I have Vipre's email protection enabled, my email will not download (in fact I'm not even sure that Thunderbird is connecting to the pop server). When I disable Vipre email protection, all is normal. I have a suspicion as to what the problem is and was wondering if anyone has any experience in t he area.

My ISP, ATT, uses SSL connections for its email servers. It requires all users to use these connections. Therefore, as instructed, I set my POP port to be 995 and my SMTP port to be 465 in Thunderbird. I made the same changes in the email settings in Vipre. I am aware that the virtually all AV programs cannot scan emails coming via an SSL connection (I believe Kaspersky Antivirus may be the sole exception to this rule). I wonder if this has something to do with my problem."

Second, there seems to be no way to integrate VIPRE with a download manager, such as Free Download Manager or Internet Download Manager. VIPRE's Active Protection does not seem to issue an alert when I am downloading some of the Eicar test files, so it doesn't seem to be a suitable substitute for an ability to integrate with a download manager. In fact, Active Protection didn't alert me when I attempted to open Eicar.zip with my compression program (Powerarchiver)

Third, the slowness of updates, which Alex has said is being addressed.

In spite of the above complaints, I still hold out great hopes for VIPRE.

[doktornotor]

-{ Quote: "
My ISP, ATT, uses SSL connections for its email servers. It requires all users to use these connections. Therefore, as instructed, I set my POP port to be 995 and my SMTP port to be 465 in Thunderbird. I made the same changes in the email settings in Vipre ... I wonder if this has something to do with my problem."
" }-

Never do this, will breaks email with virtually all AV solutions out there. They are not able to scan SSL/TLS traffic, do not set them to check traffic on these encrypted ports. :o

[DarkButterfly]

@alexeck

-{ Quote: "
Well, that's not particularly good and certainly not the type of behavior I'd like to see. Are you still experiencing this with the release version? If so, contact me directly (alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com) and I'd like to get more info.
" }-

I still haven't tried the final release. I was going to, but at the moment I still haven't gotten much time and the updates still take too long. I will test it, maybe Sunday, for I have time.

-{ Quote: "
Ouch, that hurt a bit. Keep in mind, however, that you were beta testing before we implemented incremental updates. Those are going in very shortly.
" }-

Only future will tell that.

-{ Quote: "
Exactly and I would expect it to be that way. Without definitions, Active Protection simply can't figure out what to block or allow. The product ships without any definitions to insure people get the latest defs (and to reduce the initial download size). That's why you have to download the defs before first using the product.
" }-

Its common to sense to update any security tool (the ones that need updates) as soon as it gets first installed. If people don't do that, they hardly will everytime is needed. Personally, I have my apps to update when I want, not when the app wants. It is a matter of good practice. If people don't have it, they deserve what comes next.

-{ Quote: "
That's in the beta forum, but on the product pages itself, we are certainly quite clear that this is a 15-day trial. I assume this is a minor oversight by Eric, who runs the beta forum.
" }-

I don't see any reference either for 15 or 30 day trial on product page.

-{ Quote: "
We'll take one more look at Comodo to make sure we're not causing any issues with it -- thanks for that info.
" }-

I adressed this issue on the forum and the answer I got was and I quote:

"No one has been able to repro this issue on any system."

-{ Quote: "
Yes, it does. Right click on a file.
" }-

As I mentioned before I still havent tried the release candidate version, but I will next Sunday. I do remember that to scan a single or a few files, I had to place them on a folder.

Best regards

[Malcontent]

-{ Quote: "
And finally the pricing, this is probably the first AV product with 1,2,3,4 or more computers in a fair and decent pricing:

http://shop.sunbelt-software.com/licensing.cfm?product=VIPRE

Edit: spelling" }-

Yeah, but how much to renew your subscription? Full price. No discounts.

[alexeck]

First off, we just got our first review of the release, in PC Mag:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326526,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530

The product did well. However, there were some things it missed and we are working on them. It is my every intention to get Editor's Choice the next time... ;-)

Some responses:

@Fly:

-{ Quote: "No file scanning ? Isn't that the hallmark of an antivirus ?
Even the Spy Sweeper (I use the 5.5.7 without antivirus version) has a file system shield, which scans files." }-

Yes, our real-time protection (which we call Active Protection) is a full on-access scanner. There's a video on VIPRE which includes details as to how the real-time protection works here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjdGRp60bY


@likuidkewl -- Thanks for your patience, we will have the $9.95 program on the web soon!

@profhsg ---

-{ Quote: "First the following email problem which I posted on the VIPRE beta forum, but have gotten no response:" }-

I'm sorry you didn't get a response -- was this recent? The beta forum is basically only lightly monitored as we've now moved to release. However, you can always go to this forum:

http://getsatisfaction.com/sunbeltsoftware

Or email support(at)sunbeltsoftware.com for help (or call us toll-free at 877-673-1153).

-{ Quote: "My ISP, ATT, uses SSL connections for its email servers. It requires all users to use these connections. " }-

Almost certainly a problem with SSL, which VIPRE does not support. However, the on-access protection (Active Protection) does stop a virus from hitting the disk.

That being said, we haven't given up on SSL support in VIPRE as an ongoing research item.


-{ Quote: "Second, there seems to be no way to integrate VIPRE with a download manager, such as Free Download Manager or Internet Download Manager. " }-

Good suggestion, we'll look into that.

-{ Quote: "VIPRE's Active Protection does not seem to issue an alert when I am downloading some of the Eicar test files, so it doesn't seem to be a suitable substitute for an ability to integrate with a download manager. In fact, Active Protection didn't alert me when I attempted to open Eicar.zip with my compression program (Powerarchiver) " }-

First, Active Protection should block the file when it actually hits the disk -- if the zip file is just being opened, it won't have anything to actually see. However, we will look into this just to make sure. Obviously, we should immediately detect EICAR.

@Malcontent

-{ Quote: "Yeah, but how much to renew your subscription? Full price. No discounts." }-

I'm open to ideas. We are being pretty aggressive price-wise with the Home Site License but I'm always listening.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software
Alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com

[Malcontent]

-{ Quote: "

@Malcontent

Quote:
Yeah, but how much to renew your subscription? Full price. No discounts.
---


I'm open to ideas. We are being pretty aggressive price-wise with the Home Site License but I'm always listening.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software
Alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com" }-

The initial cost of a single user license for Vipre is competitive at $29.95. A few of your competitors offer renewal discounts anywhere from 20%-30%
off the original license fee. If a customer is loyal enough to want to renew their license for another year or more, their loyalty should be rewarded. A discount would be an incentive to REMAIN a paying customer.
Just my opinion. I make a point of not buy software that doesn't have a renewal discount. Not when there is competing software that does.

[Saraceno]

The product is very competitive.

You could offer a 20-30 per cent dicount as mentioned, such as $21.95 for renewal (for one licence).

Or you also offer a full price upgrade but with an extra user license which allows more people to use your product.

For example:
29.95 (buy) 1 x license -- renewal (full price) upgrades to 2 x license
34.96 (buy) 2 x license -- renewal (full price) upgrades to 3 x license
and so on...

If someone continues for the third year, the offer would not increase to an additional license, but would continue to provide the (one) extra license for the full price.

This would reward loyal customers who are already impressed with your product and allow them to install VIPRE on say a friend/parent's computer.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "First off, we just got our first review of the release, in PC Mag:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326526,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530

..........

I'm open to ideas. We are being pretty aggressive price-wise with the Home Site License but I'm always listening.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software
Alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com" }-

Hi, it looks so far from what little info I have seen thus far, that you have a very interesting product there. I was tempted fro what I have read so far to possibly give Vipre a try. However while your $29.99 price may be competitive, you may want to consider there are potential customers out there that may really want to give your product a try but have an existing investment in an already established product like Norton, Mcafee, etc.. that may have a considerable license expiration left. Such as in my case I have approx 23 months left on Mcafee suite. So while your price is decent for someone needing to purchase an AV, for others it is hard to make an economic case to replace thier exisiting product with a long expiration date especially in tough times like we are in now.

Anyway you say your open to ideas so I would suggest for the potential customers as I explained, you might want to offer some type of competitive switchover pricing. Offering a substantially reduced or discounted price for anyone wanting to trade up thier long term competitive license for the Vipre product. Something like maybe $14.95 instead of $29.95 for one year or possibly $29.95 for a two year license instead of one year. Anyway something to consider that might just yield you potential customers from a group whom would probably not switch now at the current pricing. Best of luck with Vipre it looks like it is going to be a winner to me.

Atomic_Ed

[Kielty]

There seems to be an issue with VIPRE and Sunbelt PF on Vista 32. Keep getting HIPS in the firewall blocking code injection from VIPRE. I would have thought that 2 products from the same company would coexist a bit better!!

Technical details about the intrusion attempt:

Injector application: C:\Program Files\Sunbelt Software\VIPRE\SBAMTray.exe
Description: SBAMTray Application
File version: 3.1.2243
Product name: VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
Product version: 3.1.2243
Created: 2008/7/21, 21:02:46
Modified: 2008/7/21, 21:02:46
Accessed: 2008/7/23, 22:26:39

Target application: C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe
Description: iTunes
File version: 7.7.0.43
Product name: iTunes
Product version: 7.7.0.43
Created: 2008/7/10, 09:51:26
Modified: 2008/7/10, 09:51:26
Accessed: 2008/7/17, 18:54:59

Address of injection: 0x10018061


Do i have to make any changes to SPF?

[Fly]

-{ Quote: "According to Alex's post, VIPRE has a file-scanning feature." }-

I tried to locate that, but I couldn't.

Can you point to where file-scanning is mentioned ? As in the way a regular antivirus scans files real-time ?

'Viruses' are often packed, in a ZIP or other compression format. Avira is supposed to be very good at dealing with that.

How does VIPRE deal with that ? Real-time and on-demand.

And it seems that one specific thing is still missing, something that indicates whether it's safe to visit a website. Like McAfee's SiteAdvisor, Zonealarm's version of that, the Spy Sweeper's internet communication shield, http scanning. And DNS poisoning protection/prevention.

[Saraceno]

Regarding siteadvisors, isn't google, and say several other companies providing browser type plug-ins that scan sites?

For example:
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Lists_of_freeware_URL_scanners

In my opinion, I think VIPRE should specialise in what they're already developing.

[DarkButterfly]

I wouldn't be the one taking any PCMag's reviews too seriously.

Please, do not take me wrong. VIPRE has all to become a great antivirus, but still has a long way ahead to reach that stage.

This is what I found great in VIPRE:

- low on resources
- practical UI
- hability to remove threats while system boots

This is what I did not find so great in VIPRE:

- update take too long (I'll see how it behaves in the near future)

- conflicts with Comodo Memory Firewall (somehow)

- when accessing Explorer and opening folders with large files on them, it takes too long to flow again. I will see how the release candidate behaves.

- I did not see no single-file scan option (to scan a specific file I had to create a folder and scan that folder in VIPRE's scanning options)

If this is fixed, then it gets one step closer to become, indeed, a great antivirus+antispyware.

Best regards

[trjam]

-{ Quote: "Mike seems to think the detection is pretty good already, so, take is word for it.

even though i dont like the tests these days, id like to see Vipre enter just one once just to see how it manages.

~Off topic comment removed. - Ron~" }-
Well, no offense but I really dont think he is going to say it has "Bad" detection if he wants a paycheck.

[alexeck]

@ Malcontent, Saraceno and Atomic_Ed -- all your ideas are all very good and I'll take this up with our marketing folks on Monday.

-{ Quote: "There seems to be an issue with VIPRE and Sunbelt PF on Vista 32. Keep getting HIPS in the firewall blocking code injection from VIPRE. I would have thought that 2 products from the same company would coexist a bit better!!" }-

Well, that's not good. Rest assured that we extensively test both products together, so a HIPS alert like this shouldn't be happening. Check to make sure you're running the latest version:

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/

and if so, please email me offlist at alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com and we'll get you some help.

We will be integrating SPF into VIPRE later this year as you probably know.

Re file scanning:

-{ Quote: "Can you point to where file-scanning is mentioned ? As in the way a regular antivirus scans files real-time ?

'Viruses' are often packed, in a ZIP or other compression format. Avira is supposed to be very good at dealing with that.

How does VIPRE deal with that ? Real-time and on-demand." }-

We have real-time scanning of files on-access. The confusion comes from the earlier beta, where we didn't have an on-demand single-file scanner. You could only scan one file by scanning the drive. That was put in a later beta. It's right there in the Explorer context menu -- right click on a file to scan.

[And yes, I do know it's a confusing point ;-)]

-{ Quote: "(And it seems that one specific thing is still missing, something that indicates whether it's safe to visit a website. Like McAfee's SiteAdvisor, Zonealarm's version of that, the Spy Sweeper's internet communication shield, http scanning. And DNS poisoning protection/prevention.)" }-

These are good points. With some of these, I hope to never see them in VIPRE. I think that's the problem with the existing AV products -- too many features piled on to each other, all of them creating potentials for conflicts and slow-downs. It's a race to add features that they license or get through acquisitions, in order to justify ever-increasing subscription revenue, or to win reviews.

VIPRE is a pure-play antivirus product. It has one job, protecting the user against viruses, trojans and other malware from entering the system. We wrote it from scratch to make sure it was highly efficient.

Adding additional features out of the scope will only create more and more problems, from system instability, to accidental "DDoS-like attacks" on innocent websites, to more components to debug and manage.

Now, that being said, I think we can continue to add more functionality to our real-time scans, such as in the area of web filtering. SPF has a web-filtering component which will get integrated into VIPRE. So your point about http scanning I agree with.

My philosophy is "everything that you need, and nothing you don't". I'm a big fan of clean, powerful, simple tools that do what you need, without a bunch of extra stuff attached to it.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong in this viewpoint, but right now, it was enough work just to create an AV product from scratch ;-)

@Darkbutterfly, First, I appreciate all the work you did in testing. We did check the Comodo issue and weren't able to find anything, but this is a very popular firewall so if you find the same issues in the release version, let me know. The updates are, right now, large, because we're being careful deploying the incremental updates to insure that they work right. We are working on having those in place by early next week, so download times for the definitions will only be high on the first download, not subsequent ones.

@Baz -- the suggestions you sent over were really good. I sent them to the dev team and they are getting on your suggestions.

-{ Quote: "Well, no offense but I really dont think he is going to say it has "Bad" detection if he wants a paycheck." }-

I don't get that, sorry if I'm dense. We don't pay anyone for reviews. ??

But to all of you, a large part of Sunbelt staff is reading these forums. Keep the suggestions, criticism and anything else coming. If we miss something, we'll get on it asap.

[eburger68]

Fly:

You asked:

-{ Quote: "I tried to locate that, but I couldn't.

Can you point to where file-scanning is mentioned ? As in the way a regular antivirus scans files real-time ?" }-

That would be Active Protection, which scans files both "on execute" (i.e., when they're run) and "on access" (i.e., when they're opened or copied). VIPRE's Active Protection scans files in both types of situations "real time." And VIPRE's Active Protection is completely configurable -- just open the AP settings from the main VIPRE status window.

DarkButterfly was referring to the ability to right-click on an individual file and scan it. VIPRE most certainly does have the ability to scan individual files in that way. Take any file, right click on it, and you will see the context menu option "Scan with VIPRE."

-{ Quote: "Viruses' are often packed, in a ZIP or other compression format. Avira is supposed to be very good at dealing with that.

How does VIPRE deal with that ? Real-time and on-demand." }-

Actually, malware these days is often packed with executable packers like UPX, and VIPRE does have the ability to handle a wide variety of executable packers, which are typically used by malware authors to obfuscate files. And VIPRE can unpack packed executable files during "on access," "on execution," and "on demand" scans of files.

VIPRE can also handle the most common archive compression formats like ZIP and RAR. We will shortly be expanding the list of archive compression formats that VIPRE recognizes (our developers' focus has been mainly on executable packers because of the threat involved).

-{ Quote: "And it seems that one specific thing is still missing, something that indicates whether it's safe to visit a website. Like McAfee's SiteAdvisor, Zonealarm's version of that, the Spy Sweeper's internet communication shield, http scanning. And DNS poisoning protection/prevention." }-

Sunbelt is planning an integrated "suite" product (anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, anti-spam), and I'm sure such a feature will be discussed. It has already been proposed in our beta forums by other users.

Best,

Eric L. Howes
Sunbelt Software

[Fly]

Thank you for answering some questions.

However, I have one important question left.

Undoubtedly VIPRE has a way to deal with (the consequences of) malicious scripts, since that's a big part of the malware scene.

McAfee has a feature that specifically scans for malicious scripts. Does VIPRE have something similar ?

[eburger68]

Fly:

VIPRE does indeed handle malicious scripts. In fact, we have a few researchers who specialize in writing detections for malicious scripts.

Best,

Eric L. Howes
Sunbelt Software

[C.S.J]

its cool that alot of sunbelt staff are now on here, obviously Mike has brought them.

to be honest, its a quick, easy and free way to get some feedback, suggestions and bug fixes for the customers, or just plain testers of the software.

[hex_614]

the next schedule for VB100 is on August. lets see if viper will be included

[doktornotor]

-{ Quote: "too many features piled on to each other, all of them creating potentials for conflicts and slow-downs. It's a race to add features that they license or get through acquisitions, in order to justify ever-increasing subscription revenue, or to win reviews.

VIPRE is a pure-play antivirus product. It has one job, protecting the user against viruses, trojans and other malware from entering the system. We wrote it from scratch to make sure it was highly efficient.

Adding additional features out of the scope will only create more and more problems, from system instability, to accidental "DDoS-like attacks" on innocent websites, to more components to debug and manage.
" }-

Finally a voice of reason from an AV vendor, wow! :thumb: 8) I really am tired of these suites' bloatware that pretends to do all-in-one yet do most of the "extras" job poorly and way below the protection level of specialized products that it forces to be removed.

Once again, really appreciated point of view!

[Kielty]

-{ Quote: "

Well, that's not good. Rest assured that we extensively test both products together, so a HIPS alert like this shouldn't be happening. Check to make sure you're running the latest version:

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/

and if so, please email me offlist at alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com and we'll get you some help.

We will be integrating SPF into VIPRE later this year as you probably know.
" }-

Thanks Alex, i have raised a support ticket through your website. It seems to be very easily replicated by launching the latest version of iTunes. HIPS seems to flag the SBAMTray Application as the culprit. c:\program files\sunbelt software\VIPRE\sbamtray.exe

At the moment i have it listed in 'exceptions' so it does not occur.


By the way, i have bought a full licence for VIPRE. I take it there is then no point in buying SPF as it is going to get integrated into VIPRE in the future? What if i want to use SPF now is there a deal on the go as there is currently only 30 days trial???


Regards

[Bubba]

-{ Quote: "its cool that alot of sunbelt staff are now on here, obviously Mike has brought them" }-:isay: Chris,

Having known of Eric for a number of years back to the inception of IEspyad and having known of Alex only since his involvement with Sunbelt, I can say for a fact you "obviously" have no clue of how wrong you are with that thought\statement. Eric and Alex have provided endless support in many of the nets Security Forums over the years concerning their software, long before "Mike" became an employee with Sunbelt.

[hex_614]

looks very interesting

[DarkButterfly]

-{ Quote: "

@Darkbutterfly, First, I appreciate all the work you did in testing. We did check the Comodo issue and weren't able to find anything, but this is a very popular firewall so if you find the same issues in the release version, let me know. The updates are, right now, large, because we're being careful deploying the incremental updates to insure that they work right. We are working on having those in place by early next week, so download times for the definitions will only be high on the first download, not subsequent ones.

" }-

You can count on that! I sure will give my feedback if the release candidate still conflicts with Comodo Memory Firewall.

And do you NEVER DARE to pay for reviews! :) Rather waste your money on enhancing your security tools! ;)

@eburger

I'm guessing the single-file scanning is part of the latest release candidate? Anyway, if now has single-file scanning, then it is a good improvement in VIPRE. ;)

Best regards

[emperordarius]

Unfortunately I can't test this right now. However, Counterspy is pretty good and this looks promising. The resource usage from the graphs also looks very good.

[zfactor]

i kinda like it myself so far not at all bad. i personally would however like better includision of the firewall in the one app. that would be great imo

[Datagg]

Kis fan here, YET Ive been using Vipre for a few days now and i like it.... Cant say much on resources though as i own a quad at 3.4 and nothing slows it down. But i love the interface, its easy and clean.

I do however wish it included a firewall in it..... or at least for now to be able to run there firewall , yet there is no 64 bit version which amazes me to no end.
So im using outpost right now, which i had to dissect some to play nice with vipre.

i am a counterspy owner also, so the 9.99 deal is a great one. Whether i purchase or not is up in the air..I really don't like running outpost and much rather prefer to use the all in one suite of KIS I have..... unless of course sunbelt decides to step up to 64 bit with there firewall..... Come on guys, 64 bit been out for a long time now..step it up.....

Zfactor has it spot on..... Get that 64 bit firewall in Vipre and then you gonna have a winner...

[Albinoni]

Interesting, does anyone know which country this AV is from, looks like another new kid on the block.

[JasSolo]

-{ Quote: "Interesting, does anyone know which country this AV is from, looks like another new kid on the block." }-

It's a US AV.

[larryb52]

my biggest concern is on boot it stops everything from running for about 2 minutes as it loads & just froze up my mailbox on a small ad from Landsend, It's ligh but it should take that long to load & shouldn't shut my mailbox down on a small vender ad...

[Cytoned]

Working very nicely here on a fresh Vista SP1 machine.
Few questions though..

Firstly, how often does the database update? It's 2 days old currently.
Does the auto-update work if no one is logged onto the system?

Also, what about self-protection of the software. I attempted to terminate the main service, and whilst the process didn't disappear out of the task manager, it seemed to completely kill my system -- hard resetting was needed to bring it back to life.

Also, it doesn't seem to detect any of the files in the well known "455VIREN.ZIP" file.. though these are probably too old to do any damage now.

And lastly.. does it have some sort of web/HTTP based scanning to complement the on-access protection.

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "my biggest concern is on boot it stops everything from running for about 2 minutes as it loads & just froze up my mailbox on a small ad from Landsend, It's ligh but it should take that long to load & shouldn't shut my mailbox down on a small vender ad..." }-

Can you get me more detail on that -- what email client, and what platform? We'll take a look into it.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "Firstly, how often does the database update? It's 2 days old currently. Does the auto-update work if no one is logged onto the system?" }-

You have to be logged in for the auto-update to work. These days running about one def update a day, but that will increase. There should be an update later today.

-{ Quote: "Also, what about self-protection of the software. I attempted to terminate the main service, and whilst the process didn't disappear out of the task manager, it seemed to completely kill my system -- hard resetting was needed to bring it back to life." }-

We do have self-protection, perhaps that's why the system required a hard reset. There are many Sunbelt developers tracking this forum so we'll be taking a look.

-{ Quote: "Also, it doesn't seem to detect any of the files in the well known "455VIREN.ZIP" file.. though these are probably too old to do any damage now." }-

We should. I've got a note in to the developers to check it.

-{ Quote: "And lastly.. does it have some sort of web/HTTP based scanning to complement the on-access protection." }-

See my discussion here:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1287680&postcount=52

The Sunbelt Personal Firewall does offer web filtering, and that will be integrated in the next major release.


Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software
alexe(at)sunbeltsoftware.com

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "It's a US AV." }-

Correct, we wrote it completely from scratch. Virus Bulletin did a pre-review here which gives more detail on the history, etc.

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/documents/vipre-virus-bulletin-review-july-2008.pdf

Also my various blog posts explain a lot about what we're doing:

Original philosophy behind VIPRE:

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/evolving-antimalware-technology-model.html

Beta announcement one year later:

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/later-this-week-vipre-goes-to-beta_02.html

Release announcement last week:

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/vipre-antivirus-antispyware-is-now.html

These will explain a lot of the thinking and the philosophy behind the product.

To all, please keep the suggestions/critiques/ideas coming, It's a first release and we have a lot of things we want to continue to do to it, and don't hold back in any things you might want to see in there -- or problems you may be having.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software

[DarkButterfly]

@alexeck

I made a clean install of Windows Vista SP1 and I first installed CMF (Comodo Memory Firewall) and I was able to close the command line by typing exit. I then installed VIPRE and I no longer was able to close the command line by typing exit.

Please take in consideration that I made this test with the latest beta release. I will test the Gold version, later on, and will tell you if the same issue happens.

Best regards.

[djohn]

-{ Quote: "The initial cost of a single user license for Vipre is competitive at $29.95. A few of your competitors offer renewal discounts anywhere from 20%-30%
off the original license fee. If a customer is loyal enough to want to renew their license for another year or more, their loyalty should be rewarded. A discount would be an incentive to REMAIN a paying customer.
Just my opinion. I make a point of not buy software that doesn't have a renewal discount. Not when there is competing software that does." }-
I agree with some sort of discount.Here is something I like to see for new cutomers, like a 29.95 for a single license for one yr or a discounted price for two yrs for lets say 42.95 and each addition yr there after of 19.95 renewal for existing customers.For mutilple licenses maybe 39.95 for one yr or 52.95 for two yrs and 29.95 for each addition yr there after. better yet a lifetime license.;D

[Kielty]

VIPRE does not seem to scan *.zip files

After downloading the eicar test file in a zip format and then doing a manual file scan - nothing. Only when you extract the zip file does the malware get detected and blocked.

Is this by design?

[larryb52]

-{ Quote: "Can you get me more detail on that -- what email client, and what platform? We'll take a look into it.

Alex Eckelberry, CEO
Sunbelt Software" }-


vista 32 bit with sunblet firewall which runs fine, it seems slow to scan start up files & won't load immediately or allow my wireless to load, take a couple minutes.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "better yet a lifetime license.;D" }-
A company as big as Sunbelt won't be able to afford selling a lifetime license.

[dan_maran]

Just for the sake of trying the release I installed it on my Thinkpad.

Couple of annoyances for me at least.

I personally enjoy "Full Control" over an application, from install to unintall and everything in between. that said,

1. I don't like the idea of not having a custom install option. <reasons will become evident later>

2. I don't run scheduled scans, I do them manually when I see what time is the best for Me<which is not often at all>. As such, Vipre uses the Red "X" to let me know I am not on the right track according to the built in rules.
A minor annoyance, but there should be a option to ignore this setting manually somewhere.

3. I also don't use client-side email programs. I never really have, it has always been web/server based.
Another Red "X".......

4. A "right click" scan launches inside the main program window? Not what I was expecting, a simple small result window more than suffices.

5. User interaction in cases of Malware, I couldn't find the setting "to prompt for action" so it auto blocks/quarantines every file it deems bad. I found the option for Suspects but not for "detections". What happens here in a case of a F/P? I understand the concept aiming at home users etc. but still a little popup from the taskbar is not enough in these cases. I understand that your company takes many steps to mitigate these happenings, but as we have seen this can happen to any vendor.

6. Back to the no custom install option, I really despise icons on my desktop.....

Other than that Good job!

It may not be my "cup of tea" but it very well could be for someone else.

[kjempen]

To the Sunbelt staff:
Are you aware of this testing site: http://www.pcsl.info/ ? They also have some samples and provide a "heads-up" on sites that are infected/using exploits, maybe something to keep an eye on?

[DarkButterfly]

-{ Quote: "Just for the sake of trying the release I installed it on my Thinkpad.

Couple of annoyances for me at least.

I personally enjoy "Full Control" over an application, from install to unintall and everything in between. that said,

1. I don't like the idea of not having a custom install option. <reasons will become evident later>

2. I don't run scheduled scans, I do them manually when I see what time is the best for Me<which is not often at all>. As such, Vipre uses the Red "X" to let me know I am not on the right track according to the built in rules.
A minor annoyance, but there should be a option to ignore this setting manually somewhere.

3. I also don't use client-side email programs. I never really have, it has always been web/server based.
Another Red "X".......

4. A "right click" scan launches inside the main program window? Not what I was expecting, a simple small result window more than suffices.

5. User interaction in cases of Malware, I couldn't find the setting "to prompt for action" so it auto blocks/quarantines every file it deems bad. I found the option for Suspects but not for "detections". What happens here in a case of a F/P? I understand the concept aiming at home users etc. but still a little popup from the taskbar is not enough in these cases. I understand that your company takes many steps to mitigate these happenings, but as we have seen this can happen to any vendor.

6. Back to the no custom install option, I really despise icons on my desktop.....

Other than that Good job!

It may not be my "cup of tea" but it very well could be for someone else." }-

I believe that VIPRE installation is as customizable as any other antivirus installation. They pretty much all ask the same (some don't even ask at all):

- if we wish a scheduled scanning
- how much advanced should be active protection
- how and when to update
- later on people can set other options they wish

I found VIPRE to be quite simple on that. Not to much confusion with the settings, which turns out to be great for the home users, who just want something to protect with minimal impact.

I agree that the red Xs are quite annoying (a person who does not understand very much of how this sort of things work, would think their system were at danger).

I also agree that there should be an interaction with the user to ask what to do if a threat/suppose threat is found by the Active Protection.
Sometimes it asks, but only when the process is labeled "suspicious".

It should also ask when a known bad process is found (VIPRE Known). Why? It may just be a FP. And at this particular situation, the user should choose what to do. It has happened during my testing (Comodo BoClean). I had to add Comodo folder to the "Always Allowed" list.
It's fine, but, there should be an option to choose to just ignore it for the moment. We can be doing some work and not want to be bother to add things to allowed list in order not to be bothered again. Just a thought.

You can always delete any desktop icons later. Fine, there should be none installed, but it is a minor thing among all others, and it happens with pretty much all apps. I wouldn't be giving much importance to this.

Best regards

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "VIPRE does not seem to scan *.zip files

After downloading the eicar test file in a zip format and then doing a manual file scan - nothing. Only when you extract the zip file does the malware get detected and blocked.

Is this by design?" }-

Yes, we scan inside of zip file with Active Protection if the files are extracted from the zip. We also scan inside of zip files when doing a normal on-demand scan.

[gery]

is there a trial version and how long will it last?

[bigc73542]

The trial I looked at was a 15 day trial.

[DarkButterfly]

There's something I don't quite understand:

I have both RC and Gold versions and both are builds 2243. Is that right?

[Datagg]

For now Ive uninstalled it. But I did like it, and would revisit again in the future when they decide to add a firewall AND THUS supports 64 bit.

As of now, it leaves to many holes in what is supposed to be a full security solution as the advertising states"The End Of Antivirus As You Know It". Well in my book that covers a huge arena. So Its no wonder why its not advertised as a full suite, As sunbelt has to see that, thus in essence to stray away from calling it a "full security suite" in advertisment, cause its plainly not at this point in time.

Well back to my other suite that covers it all ..... Sorry sunbelt, great product but with too many holes as of now.

[zfactor]

no slow startup time for me. it runs great so far

[eburger68]

DarkButterfly:

You asked:

-{ Quote: "There's something I don't quite understand:

I have both RC and Gold versions and both are builds 2243. Is that right?" }-

Yes,the RC version became the release version. If you have build 2243, you have the latest.

Eric L. Howes

[DarkButterfly]

-{ Quote: "DarkButterfly:

You asked:



Yes,the RC version became the release version. If you have build 2243, you have the latest.

Eric L. Howes" }-

:thumb:

[Cytoned]

-{ Quote: "We should. I've got a note in to the developers to check it.
" }-

Been a few updates, still not detecting any of the files in 455VIREN.zip.

[ipje]

Today I installed vipre, removed old virus programm and Counterspy. Reboot my computer, removed leftovers, cleaned registry,
rebooted computer, installed vipre, rebooted computer, completed setup wizard. I can't update vipre, get a HTTP error 500. Registration was no
problem, but update failed. Not using any software firewall, no proxy, using windows XP with all the updates.

Sent a support form, waiting for a answer. ;)

[ipje]

Posted on another forum :
Thanks for letting us know. We have had a few other people reporting this error as well. Currently we are looking into it and it should be resolved shortly.

Regards,
Jason Layman
---
So I hope the problem is solved soon.

[ipje]

The problem is solved, something was wrong with the server I think. 8)

[sukarof]

I installed Vipre and threw a couple of viruses to it. I guess there is no way to submit malware that Vipre doesn't detect through a scan?

[Cytoned]

Hi sukarof,

Has far as I can tell, you would use the same form as you would for counterspy.

That is here: http://research.sunbelt-software.com/software_submission.aspx

[alexeck]

-{ Quote: "Been a few updates, still not detecting any of the files in 455VIREN.zip." }-

455viren.zip is a collection of fairly ancient DOS viruses, that aren't even on the Wildlist. We're looking at them though, but I have to be honest and say that we have some higher priorities right now than these.

If you want to test VIPRE's detection, you could (in a virtual machine) go to places like Google Groups, search for recent postings pushing free ringtones or something and find some fake codecs, etc. Then install some adware (Zango, etc.), pull out some trojans/worms out of quarantine in your email, look at some of the current spam pushing malware, etc. That's a more relevant test, IMHO.

[Fly]

Technically this might not be the correct place to post this, but since Sunbelt is monitoring this, and Counterspy has been described as a subset of VIPRE:

I've had a subscription to Counterspy for over a year now.

Version: 2.5.1043, latest definitions.

Merging the definition updates can be very slow.

6 or 12 months ago I also saw the 'wait a few minutes' message, but recently the merging of the updates has been taking much more time.

I'd say it's taking five times as much (or more) time than in the past. Sometimes it's so rediculously slow that I'm tempted to stop updating. (I'm using the same computer)

What has changed, the amount of malware, or does it have anything to do with the structure of the definitions file/updates ?

On another note: please give Counterspy version 3 a decent beta before making it an official release ! Even though Counterspy version three is supposed to be a subset of VIPRE.

[Cytoned]

It seems that VIPRE cannot scan for rootkits on a 64-bit platform currently. I'm running it on Vista x64 SP1 and the rootkit option is greyed out.

Does anyone know if the FirstScan technology works on x64?

[eburger68]

Fly:

You asked:

-{ Quote: "What has changed, the amount of malware, or does it have anything to do with the structure of the definitions file/updates ?" }-

Both -- the explosion of malware plus the structure/format of the defs. The CounterSpy 2.x defs are most certainly a problem at this point.

Both VIPRE and the upcoming CounterSpy 3.x use a completely new defs structure -- plus, both use new types of detections that simply don't require the amount of data that the CounterSpy 2.x detections demand. The result is definitions that are many times smaller -- even with a full update. Incremental updates -- which we did implement but temporarily suspended in order to correct a minor glitch -- will make the definition downloads for VIPRE and CSC 3.x very quick.

As for CounterSpy Consumer 3.x, the last plans I heard were to start a public beta in the next week or so. This beta won't last as long as the VIPRE Beta, because so much code is shared between them.

Eric L. Howes
Sunbelt Software

[Edwin024]

I have a scan running with VIPRE now... It's already running for 108 minutes and the end is not in sight. It is a deep scan, but I do that with others too and VIPRE is a real champ...it's the only one with such a time stamp on scanning :(

[Bubba]

Per request and for ease of discussion, numerous posts concerning Vipre\ransomware were moved to a thread of their own.

moved here---> Is VIPRE able to prevent ransomware (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=216562)

[Diazruanova]

No Eicar detection, NADA!

I was able to download the double Zip file, open it and then the next zip and nothing and then I managed to "run" the Eicar file without VIPRE saying nothing at all, so the question is am I protected?

Apparently VIPRE is running fine and it has the latest definitions update and of course, I have active protection enabled.

[larryb52]

mine stopped me, wonder what's up?

[Diazruanova]

Well, after scanning on demand the eicar file and checking the Risk Details, I found the following information:

Risk name: EICAR (v)
Source: Scanner
Risk level: Low
Risk category: Misc (General)

Description: An innocuous viral test file. It is safe because it is not a virus, and does not include any fragments of viral code. It is typically used for testing anti-virus products.

Advice: This is a low risk and may be kept or removed at your discretion. A low risk has only vague or minimal privacy and security effects. If this is a program that you knowingly and deliberately installed, you may consider keeping it. If it is a cookie, then you may consider removing it.

So, is this the reason why VIPRE does NOT react before Eicar´s presence?

[ipje]

Always the Eicar file, so now we get 5 pages of discussions about the detection of a testfile. :thumbd:

[Diazruanova]

-{ Quote: "Always the Eicar file, so now we get 5 pages of discussions about the detection of a testfile. :thumbd:" }-

Well dude, I think that some users who do not come to this forum to read your wise and enlightening posts, may think that their VIPRE AV is not working correctly and therefore is not detecting a real virus or a trojan, so try not be so arrogant :thumbd:

[Graystoke]

A question for Firefox users. After installing Vipre, did your bookmarks disappear? Mine did. Every last one of them. I had to do a system restore to get them back. What's up with that?

Firefox 3, XP Home/SP3.

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "A question for Firefox users. After installing Vipre, did your bookmarks disappear? Mine did. Every last one of them. I had to do a system restore to get them back. What's up with that?

Firefox 3, XP Home/SP3." }-
you used the cleaner in tools, and obviously did not look at what you had selected it to clean...

[Sportscubs1272]

So does a behavior blocker such as Threatfire interfere with VIPRE or works together?

[Graystoke]

-{ Quote: "you used the cleaner in tools, and obviously did not look at what you had selected it to clean..." }-



I sure as hell did. :-\ I didn't look close enough to see if Firefox bookmarks were listed. Very stupid mistake on my part. :(

Thanks C.S.J.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "I sure as hell did. :-\ I didn't look close enough to see if Firefox bookmarks were listed. Very stupid mistake on my part. :(

Thanks C.S.J." }-
then again i think sunbelt shpuld remove that option. otherwise lots of users are gonna complain there firefox bookmarks disapeared after using the cleaner. who would want to delete there bookmarks?

[Miyagi]

-{ Quote: "then again i think sunbelt shpuld remove that option. otherwise lots of users are gonna complain there firefox bookmarks disapeared after using the cleaner. who would want to delete there bookmarks?" }-

I highly agree. It happened to me too. Well, the list to delete was too long so I haven't checked it carefully but I think all the bookmarks should be "unchecked" by default.

[doktornotor]

-{ Quote: "I highly agree. It happened to me too. Well, the list to delete was too long so I haven't checked it carefully but I think all the bookmarks should be "unchecked" by default." }-

It shouldn't even exist. Why would anyone ever want to have his bookmarks wiped by some security tool?! ??? ::)

[eburger68]

Folks:

Regarding the bookmarks issue, this is a design error that should have been caught before release -- it wasn't. We added it to our "product backlog" list last week, which means that "feature" is scheduled to be removed in an upcoming build/version of VIPRE. Sorry, no projected date at the moment for when that new build or version will be released.

Eric L. Howes
Sunbelt Software

[Fly]

Just a question about Counterspy version 3 (consumer edition), which is supposedly a subset of VIPRE:

Compared to Counterspy 2.5.1043, will version 3 require more or less RAM and CPU usage ?

[larryb52]

-{ Quote: "Folks:

Regarding the bookmarks issue, this is a design error that should have been caught before release -- it wasn't. We added it to our "product backlog" list last week, which means that "feature" is scheduled to be removed in an upcoming build/version of VIPRE. Sorry, no projected date at the moment for when that new build or version will be released.

Eric L. Howes
Sunbelt Software" }-


you just lost a sale...nice to see honesty tho but a new build for that kind of 'goof' should be available a little faster thans Sorry we don't know...I don't know when I'll buy it either & FWIW you need to go with 30 days trial, 15 is far too few no matter how low the price is...

[Miyagi]

Review from Donna:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/reviews/4027.aspx

[Graystoke]

Not a glowing review, but not bad I guess.

[Graystoke]

I've been running Vipre for a while and it's a nice piece of software. The only thing is, there is no virus definition updates during the weekend. A week point in my opinion. Too bad because other wise I like Vipre.

[maymoons]

definition updates slower than other antivirus,antispware

[GES/POR]

Maybe 4 you, ive never seen any faster updates then vipre's.

[maymoons]

maybe,
i have seen
eset, dr.web
may be yoy have never tried them

[lodore]

i find updating slow as well.
im used to the speed of drweb and KL.
great product and does what it says on the tin.

[Graystoke]

I don't have a problem with the speed of the updates. I don't think they are all that slow. My concern is the lack of updating during the weekend. Looks like it's what Norton and McAfee use to be. If there is a necessity for an update on the weekend, it will happen, if not, wait until Monday. :-\

[GES/POR]

-{ Quote: "maybe,
i have seen
eset, dr.web
may be yoy have never tried them" }-

Actually i have n your right they are fastest probably cause they r the fastest on the market for a long time now. Not a fair comparison there mait. Do mind that Vipre is new and isnt slow at all with updating but then again a cheapskate should maybe get off dialup.

[Kayracc]

unless it's a major virus/spyware/whatever, please name me 1 antivirus that updates on the weekends? because usually the 30 or so ish files i send on the weekends, get a nice long 20+ emails on monday morning with the analysis of them all/saying it will be updated :P

-Brian

[Atomic_Ed]

I know your not supposed to post discount codes and such but not asking for a code specifically but did Sunbelt ever provide any discount for wilder's members or potential new vipre customes? I ask this because awhile back Alex asked for ideas and one I gave was offering a discount of sort to existing cmpetitive product license holders. His response was he would bring it up with thier marketing but I never heard anything again on it. I am seriously considering trying vipre but since I currently hold a 2 year remaining mcafee license, I am reluctant unless some sort of discount can be had. Anyway if there is any info on this please let us know as I am sure I am not the only one here interested in that.

As an example just this week at BestBuy they are offering Kaspersky 2009 AV for $19.99 instant rebate.

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "I know your not supposed to post discount codes and such but not asking for a code specifically but did Sunbelt ever provide any discount for wilder's members or potential new vipre customes? I ask this because awhile back Alex asked for ideas and one I gave was offering a discount of sort to existing cmpetitive product license holders. His response was he would bring it up with thier marketing but I never heard anything again on it. I am seriously considering trying vipre but since I currently hold a 2 year remaining mcafee license, I am reluctant unless some sort of discount can be had. Anyway if there is any info on this please let us know as I am sure I am not the only one here interested in that.

As an example just this week at BestBuy they are offering Kaspersky 2009 AV for $19.99 instant rebate." }-


Google is your friend. other then that check there main site for discounts. I have yet to see anyone post discounts here.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "Google is your friend. other then that check there main site for discounts. I have yet to see anyone post discounts here." }-
Thanks, I googled this like crazy but could find nothing, essentially I was not asking for discount codes but instead if a discount even existed. Kind of whether or not I should continue to even bother...

[Someone]

-{ Quote: "unless it's a major virus/spyware/whatever, please name me 1 antivirus that updates on the weekends? because usually the 30 or so ish files i send on the weekends, get a nice long 20+ emails on monday morning with the analysis of them all/saying it will be updated :P

-Brian" }-
I'm using AntiVir free and it updates on weekends.

[Graystoke]

-{ Quote: "unless it's a major virus/spyware/whatever, please name me 1 antivirus that updates on the weekends? because usually the 30 or so ish files i send on the weekends, get a nice long 20+ emails on monday morning with the analysis of them all/saying it will be updated :P

-Brian" }-


Avira, KAV, Bitdefender, Norton, to name a few.

I sent an e-mail to Sunbelt support asking about this. To my surprise I received a response in less than 24 hours. I wasn't expecting a response so quickly. I was very impressed. I was told there will be weekend updates in the near future.

[Sjoeii]

I believe there is going to be a productupdate in couple of months

[lodore]

hello,
has anyone tryed running it along side superantispyware with realtime protection enabled on both?
last time i tryed vipre in a virtual machine it worked fine.
but yesterday when i tryed it it kept crashing.
could be due to the fact i was using superantispyware 4.2 pro beta with realtime protection on.
can anyone confirm with sas pro released version with realtime protection on?

[Kayracc]

-{ Quote: "Avira, KAV, Bitdefender, Norton, to name a few.

I sent an e-mail to Sunbelt support asking about this. To my surprise I received a response in less than 24 hours. I wasn't expecting a response so quickly. I was very impressed. I was told there will be weekend updates in the near future." }-

You gotta realize what there updating is probably stuff they encounter, anything you send in, 99% of the time isn't including in those updates, user submissions get a much lower priority

-brian

just looking at a list of updates for today, only 1 vendor so far that shows what it updates

http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?act=calendar&cal_id=1&code=showevent&event_id=46132

theres like 7 things there :P, just cause they update on the weekends, it's usually stuff they feel is required, IE more major stuff, it's just how it goes, noone wants to work weekends ;)

[JasSolo]

-{ Quote: "...just looking at a list of updates for today, only 1 vendor so far that shows what it updates..." }-

ESET always shows. Look here. (http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?act=calendar&cal_id=1&code=showevent&event_id=46147)


Cheers

[lodore]

if you look here (http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?act=calendar&cal_id=1)
scroll down to 23rd and it looks like lots of vendors updated today.

[Waterfox]

-{ Quote: "hello,
has anyone tryed running it along side superantispyware with realtime protection enabled on both?
last time i tryed vipre in a virtual machine it worked fine.
but yesterday when i tryed it it kept crashing." }-

Why use two different real-time scanners simultaneously?
It will only cause problems like it did in your case. That´s clearly stated on sunbeltsoftware´s webpage... they highly unrecommend using another real-time scanner with VIPRE.
Having SAS on-demand is usually enough (if not overkill in this case).

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "Why use two different real-time scanners simultaneously?
It will only cause problems like it did in your case. That´s clearly stated on sunbeltsoftware´s webpage... they highly unrecommend using another real-time scanner with VIPRE.
Having SAS on-demand is usually enough (if not overkill in this case)." }-
then again nick does design superantispyware to be able to run alongside any other protection without any conflicts.

[C.S.J]

its all good, activated and running smoothly. :P

[s4u]

-{ Quote: "its all good, activated and running smoothly. :P" }-
Wow
Chris what happend to the little spider? Eaten by the snake?

[ronjor]

Please use the private message option or email for personal questions to avoid taking threads off topic. Thanks.

[jmonge]

-{ Quote: "Please use the private message option or email for personal questions to avoid taking threads off topic. Thanks." }-
ron he is talking about vipre eating dr.web;D

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "ron he is talking about vipre eating dr.web;D" }-

Ths spider could not detect the snake OMG.

Anyways
has anyone seen any test with viper see how its holding up against the known brands.. would be interesting to see. esp at that price point.

[jmonge]

-{ Quote: "Ths spider could not detect the snake OMG.

Anyways
has anyone seen any test with viper see how its holding up against the known brands.. would be interesting to see. esp at that price point." }-
i did a simple test playing with the task manager i did terminated the services from Vipre.it needs termination protection.i also tested drivesentry with same test i did with vipre and i couldnt terminate the litle bugger

[djohn]

Is vipre a spitting poison cobra or a harmless garden snake;D

[jmonge]

-{ Quote: "Is vipre a spitting poison cobra or a harmless garden snake;D" }-
it is getting alitle better now.the database is big:thumb:

[C.S.J]

VIPRE is running very well, stable (so far) and extremely light on the PC.

0% cpu
1 process
37mb used

works on x64, i suggest people try it before judging. ;)

[s4u]

I'm not judging. Have been testing it from the beginning. Just curious to see you change. You are one of the persistent ones.

I just have the problem that it just refuses my proxy.
What firewall do you use with it?

[C.S.J]

-{ Quote: "I'm not judging. Have been testing it from the beginning. Just curious to see you change. You are one of the persistent ones.

I just have the problem that it just refuses my proxy" }-
well, if you read my posts carefully, ive already told you why :)

so, during my time with Vipre and sunbelt, lets give it a good test, get it noticed a little bit and get people questioning their own solution. :D

[s4u]

Sorry, you ahve 4618 posts. I didn't read them all ;)

[djohn]

-{ Quote: "it is getting alitle better now.the database is big:thumb:" }-
Thanks jmonge

[djohn]

-{ Quote: "VIPRE is running very well, stable (so far) and extremely light on the PC.

0% cpu
1 process
37mb used

works on x64, i suggest people try it before judging. ;)" }- I agree its only been on my rig two days but very stable indeed and very light.I might add the scan speed is darn good.What a nice suprise from sunbelt.:thumb:

[jmonge]

-{ Quote: "Thanks jmonge" }-
your welcome:thumb:

[mksql]

It is giving me some resource issues on an XP system with 512MB of RAM. An interesting test is to have Active Protection set on, and the default level, then access the VIPRE install file itself.

Upon scanning CPU funs high, but virtual memory usage increases dramatically. On a PC with 512MB of RAM, paging to disk renders the system unresponsive for a long time. With 1GB of RAM, it is not as noticable, but monitoring the process still shows significant VM usage.

At idle, the software seems to use low memory, but during on access scans, it may be a different case. Can anyone use my test example and see if they observe similar behavior?

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "It is giving me some resource issues on an XP system with 512MB of RAM. An interesting test is to have Active Protection set on, and the default level, then access the VIPRE install file itself.

Upon scanning CPU funs high, but virtual memory usage increases dramatically. On a PC with 512MB of RAM, paging to disk renders the system unresponsive for a long time. With 1GB of RAM, it is not as noticable, but monitoring the process still shows significant VM usage.

At idle, the software seems to use low memory, but during on access scans, it may be a different case. Can anyone use my test example and see if they observe similar behavior?" }-

Not sure what you mean exactly on your on access of the vipre install file itself. Do you mean just highlighting it in explorer? I get a small delay opening a directory with alot of .exe files in it but nothing that hasn't already been discussed I think. As for the my system resources during a scan, my cpu goes from around 2% idle to 12% during a scan and memory goes up from around 30% idle to 31% during a scan. Amazing to me it can actually run this light and I can use the system without even feeling any affects from the scan process. I am really happy so far with Vipre's scan being so light. As for the directory access, well I am hoping this will get more optimized as Vipre progresses over time.

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "Not sure what you mean exactly on your on access of the vipre install file itself. Do you mean just highlighting it in explorer? I get a small delay opening a directory with alot of .exe files in it but nothing that hasn't already been discussed I think. As for the my system resources during a scan, my cpu goes from around 2% idle to 12% during a scan and memory goes up from around 30% idle to 31% during a scan. Amazing to me it can actually run this light and I can use the system without even feeling any affects from the scan process. I am really happy so far with Vipre's scan being so light. As for the directory access, well I am hoping this will get more optimized as Vipre progresses over time." }-

May it runs like this one ?

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=209636

On a serious note Ill wait for some tests to come out before trialing this one. something just don't seem right, kind of reminds me of the statement "if it looks to good to be True. it probably is." :blink: (Example look at rising everyone loved it tell the tests came out then I seen more sig's change in a 24 hour period then I seen new posts in a week) :dry:

Also if you ever want to not feel the "effect" of having a AV scanning you can always turn its process to low priority in the task manager. anything with Normal or above will get CPU before it does. ;D

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "May it runs like this one ?

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=209636

On a serious note Ill wait for some tests to come out before trialing this one. something just don't seem right, kind of reminds me of the statement "if it looks to good to be True. it probably is." :blink: (Example look at rising everyone loved it tell the tests came out then I seen more sig's change in a 24 hour period then I seen new posts in a week) :dry:

Also if you ever want to not feel the "effect" of having a AV scanning you can always turn its process to low priority in the task manager. anything with Normal or above will get CPU before it does. ;D" }-
Ha ha that was a funny thread hadn't seen it before.

I understand your wanting to wait for test data first before jumping in, of course I was willing to give it a shot and jump in early. I admire your unbiased attitude while you wait in comparison to some others. I am fairly confident Vipre will evolve quickly and turn out to be a winner. However only time will tell.

I do not have Vipre set to low priority and still it uses almost nothing in the way of resources and scans complete in lightening fast time. I am so far very impressed.

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "Ha ha that was a funny thread hadn't seen it before.

I understand your wanting to wait for test data first before jumping in, of course I was willing to give it a shot and jump in early. I admire your unbiased attitude while you wait in comparison to some others. I am fairly confident Vipre will evolve quickly and turn out to be a winner. However only time will tell.

I do not have Vipre set to low priority and still it uses almost nothing in the way of resources and scans complete in lightening fast time. I am so far very impressed." }-

I'll test it on my test bed computer once some tests come out. looks promising and if its really light on resources with decent detection, it could have a home at some of my customers house's that want something different then the norm I offer. only time will tell as you said we shall see what comes of it. :)

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "I'll test it on my test bed computer once some tests come out. looks promising and if its really light on resources with decent detection, it could have a home at some of my customers house's that want something different then the norm I offer. only time will tell as you said we shall see what comes of it. :)" }-
What do you anticipate might be the first tests we may see to include Vipre? Something like AV Comparatives would be great but at this point I would just like to see how it does.

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "What do you anticipate might be the first tests we may see to include Vipre? Something like AV Comparatives would be great but at this point I would just like to see how it does." }-'


AV-Corp is on the 15th of this month. I'm hoping it gets tested this time around.

[emperordarius]

-{ Quote: "'


AV-Corp is on the 15th of this month. I'm hoping it gets tested this time around." }-

But it can be tested only in a stand alone report, the antiviruses in comparatives must be the same in a year.

[mksql]

-{ Quote: "Not sure what you mean exactly on your on access of the vipre install file itself. Do you mean just highlighting it in explorer?" }-

Not just highlighting, but right-clicking on the installer .exe seems to initiate a scan, before any selections are made in the pop-up window. I have opened a support case with Sunbelt, and will share the results here.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "Not just highlighting, but right-clicking on the installer .exe seems to initiate a scan, before any selections are made in the pop-up window. I have opened a support case with Sunbelt, and will share the results here." }-
Thanks for explaining, looking forward to your sharing the outcome with us.

[hex_614]

i think vipre needs to improve more.

[Pseudo]

I recently tried VIPRE, and I can say I had a positive trial with it. It ran like butter on my system (1 gig of memory, XP SP3) and produced no FPs.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "i think vipre needs to improve more." }-
Can you elaborate a little more on why you feel it needs more improvement? Every product in the world can always use improvements, especially something brand new on the market, but assuming that is taken into consideration with Vipre, I would like to know your thoughts on why at this stage you think it needs improvement.

[egghead]

-{ Quote: "Can you elaborate a little more on why you feel it needs more improvement? Every product in the world can always use improvements, especially something brand new on the market, but assuming that is taken into consideration with Vipre, I would like to know your thoughts on why at this stage you think it needs improvement." }-

Allow me a hijack.

What I like to see is more choices with the popups. When a new program is started the only choices are "allow" or "block". Like to see "allow" or "disallow for just this session".

Also, I'm giving now "allow" permissions to programs like IE and Opera. Why not scan a system during installation of Vipre and put well known programs automatically in the "always allowed" area.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "Allow me a hijack.

What I like to see is more choices with the popups. When a new program is started the only choices are "allow" or "block". Like to see "allow" or "disallow for just this session".

Also, I'm giving now "allow" permissions to programs like IE and Opera. Why not scan a system during installation of Vipre and put well known programs automatically in the "always allowed" area." }-
Those sound like some good suggestions. Have you conveyed them to Sunbelt? Good input from people using the software offering suggestions like this have a good chance of making a good program even better.

[egghead]

-{ Quote: "Those sound like some good suggestions. Have you conveyed them to Sunbelt? " }-

Yes, I have.

[Searching_ _ _]

I think Vipre was very good. It detected bifrose reg entries after I used Combofix.
I tested three times and the bifrose reg entries only appear after using Combofix.
It didn't cause any issues or crashes. I think it is a keeper for the arsenal.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "I think Vipre was very good. It detected bifrose reg entries after I used Combofix.
I tested three times and the bifrose reg entries only appear after using Combofix.
It didn't cause any issues or crashes. I think it is a keeper for the arsenal." }-
Wow thats really good to hear that Vipre was a good experience for you and detected the bifrose entries. I am also optomistic about this new program and running it myself now. Don't know if you know this but I started another thread on Vipre to help with impressions on the product for those of us actually running it. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=219763 You may want to check that area too and help contribute more of your impressions after running it. Every little bit helps.

[Saraceno]

-{ Quote: "I think Vipre was very good. It detected bifrose reg entries after I used Combofix.
I tested three times and the bifrose reg entries only appear after using Combofix.
It didn't cause any issues or crashes. I think it is a keeper for the arsenal." }-

I agree. :thumb:

The next friend who wants a 'very easy' to use AV/AS, for the price, I'll be telling them to give this a go.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "I agree. :thumb:

The next friend who wants a 'very easy' to use AV/AS, for the price, I'll be telling them to give this a go." }-
Thats great to hear another satified person who tried it. You might also want to mention whenever you suggest it, how incredibly light it is on resources too. That part amazes me.

[C.S.J]

well, vista x64 did not work out for me, infact... its a piece of crap!
i recommend it to nobody, nothing works on it.

so ive reverted back to my trusty drweb (already) :)

VIPRE is a good antivirus, and im still glad i purchased!

I didnt notice any bugs in my usage and ive got a nice long licence for it should i need another AV.

keep up the work!

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "well, vista x64 did not work out for me, infact... its a piece of crap!
i recommend it to nobody, nothing works on it.

so ive reverted back to my trusty drweb (already) :)

VIPRE is a good antivirus, and im still glad i purchased!

I didnt notice any bugs in my usage and ive got a nice long licence for it should i need another AV.

keep up the work!" }-


I see but last I checked this was about Viper (Let the sarcasm begin.) :argh:

[GES/POR]

-{ Quote: "well, vista x64 did not work out for me, infact... its a piece of crap!
i recommend it to nobody, nothing works on it.

so ive reverted back to my trusty drweb (already) :)

VIPRE is a good antivirus, and im still glad i purchased!

I didnt notice any bugs in my usage and ive got a nice long licence for it should i need another AV.

keep up the work!" }-

So far everythingh is working for me on vista 64, have no regrets but i did have to turn of uac though wich is not a problem for me.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "So far everythingh is working for me on vista 64, have no regrets but i did have to turn of uac though wich is not a problem for me." }-
Can I ask why you had to turn off uac?

[GES/POR]

-{ Quote: "Can I ask why you had to turn off uac?" }-

Some programs would not install or work smoothly, i know i had problems with FEAR and Xfire.

[egghead]

In addition to my post # 165.

First of all provide an uninstaller.

This sucker is hard to uninstall :-\, even in safe mode !

Advice for those with the same problem: use the proggie Unlocker.

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "Some programs would not install or work smoothly, i know i had problems with FEAR and Xfire." }-
Is FEAR a PC game your talking about here?

[norky]

-{ Quote: "Is FEAR a PC game your talking about here?" }-


Yeah, it is

[GES/POR]

-{ Quote: "Is FEAR a PC game your talking about here?" }-

The MP part is free n the graphics r amazing, go get it! :thumb:

[larryb52]

I'm retrying this what's with definitions being up to date but dated 9/11?, can't do even daily updates?

[Atomic_Ed]

-{ Quote: "I'm retrying this what's with definitions being up to date but dated 9/11?, can't do even daily updates?" }-
Seems to me like on my system I am seeing daily updates (exception of weekends). I have found that even though Vipre is set to check for updates auto ever 2 hours, sometimes if I don't manually check it doesn't check or get the updates. I have seen this off and on but not consistently. Maybe thats what happened with you 9-11 defs? Did you try to force a manual update to see?

[larryb52]

-{ Quote: "Seems to me like on my system I am seeing daily updates (exception of weekends). I have found that even though Vipre is set to check for updates auto ever 2 hours, sometimes if I don't manually check it doesn't check or get the updates. I have seen this off and on but not consistently. Maybe thats what happened with you 9-11 defs? Did you try to force a manual update to see?" }-


it finally updated later, I like the combo, seems light & I think might be effective & no I don't go by total test results...

[Halo326]

Check out Matt's video review at Youtube. I already posted a link in here about his review on SAS. Vipre didn't do too good cleaning up adware.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHzn70hpxJY

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "Check out Matt's video review at Youtube. I already posted a link in here about his review on SAS. Vipre didn't do too good cleaning up adware.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHzn70hpxJY" }-

No offense. but anyone that believes a "Youtube" test should have there head evaluated. :P

[Halo326]

Um excuse me Fajo but do some investigating. Its not just a youtube video. He has a web site and removes viruses ans malware from pc for a career. He uploaded videos on you tube to let people know how good certain products are.

http://remove-malware.com/

[Fajo]

-{ Quote: "Um excuse me Fajo but do some investigating. Its not just a youtube video. He has a web site and removes viruses ans malware from pc for a career. He uploaded videos on you tube to let people know how good certain products are.

http://remove-malware.com/" }-

I still rather look at tests that have anywhere from 1000 to 1.6 Million samples. ;D

But thanks for the link anyways. 8)

[element119]

anything new with this? my eset license will be running out soon and i am giving some serious consideration to switch to vipre. but everything seems quiet on the vipre scene.

[Graystoke]

-{ Quote: "anything new with this? my eset license will be running out soon and i am giving some serious consideration to switch to vipre. but everything seems quiet on the vipre scene." }-


It has been very quiet. Anything new to report from Vipre users?

[GES/POR]

They all jumped on the symantec bandwagon :dry:

[Pseudo]

-{ Quote: "I still rather look at tests that have anywhere from 1000 to 1.6 Million samples. ;D

But thanks for the link anyways. 8)" }-
You don't seem to be really aware of Matt's testing, he uses thousand(s) of samples and has been personally contacted by Sunbelt and F-Secure.

[Graystoke]

-{ Quote: "They all jumped on the symantec bandwagon :dry:" }-


I have to admit that I'm one of those who jumped on that bandwagon. I've been tempted to jump off though.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "I have to admit that I'm one of those who jumped on that bandwagon. I've been tempted to jump off though." }-

I jumped off two days ago. LU does not work on a consistent basis, and there are others with the same issue. The pulse updates do not update on my machine sometimes for 14 hours. Yes you can of course manually update, but why should you?

My view is that LU has been problematic since its inception, and NIS 2009 still is in that same camp- at least on my machine. :thumbd:

[Graystoke]

-{ Quote: "I jumped off two days ago. LU does not work on a consistent basis, and there are others with the same issue. The pulse updates do not update on my machine sometimes for 14 hours. Yes you can of course manually update, but why should you?

My view is that LU has been problematic since its inception, and NIS 2009 still is in that same camp- at least on my machine. :thumbd:" }-


As far as I can tell, I haven't had any problems with LU or pulse updates. It the full system idle time scan that won't run for what ever reason, that is bugging me. I know I can set up a full system can the conventional way, but why should I have to, if it is supposed to do it automatically on a weekly basis, when the computer is idle.

When I initially installed NIS 2009, it went over two weeks without a full system idle time scan running. I uninstall/reinstalled, and now it's been over a week and counting, and still no full system idle time scan.

I'm a true believer in things should work the way they are supposed to. If they don't, go with something else.

Vipre is looking better and better.



EDIT..............The idle time full scan ran today. Maybe I'll stay on that bandwagon a little longer. :D

[praphul]

-{ Quote: "------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/" }-


please let me know the key for key for vipre 3.1.2243 version,,,

[vijayind]

-{ Quote: "please let me know the key for key for vipre 3.1.2243 version,,," }-
You can install a trial without a key. Key can be purchased online from sunbeltsoftware.com or from any authorized reseller.

[Coldmoon]

-{ Quote: "It has been very quiet. Anything new to report from Vipre users?" }-

I like it; and though it still has some quirks I think, and do, recommend it for those interested. IFO have found it light on resources and more effective than other AV-AS combo products that I have looked at in the past. The product is new so give them (Sunbelt) some more time to work out those quirks I alluded to and I think you will like the results...

JMHO
Mike

[larryb52]

-{ Quote: "I like it; and though it still has some quirks I think, and do, recommend it for those interested. IFO have found it light on resources and more effective than other AV-AS combo products that I have looked at in the past. The product is new so give them (Sunbelt) some more time to work out those quirks I alluded to and I think you will like the results...

JMHO
Mike" }-


I have toyed with it before with good results & since my Nod license is up soon am tempted to buy an improving product, I'm curious what firewall do you use...

[Zombini]

-{ Quote: "As far as I can tell, I haven't had any problems with LU or pulse updates. It the full system idle time scan that won't run for what ever reason, that is bugging me. I know I can set up a full system can the conventional way, but why should I have to, if it is supposed to do it automatically on a weekly basis, when the computer is idle.

When I initially installed NIS 2009, it went over two weeks without a full system idle time scan running. I uninstall/reinstalled, and now it's been over a week and counting, and still no full system idle time scan.

I'm a true believer in things should work the way they are supposed to. If they don't, go with something else.

Vipre is looking better and better.



EDIT..............The idle time full scan ran today. Maybe I'll stay on that bandwagon a little longer. :D" }-

I think you guys are missing the point behind an "IDLE" scan. Your system has to go idle. If you have crap running on your machine that causes not to go IDLE EVER, then dont expect the Full System Scan to run. Or more correctly, it might run and not complete before the system came back out of IDLE. On may machine it took a week for Full System Idle scan to run.

[Zombini]

-{ Quote: "I jumped off two days ago. LU does not work on a consistent basis, and there are others with the same issue. The pulse updates do not update on my machine sometimes for 14 hours. Yes you can of course manually update, but why should you?

My view is that LU has been problematic since its inception, and NIS 2009 still is in that same camp- at least on my machine. :thumbd:" }-

Comparing the LU in pre-09 and 09 versions is comparing apples are oranges. LU is completely redesigned for 09. The problem you are seeing with pulse updates is that the UI is not updating correctly. The pulse updates are still being downloaded on time. Its documented on the Norton newsgroups. So I wouldn't worry about it.

[cupez80]

how about vipre heuristic ? good enough ?

[qpok]

Haven't managed to get infected while using Vipre (well come to that, I've never got infected while using any AV) and quite like the product but it would be nice to see some comprehensive test(s) of how well it performs. I've read the Virus Bulletin review of Vipre (http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Documents/vipre-virus-bulletin-review-july-2008.pdf) but I am hoping to see it included in AV comparatives or the monthly VB tests.

[Coldmoon]

-{ Quote: "I have toyed with it before with good results & since my Nod license is up soon am tempted to buy an improving product, I'm curious what firewall do you use..." }-

I use Windows FW on my systems/laptops behind a router with HW FW

[ViVek]

is vipre scan rar or zip files?

[qpok]

A new version (3.1.2416) of Vipre was released today.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "A new version (3.1.2416) of Vipre was released today." }-
any changelog?

[qpok]

-{ Quote: "any changelog?" }-

Wish there was but I couldn't find one.

Edit:
I asked for changelog and Sunbelt came up with one very fast:
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/documents/vipre-changelog.txt
Great service.

[Fly]

Is there any good/decent comparative review of VIPRE versus other 'antiviruses' ? Preferably concerning real-time protection ?

[qpok]

-{ Quote: "Is there any good/decent comparative review of VIPRE versus other 'antiviruses' ? Preferably concerning real-time protection ?" }-

That's what I'd like to know too. I have asked if Vipre is going to be included in the monthly AV comparatives or reviewed individually but no answer this far: http://www.av-comparatives.org/forum/index.php?page=Thread&postID=3062#post3062

[LethalBoy]

I'm using the trial version right now with Sunbelt's Personal Firewall!! Very well perfomance in my pc with it.

I used KIS a few weeks ago but I'm trying right now VIPRE :)

[Securon]

Good Evening! Have been using Vipre for the past three months,very satisfied so far.Just one thing though because it has Active Protection,has anybody experienced compatability issues with other products. I've recently purchased Prevx's The Edge 3.0 which also has Real Time Protection.I guess what I'm asking can the two products co-exist? Sincerely...Securon.

[qpok]

Interesting news regarding Vipre at http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/bit-of-vipre-roadmap.html. Two excerpts from the post: -{ Quote: "the big news will be our release of our new proprietary MX-Virtualization technology (MX-V)." }-
-{ Quote: "In Q2, we will be shipping VIPRE 4.0 and VIPRE Endpoint Protection (VEP) for Enterprise (to be marketed as “VIPRE + Firewall” in the consumer edition)." }-

[Malcontent]

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/bit-of-vipre-roadmap.html

Thanks qpok.

More taken from the Sunbelt Blog


-{ Quote: "

In the MX-V system, malware is executed in a virtual Windows environment that mimics many of the core Windows functions -- registry, file system, internet connection, mouse clicks, etc. The actions of the malware are then analyzed for behavioral characteristics common to malware, or to look for certain malware signatures. By analyzing malware in this fashion, VIPRE is able to detect many types of malware without the necessity of creating a constant stream of dedicated unpackers and signatures for each variant of a piece of malware.
Technically, MX-V is an extension of VIPRE’s built-in emulation, which uses a method known as Dynamic Translation (a form of binary translation (http://tinyurl.com/6acs82)) to break the performance barrier of standard emulation. (Classic CPU emulation is generally unable to achieve a speed higher than 10 MIPS, making it unusable for large-scale use.) Dynamic Translation is a technology which recompiles, on-the-fly, large parts of a program in order to boost performance up to 400 MIPS. It is the use of Dynamic Translation that makes Vipre’s built-in emulation, and the MX-V layer that is an adjunct to it, capable of rapidly analyzing systems for the presence of malware.
MX-V’s main appeal is its ability to enhance the detection of completely new variants or families of malware. In my opinion, it's a significant technology.

Again, we expect to begin beta-testing this new engine sometime next week, and it will be open to testers. I'll let you know when it’s up." }-

-{ Quote: "
MX-V’s main appeal is its ability to enhance the detection of completely new variants or families of malware. In my opinion, it's a significant technology." }-
-{ Quote: "
In Q2, we will be shipping VIPRE 4.0 and VIPRE Endpoint Protection (VEP) for Enterprise (to be marketed as “VIPRE + Firewall” in the consumer edition). VIPRE 4 will add some nice additional features to the existing product; VIPRE Endpoint Protection will add a firewall, HIPS, IDS, and a number of other nifty features. VIPRE 4.0 will be a free upgrade if you're under maintenance; VEP will have a nominal upgrade charge to additional functionality." }-

[whitedragon551]

How has this been doing compared to NOD32 and KAV with detection rates and system resources? Reason I ask is because I just won a 1 year licence on another Vista forum and cant quite make myself get rid of NOD32.

[BlueZannetti]

Thread closed per Policy. (http://www.wilderssecurity.comshowthread.php?t=180128)

Blue