dcdc
January 6th, 2005, 09:34 AM
While on the phone with a Dell tech support person, I happened to mention my dissatisfaction with Dell's recommendation of Pest Patrol as antispyware software in that a free scan of my system reported a large number of what were likely false positives (FP). He replied that now Dell is recommending CounterSpy.
I went to their site, and similarly tried their free scan, which was rather brief, by the way. It found, or allegedly found, 7 items; of these I recognized at least two, clickability.com and passport.com, that Spy Sweeper has regularly trapped via the cookie shield. All 7 items were judged low risk cookies.
Now I am not averse to buying software that detects items that my other AS have missed, but only if such items are genuine malware, not FP. I ran some scans with my other AS, and nothing came up, so I suspect CounterSpy is showing FP for whatever reason.
I checked the net a little, and found some typically varied opinions at http://www.download.com/3302-8022_4-10337359.html. Most seemed positive, but some definitely not.
There is also some info on this forum about how closely associated CounterSpy is with Giant, recently acquired by Microsoft, supposedly as the foundation of a MS antispyware package, as I understand it, and in a Beta version as we speak (or write).
I already run in addition to the abovementioned Spy Sweeper: Ad-Aware SE, spybot, SpywareGuard, and SpywareBlaster. I think it is overkill to download every damned AS on the planet, but on the other hand I want to be reasonably protected against malware.
Does anyone have some experience running CounterSpy on their system, either alone or in conjunction with other AS, along with an evaluation of how well it is ACTUALLY working, i.e., removing genuine spyware, rather than simply detecting and removing false positives? Novices such as myself are likely to be misled by software that is successful in removing what was never there in the first place.
Just as a closing thought, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming Microsoft security software will affect independent vendors of similar products. I am beginning to wonder whether I should hold off acquiring any additional AS or AV until well after the MIcrosoft rollout, not because I think it will be a superior product (I don't), but just to see who is left standing in the aftermath. Marginally profitable vendors may well go under, leaving users with no tech support or product updates. I expect there will be a shakeout in this market once the 'Giant' moves in.
I went to their site, and similarly tried their free scan, which was rather brief, by the way. It found, or allegedly found, 7 items; of these I recognized at least two, clickability.com and passport.com, that Spy Sweeper has regularly trapped via the cookie shield. All 7 items were judged low risk cookies.
Now I am not averse to buying software that detects items that my other AS have missed, but only if such items are genuine malware, not FP. I ran some scans with my other AS, and nothing came up, so I suspect CounterSpy is showing FP for whatever reason.
I checked the net a little, and found some typically varied opinions at http://www.download.com/3302-8022_4-10337359.html. Most seemed positive, but some definitely not.
There is also some info on this forum about how closely associated CounterSpy is with Giant, recently acquired by Microsoft, supposedly as the foundation of a MS antispyware package, as I understand it, and in a Beta version as we speak (or write).
I already run in addition to the abovementioned Spy Sweeper: Ad-Aware SE, spybot, SpywareGuard, and SpywareBlaster. I think it is overkill to download every damned AS on the planet, but on the other hand I want to be reasonably protected against malware.
Does anyone have some experience running CounterSpy on their system, either alone or in conjunction with other AS, along with an evaluation of how well it is ACTUALLY working, i.e., removing genuine spyware, rather than simply detecting and removing false positives? Novices such as myself are likely to be misled by software that is successful in removing what was never there in the first place.
Just as a closing thought, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming Microsoft security software will affect independent vendors of similar products. I am beginning to wonder whether I should hold off acquiring any additional AS or AV until well after the MIcrosoft rollout, not because I think it will be a superior product (I don't), but just to see who is left standing in the aftermath. Marginally profitable vendors may well go under, leaving users with no tech support or product updates. I expect there will be a shakeout in this market once the 'Giant' moves in.