AV companies, the frustration never ceases.

yes disabling web protection helps. this has been a issue for me for a while now. its not every video but you tube for instance will start to play then buffer then play a little more then buffer etc. my mom actually had me switch her to something else because of this. and i have had calls from clients who told me the same thing. ill be happy to send whatever info i can. on my own personal machine i saw this very often when i had eset installed. once i switched to something else for testing i had zero issues with the buffering.

 

I know what you mean, if it`s not slowing your system down it`s screwing it up.

Never had a problem with Sandboxie.

Regards ...Eck

 

Yes apparently I'm the 'only one' that finds problems with these products right? We know that's now true, obviously. I'm labeled a serial complainer because I test things, I discover things, and I break things. But anyone with eyes can browse the forum and find 'legions' of people with this or that issue, over and over. I exposed Avira's boot issue apparently when nobody else had bothered to post about it, or never linked it to Avira. I posted WSA causing keyboard freezes in browsers, and bloating explorer up - apparently nobody found it, or reported it. I found 2 major bugs in SAS that were reported here, and fixed. The list goes on and on. But remember, a very select few on this forum are paid professionals, and hence a majority will not find, but if they do find, they won't be able to discover, and if they discover they often won't be able to solve.

 

One problem I had this week with Avast was their "better price" feature, which I had turned off, suddenly started working on every eBay, Amazon, WalMart, Target website when I viewed a product. Was unable to turn it off. What a mess.
Back to Immunet.

 

That's unacceptable.. More bloat we don't need. When I noticed Bit Defender trial changing my google searches to replace every AV search with Bit Defender.. Uninstalled. Companies that do this make me vomit. Release a good, stable, lite, bloat free product and you don't even need to advertise.. That logic escapes all of them.

 

I had to uninstall ESET because of an issue with Arama 3. It made the game run at around 10fps. I thought it was my computer for the longest time. Uninstalled eset and I was running at 100fps steady. I think all of these AV programs break something eventually. I have an F-Secure IS subscription and it habitually blocks steam games from running, even if you put it in the exclusion list. All these other security programs like app-guard on online armor make my computer lag and stutter at random times. Webroot makes my mouse feel weird. I just run without any protection now and my computer runs great.

 

This was an issue with a new feature responsible for monitoring the behavior of applications running in memory that was added to HIPS in 2013 and which was resolved towards the end of the year by an automatic module update. Nobody has reported any issue related to Arma since then (https://forum.eset.com/topic/1243-eset-causes-problems-with-arma-23).

 

I became frustrated with virus scanners (and their cousins) after moving on from the DOS days of f-prot and those individual scanners that were whipped up in short order to find a single specific virus. Like CiH'95 for example. On occasion during the years following DOS' heydey and on into the Windows 95 and 98 era, I'd try out different AV packages from time to time.

I experimented around with Norton/Symantec and McAfee, Microsoft, AVG, Malware Bytes, Kaspersky, and god knows how many others. The key word here is experimented. This means I'd temporarily get stupid and gullible and actually believe that these were sound and trouble-free products. Erroneously.

Over and over and over and over again I'd get frustrated with:
1- Lengthy scan times
2- Interruptions to workflow
3- Constant nagging for updating bot the engine and definitions
4- Subscription reminders and advertisements
5- Systemwide slow-downs
6- Heavyweight bloated and buggy software

On top of all that, when something did get by or quarantined or uninstalled by one of the suites or scanners there were inevitable problems. Residual material would oftentimes be left behind. System settings would be changed. Something, just something wouldn't be right afterwards.

Eventually I came to the seemingly natural conclusion that the best way to avoid trouble is to know what you are doing and not run anything you're not sure of. Don't allow code to execute unless you know what it is. Back in the day of the Apple II and IBM PC XT/AT this meant not using strange DOS or typing the in the name of an unknown executable. Today this means understanding the difference between user data and system programs. It also means being alert for bogus email attachments. In the case of email attachments they get saved to disk, then manually opened with the appropriate program. I never blindly click on them.

And from there you can do disk imaging. This protects your environment from so many different kinds of disasters. If anything goes wrong or isn't just right. You can simply restore. 1/2 hour later you are on your way. Sure as hell beats messing with google searches for instructions on how you might remove a specific piece of malware. I say might because there are thousands of variants and classes of unwanted programs. As a user trying to remove one of these modern-day beasties you need to ID the strain exactly, and follow about 20 steps of instructions exactly - making allowances and changes for your specific system. You then have to verify you did the job correctly and got all of it. Like a cancer.

Disk imaging lets you nuke everything from orbit and no questions like, "Did I get it all?" arise. Your applications remain intact and with all their custom settings you no doubt spent days and weeks setting up just right. Quick and efficient. An almost tablet-like experience on the PC? Wowwow!

Virtual Machines and Sandboxing are different, but equally efficient. If you encounter a problem just recreate the VM or reload it. In a round-about way you could say that disk imaging is like a VM of 1. Both allow you re-create the environment instantly.

Virtual Machines, Disk Imaging, User Education. These 3 tools are really superior to any AV or Malware scanner on the market.

 

I have ESET set to exclude the steam base folder on the SSD, and the steamapps folder on the terrabyte drive. I find it wise to exclude those as they are managed repositories, and little need to ever scan/monitor them anyway. Just as a precaution. I also do that with Origin, Uplay, and Desura launchers, all of which are extensively tested push repositories. This is why Linux is mostly secure, repositories, so little reason to keep them fully monitored in Windows IMO. Thoughts?

 

I think that's the way to go. Something like repositories for windows. Something that automatically updates flash, your browser etc. If Linux takes off, who knows, we'll have that already. But I don't run anything I don't verify the digital signatures and upload to virus total anyway. And if something uses a zero day, or someone targets me with something, an AV isn't going to save me from that anyway, so I don't see the point. Especially with the performance issues.

 

Repositories are massive security improvements alone. Repositories is the way Windows is 'slowly' heading.. Think of the repositories these days;

1) Windows Store
2) Chrome Store
3) Steam
4) Uplay
5) Origin
6) Desura
7) GOG Launcher
GMG Capsule

Probably many others. But these are big ones, and they vet what you get so the chance of infection is extremely small, if non-existent. Repositores alone would be a massive increase in Windows security. Not only because of the vetting, but because of the resources for scanning, notification, and authentication these repositories offer. I predict within a few years Windows users will ONLY get things from major repositories, and hence, security will automatically improve with it. Exploit detection/blocking will become much more important over actual virus/trojan protection.

 

I am sorry DoctorPC but you really are walking the tightrope of a serial complainer. I say that not as an attack on your character, because I'm sure you are a nice person, but as a response to your vast number of negative posts since you joined a mere 6 months ago. A girl having an orgasm on the AVG front page? That's what you see? Really? You are reading way too much into that picture and then a heaping helping of false indignation on top of your perverted ice cream sundae. Please DoctorPC. I mean pretty please, stop with the continuous and pointless attacks on security companies regarding their lack of business logic, bad decisions, failed products, bloatware everywhere, and to top it all off, your xenophobia of anything Chinese. You said: Either a product slows a machine, causes instability, or installs extra garbage. Regardless it seems like all of them have endless frustrations associated with them. None of them are perfect, and how is that normal, or acceptable? Maybe that is why people here are 'incessantly' searching for the 'next thing'. What kind of a gross and distorted generalization is that? I'll clue you in on why many of us here install, test, uninstall, repeat, different security products. For many of us it's just plain fun. I know forum members, and I'm included in this, who have stacks of AV products on our storage drives or on CD's, knowing that we cannot use them all, but not necessarily because we are all searching for the next thing because there is a sea of garbage products. Many of us are like kids in a candy store when it comes to security products. I love trying out new products and I'm willing to bet a lot of people here know exactly what I'm talking about.

Again, I ask you not to be defensive about this. I've seen other posts where members have asked you to stop stirring the pot, or to tone down the negativity, or maybe have something new or meaningful to say. Your attacks on security companies and their products have become tiresome and repetitive. I'm sorry but you aren't saying anything new Doc. I have a great idea! Why don't you develop your own AV? Put some of those paper tiger designations to good use and create the product that you dream of. The product we all deserve. Why not? Others here have done it. There is an ocean of security products out there, but based on what you have said many, many times, most of it is garbage. It shouldn't be that difficult to do since we know from many of your posts that no effort or skill is spent developing AV software by anyone in the industry. They are all poorly managed companies run by a bunch of buffoons with no talent and stuck in the 1990's, right? You Doc are a visionary. Am I right? It's easy to post here and complain about everything, it's quite another to actually do something. And with that I will install and test my new unprofessional, bug ridden, unstable, garbage loaded, bloated, and dare I say, inappropriately sexy, and nameless antivirus product because it's a blast!

 

Very well said, thank you

 

x 2!
Historian Will Durant said, "To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves."

 

I read these forum frequently an pick up many tips but I will just add that "There are those that can and those that can't. Those that can - do it, those that can't - talk about it!"

 

A big plus to both those posts. It's getting to very tiresome and boring. Many complaints but when the software vendor ask's for logs, dumps etc it's always 'sorry , I don't have the time' - 'I've already uninstalled it'

 

Thanks for your input. I agree with what you have said. I don't know how many times and in how many different topics I have heard of Avira's boot lag and Webroot's memory usage, etc.