Just how valuable is SpywareGuard in 2007?

Discussion in 'SpywareBlaster & Other Forum' started by dcdc, Feb 27, 2007.

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  1. dcdc

    dcdc Registered Member

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    I have had it on my computer for a couple of years or so. It doesn't seem to do much of anything, at least judging by its own reports, which list only two BHO changes, both of them legitimate and which I allowed, probably via another AS malware alert from perhaps Spybot or Spy Sweeper.

    No doubt this question about SG comes up from time to time. I know that unlike other AS applications, SG is mostly or entirely heuristic based rather than definition based in terms of its protection, but nevertheless, with version 2.2 now over three years old and new forms of malware constantly evolving, how much value does SG have at present?

    I see no particular reason to delete it, since it appears to run very light, but still, what is your opinion of how much system protection it offers these days?
     
  2. pugmug

    pugmug Registered Member

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    I use blaster but rid my computer of guard for the non update reason years ago.
     
  3. Roxport

    Roxport Registered Member

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    I continue to use SpywareGuard and find it extremely helpful.
     
  4. pugmug

    pugmug Registered Member

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    Why.
    There are many more better and secure way's.
     
  5. dcdc

    dcdc Registered Member

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    How so? Does it give you alerts, or have items shown up in the logs that demonstrate that it has done something useful like blocking malware?

    As I noted on my original post, for me personally SG did not seem to be of much use, but that's only for my particular anti-malware setup. Your experience appears to be different.
     
  6. pugmug

    pugmug Registered Member

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    dcdc,rid yourself of guard.Blaster is good as it does keep up every now and then.Why run guard as it seems that even the creator has given up on it?
     
  7. DreamRyderX

    DreamRyderX Registered Member

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    Not fer nothin, but SG saved my tail recently when a rootkit invaded my little world. It immediately alerted me to the fact that a BHO was trying to install & even though I could'nt rid it with SG, it held it off long enough for me to find the culprit before doom set in. BTW, it not only told me abour the BHO, but thfile it was associated with & without that info I would have been tearing my hair out!

    So, it seems to have its plus side after all & like it was said before it hardly uses any resources at all,,so my word is...keep it! Its basically transparent & only needs to save yer buns 1x to be worth the small resource usage ;)

    EDIT....It was the only thing in my vast arsonal that alerted me to this BHO,,,so that alone made me a SG believer!!!
     
  8. dcdc

    dcdc Registered Member

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    Thanks for the post.

    I don't think SpywareGuard has ever given me a warning about anything in the past several years, as far as I can recall.

    My first line of defense is Spy Sweeper; it is the first to pop up with an attempted change to the Host file or any other suspicious activity. Spybot is usually right behind.

    What else do you run for security applications?
     
  9. gdiloren

    gdiloren Registered Member

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    SpywareGuard is outdated and no def. updates since 2004. Winpatrol easily replaces it. I got rid of SG too but still keeping SB as it is promoted in the Avast forum.
     
  10. dcdc

    dcdc Registered Member

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    Well, SG works using algorithms/heuristics, not definitions, for protection. By that I mean that instead of identifying specific malware by name (let's say trojan_stealthmonster or whatever), it identifies malware behavior regardless of name. I would guess that SG might work better against a zero-day attack than other AS or AV apps that are purely definition-based applications.

    Having said that, as it has been several years since these algorithms have been updated, I have some reservations about how well SG performs against the newest types of malware.

    I tried WinPatrol but got rid of it. For whatever reason, it was always the last security application to pop up with a warning about some change in my system, like a new BHO being installed. It has always been Spy Sweeper first, then Spybot, that gave me alerts. Literally a minute or two afterwards I would get something from WinPatrol. Still, I think it's a useful application for many set-ups. It's certainly not crapware.
     
  11. PhiloVance

    PhiloVance Registered Member

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    Well I've used it for years. Never had a warning, but there's always the 1st time.
     
  12. dcdc

    dcdc Registered Member

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    I looked at the SG Reports on my machine, and there have only been 3 alerts, and all of them BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) - two of them were different Norton BHOs, and the other an Adobe Acrobat BHO. That's the extent of it.

    On the other hand, I don't think there is much to find either. Full system scans with a number of antimalware applications very rarely turn up anything more serious than a tracking cookie. I believe that my active protection blocks just about everything beforehand, silently or otherwise.:)
     
  13. vkidv

    vkidv Registered Member

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    I think that SpywareGuard is less relevant now than it was in the past. I had used it for at least 2 or 3 years.

    Applications like Windows Defender or Spybot offer resident pretection like SpywareGuard. My reasoning is that since they are already installed and used to scan your PC, you may as well use it. I also think TeaTimer and Windows Defender are more powerful in what changes can be detected.
     
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