PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 Beta Program

sorry for all the typos and grammatical disconnects

 

@RiverLights:

I too experienced the same situation with PCCillin 2007. I downloaded the program at the updates site of Trend Micro, about 67 MB and installed it over PCCillin 2006. Installation went fine until I tried to configure the settings. It kept me asking for a password which I've never set. I tried to solve the problem by setting a password. However, when I tried to access the settings again and entered my password, the program says that the password was not correct.

I uninstalled and re-installed the program but the results were the same. In disgust, I image-restored my drive, which I luckily did prior to the installation.

I think maybe it is the file that I downloaded from their update site that is buggy. They are also offering a trial version of this product which has a different size of about 90 MB. Maybe I should have installed this one...I wonder?

 

Thanks for seconding the motion, JJ.

My friend went the tech route. And I salute PC Cillin for having free phone tech support...and they are trying...but ...

I do not think she would mind my quoting her email...all of this from after Trend kicked her case ( virtually identical to mine) upstairs to an engineer. She wrote

Forgive me while I babble a little.

Neither my friend or I have much loaded on our machines. Nothing real esoteric. We both have fairly fast broadband cable connections.JJ, I have a hunch you are right about one of their downloads....I do not think it is our systems.

I went to a Trend Micro suite years ago because of conflicts I was having with separates. And we all know conflicts can be worse than viruses sometimes.

I'll hang with this for awhile, because their shields seem to be functioning.... Already blocked a couple network virus attempts to intrude.....and I like some of their features. I already have all my settings where I want them, so the password nonsense shouldn't be bugging me too much.

Clearly they have upgraded their spyware component, but I have no idea if it is as good as their stand alone ( much improved lately....if Consumer reports tests mean a thing). It should be as good, but I have no idea if it is. Their policy has been to hold back their spyware best from the suite ( which as policies go, Sucks)

Probably my favorite feature of both the old and new suite is their ability to block transmission of information you choose to block. Credit card, bank account, critical passwords etc. And the suite (2006 version) has said it blocked attempts to access them a few times.

As an aside, I had to uninstall Spysweeper to accomplish the download. TM demands that with a popup. Through several very through uninstalls and reinstalls, I have definitely
determined that spysweeper has not been the culprit. I have a high opinion of spysweeper ( once they got past their conflict laden 5.0 version), and will not let it go until I see some believable antispyware test results on this new suite.

Again, I am eyeballing the kapersky suite and very interested in the eventually upcoming NOD suite. Also considering adding a hardware router for extra security though I do not have a network at home. Also considering trying separates again.....bugs make for a brand new ball game.

Best of Luck to All in this brave new computer world. ( barbarians at da gates)

 

I'll try to resist running this into the ground...I'll try

TM keeps updating their spam prevention engine again and again. Have two new ones just this morning. I have a hunch they think that may somehow be causing all havoc.

 

@RiverLights:

Yeah, they give so many technical instructions that are uses up most of the energy and time of the customer, if she is lucky enough to understand them. I have been using PCcillin since 2003 and have been rarely infected by virus/malware. I am quite satisfied with their products until now, when I upgraded to PCcillin 2007. How can they release their product from beta stage with so many bugs? I think they were in a hurry to declare a final working version because of pressure from other anti-virus software companies who were also releasing the 2007 version of the of their products.

I heard and read reports that the beta version was a bit quirky but I thought all the bugs would be gone from their final version. Still, I covered my butt with an backup image of my drive, so I'm now on the old reliable 2006.

By the way, I have e-mailed them about the bugs and i haven't received any reply yet. Maybe I'll get the same reply as the one sent to your friend

 

Do you use any particular software for that, JJ? Thanks in advance.

 

Try using Acronis TrueImage. Damn nice program. You can download the trial (valid for 15 Days) at this link: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/link/?trueimage9.0_d_en.exe

It restores your entire drive in case of a bad software installation like PCCillin 2007. Much better than the Windows system restore.

 

Thanks JJ.

As soon as I get my system squared away, I will use it to create a backup image to my external hard drive.

May be too late to avoid running this topic into the ground, but the latest is a piece of really brazen and malicious grayware that waltzed past both Trend Micro and Spysweeper shileds. And, sadly, SS couldn't find it in a scan. PC Cillin 2007 did find it but initially didn't bother to fill me in on it...lol.

I found it actually running on the task manager...as a program not a process.
ayiyi

Only discovered that PCC actually found it when I examined their spyware log. Next scan on PCC flagged and removed it. But it was dug in to the registry because it appeared again after restart. Another scan, another removal...there again. The last removal SEEMED to do the trick, but when I get time I will enter the directory and look for traces. ( Later I did that and it is gone - score one for TM over SS)

To TM's credit, they do have a fine knowledge base record of the item

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/grayware/ve_graywareDetails.asp?GNAME=SPYWARE_TRAK_PWSTEALER

I reported it to Spysweeper.

Anyway..the point. You were wise to exit the buggy program...and it is REALLY buggy. It will probably be fine by next year, but not now. I am vamoosing from it today.

Thanks again for the information, and best of luck to you.

 

You may very likely have to reformat your computer for this issue. I had the same one (I'm nearly sure it was a buggy initial release that was corrected about a day afterwards), and now I have no problems.

 

Always possible, Saw.


The popup password requests have not reoccurred in a couple days.

Again, the shields are better and the antispyware engine is clearly better.
And the fact that they have free 24/7 online chat support is remarkable (in relation to other companies.....though I would always say beware of techs).

They are trying.

Hanging in with it for now....

 

How did you do it, RiverLights? That was my main problem with the 2007.

 

I didn't do anything, JJ. Just stopped happening. Now the settings will reset on me now and then...lol..for instance I hate those balloons notifying me it is scanning outgoing and inbound email so I turned them off. Then at random times they pop on again. No big deal there...

But my friend is having a hellacious time. Several incidents. The latest a rootkit driver update. Only 36KB. Keeps asking for installation. Keeps, according to the update logs, successfully installing...then 10 minutes later asks to install again. And after every installation demands a computer restart.
Makes her computer ny on unusable when her broadband connection is activated.

Now that does not happen to me, but what may be worse is that I have never received any rootkit driver update whatsoever. And out of about 30 updates in 4 days, I have only been asked to restart one time. She's asked to restart with all updates.

There have been many other incidents...including what seem to me to be false positives in her scans. And parts of the program that just do not seem to communicate to each other; but again I will not go into details.

When a program is acting that wacky, I flee. And am about to try kaspersky. And though I have urged her to just reload 2006, she seems to want to somehow get it all to work.

Found the Kaspersky 6 on sale, and will give it a try for awhile. Should arrive Wednesday. if I do not like it, will switch back to PC Cillin 2006....and then ,after giving them a month or two to smooth out the speed bumps, try 2007 again. That's the nominal plan anyway...but with computer security I just never know...

 

PS my friend wrote...

SS is spysweeper....which we both use. And I am the one who sent her the Kaspersky suite.

I agree with you, JJ.....in that I think they will have a fine , well integrated program eventually. They seem to be trying hard. But I think the tech is a little too optimistic. I'd give them till January or so. By next year it may be a doozie. Right now the TM cooking is so bad that the flies took up a collection to fix the screen door. (joke stolen from Rodney Dangerfield)

 

Last PS

written because I have been critical...to be fair...

That password request problem has vanished on both of our machines. Why it appeared and then disappeared i will never know. And it has gone a whole day without resetting my email notification selections...lol.

After extensive untangling, my friend seems to have hers running pretty well; that antirootkit is no longer trying to endlessly load.

They are updating stuff pretty feverishly.The last 3 (all today) have been a new virus detection pattern, an active spyware monitoring pattern, and something called an Intellitrap White List Pattern....which apparently is a spyware pattern specific to compressed files.

My CPU usage during scans has dropped dramatically. VERY dramatically. Whoops...spoke too soon...that seems to only hold true during the spyware portion of the scan (1% CPU use)....it appears a scan only during the virus portion runs the CPU on my machine as high as 80%....but if I start another process....like typing this.....it knocks it down under 20% again. So it must automatically reduce the CPU load when you are performing other functions. Nice feature actually. Memory usage is the same...fairly hefty... but I have a couple gigs so that is not a concern unless I am working with many photos. This program seems to be rapidly evolving.

Again, I think it may be a sweet suite eventually. And I may go back to it after I give kaspersky a try (I'm wasteful that way sometimes but I always did want to take K for a spin).

Best of Luck to All

 

RiverLights, I wonder why your PCc 2007 gets better everyday? Could it be that TM have been secretly downloading software fixes along with the virus and spyware signature updates? Nevertheless, I'm glad that this program seems to be evolving into a good product. I have been hooked on PCCcillin and its difficult for me to switch to other security products. Previous versions of PCcillin have proven their worth to me and I felt at ease and secure with them. Now comes the buggy 2007. I feel so downhearted, its like your sweetie breaking up with you, you know?

 

LOLOL. Think I know what you mean, JJ. Product loyalty can run stronger than most folks realize. And stronger than all too many companies realize....they are foolish to throw it away. And being suddenly let down by a suite can be almost like losing a "suitie" for sure

My friend is hanging in with it. And she says it is mostly doing OK now. All that lingers is an occasional "cannot read your configuration" popup when she goes to some of the settings; but then it allows the setting change as if the popup never occured.

One other item we both have noted is that in 2006, if you hit what they considered a dangerous web site, Cillin would block access and explain , in very general terms, why...and give you a choice whether or not to proceed. Now me I liked that. The 2007 version allows travel to the site and then gives a scary popup saying the borswer should be closed right away. Now whether it is just a preview page ( and the site is actually blocked until you click on something) or whether you are really there and vulnerable, is unknown to me. But I think their previous method was far superior, and I have no idea why they changed it.

One of those sites is the TopTenReview site.....of security software. The same site doesn't seem to bother kaspersky at all.

JJ, I am trying Kaspersky right now. it is doing fine, but there are a couple issues like the way their real time HTTP buffering scans truncates my upload speed...and blocked access to my email during scans...but I can live with those. One important point....kaspersky's first scan....after I had lived with 2007 Cillin over a week.... was completely clean. So for all its problems, 2007 Cillin was protecting effectively.

One small thing I do like about kaspersky is that its antispyware does not go after almost always harmless tracking cookies. Like a stealth bomber that refuses to attack civilians. Too many antispyware programs target them...mainly to add some pizazz to their scan results - for sales purposes(in my opinions).

K's updates are seamless and frequent. Rarely require a reboot. it's scans mostly run quietly in the background. it's touch on the system is not really light, but not heavy either....but that is just a subjective impression. Uses less memory than 2007.

Not sure which program I will use yet. I completely agree they almost certainly are downloading some program changes along with the virus patterns etc.

My next little security project...and I may regret it...so many folks report headaches with routers...is to add a hardware firewall to my security. Gonna try the wired D Link 4100, but will put up with little guff in using it.

Kaspersky is good, but the 2007 version of PC Cillin is potentially strong too;
and it just seems much PURTIER than K... I miss her...

 

I have used a number of security packages over the years. I won't let a Norton product in breathing range of my computer. I think Norton invented the rootkit.

McAfee was my primary until they decided that it was a "good" thing to dumb down the software. First ,I was forced to purchase their "latest" version. It gave me no options to turn off the incessant popups declaring that there was this security issue or that. The final straw was the resource hit that my system took.

I dumped McAfee, even though I had a year left on my subscription, and went to TrendMicro. I have been happy ever since....until now.

This latest version is the biggest resource hog I have ever seen. I am running a p4 3.2gig with 2gig ram and this pig is slowing down my system.

PcScnSvr.exe usage jumps to 194456k and cpu load jumps to 45%!!!!!! WTF?
TmProxy.exe 73544K
TMAS-OL 45616K
pccguide 28684K
PcCtlCom 24800K
pccmain 9632K
TmPfw 7468K
tmntsrv 4436K
TMAS_OEMon 2820K

This is 370mb of MY RAM!!!!!!!! Not theirs!!!!

Thank god I was able to turn off the phone home feature that causes an open a link to the TrendMicros' ad server and keeps it open.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/trendmicro/PC-cillin/15/support/EnableHCMS=0

I use the Virus/firewall and spyware/spam filter. That is all. I have no interest in being niggled about what web pages I may view. I opted to not let TM install their own spyware that allows them to monitor my surfing.


They had better get it through their collective heads that this memory issue is a breaking point and that people will dump them if it isn't fixed.

 

I have been trailling Kaspersky AV and IS, after a few years of using Trend Micro PC-Cillin. The 2006 PC-Cilling has been good and I have no complaints, but I'm concerned about the heavy resource hit for 2007 version - hence my trial of KAV. I must say that I am surprised at how much quicker my PC boots up with KAV/KIS compared to PC-Cillin 2006 - it's much quicker.

I have just started testing out the KIS firewall, which by all accounts is very good. I was running Kerio before but get the occasional BSOD, so I think it's time to move on.

I will probably stick with KIS - I like the interface and it seems to work pretty smoothly.

 

My only issue with KIS is that its real time HTTP buffering scan is sharply truncating the upload speed on my broadband cable connection (by 70% - 2100 to under 700). Reducing the download speed sometimes too.

But the real time scans are a significant security measure, so maybe worth living with less speed....I do not upload all that often.

It does load more quickly than PC Cillin 2007, and it has a significantly lighter touch on resident RAM. Once I turn off teaching mode ( and all the popups that naturally go with it), I'll hardly know its there. Both its updates and prescheduled scans run unobtrusively in the background.

Will live with KIS a few weeks more and try to decide. In any case, I am confident it provides fine protection.

 

Everybody participating in the PC-cillin IS 2007 Beta Program should have received their free license yesterday. Please check your e-mail, if you did not receive it contact the Beta Team on the e-mail address specified in the e-mails you received during the Beta Program. Thanks.

 

From which beta program Pccillin 2007 or Trendsecure?

 

Now I never know exactly who to trust in reviews, but FWIW, here's PC Magazine's review of PC Cillin 2007 .You have to scroll down a bit and click on the full review...


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2024964,00.asp

must say I did not find any ports open in the easy Shields Up test. This is the second year in a row PC Magazine has said they were open. They take a ton of advertising, so I personally am slightly suspicious of their tests. Agnostic anyway. Not a good review though
Here's their rave review of the new Norton

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2023975,00.asp

and their review months ago of an older version of the Kaspersky 6 suite ( which I am using right now....with only one problem..their http real time scans trim the speed of my broadband connection significantly...but I am still getting around OK). This review is generally positive ( once they turned on proactive defense), and they found it to be their favorite suite.....until they encountered Norton 2007

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1960797,00.asp

 

Just to update.

I have removed PC-cillin IS 2007 from my system and reinstalled 2006. The memory footprint of 2007 is way to large and completely screwed my functionality.

I have been in touch with TM customer service multiple times and was marginally successful in making their "product" run better. But it would never behave. They wanted to escalate this matter. They wanted to capture debug code, but I am NOT a beta tester. I get nothing for my troubles but the opportunity to waste my time helping them fix a poorly designed product and I get to pay them for it.

The short answer is that I could see no possibility that this system hog could be cut down to a reasonable size.

 

To update my opinion also...

I do understand, Giluxis. Though the memory footprint was not a big problem for my particular system...there are other aspects of PC Cillin 2007 I did not care for at this point. Quite a few actually. I'm dropping it.

Without detailed comment, I tried the Kaspersky suite...and generally I like it very much ---they informed me they have a new build ( free for current users) coming out within a few weeks.

Now I am trying out the 2007 Norton suite (never thought I would go anywhere near Norton again, but this new one is really a much lighter load).
I like it too. Very much a no muss no fuss program. And, for whatever it is worth, the PC Magazine review of Norton was a rave. (the review of an early version of Kaspersky 6 months ago was very positive too).

Will decide within the next few months which one I plan to live with. Right now its a toss up. ( had no installation problems whatsoever with either Kaspersky or Norton 2007)

 

What I love most about the TMIS2007 beta program is over a month and 3 phone calls later I'm still waiting on the comp. key we were promised.