Poor Poor Spyware Terminator :(

Hmm thanks for the listing, I got curious and checked (installed them)

Arovax AntiSpyware has no real time. Neither does Doctor Alex Antispyware. Myplaycity Antispyware doesn't seem to be downloadable anywhere.

SpyCatcher Express has realtime yes, I forgot about that one despite using it in the past. I'm also aware of PCclear but i've always thought of it as antivirus in my mind.

In short I still don't think ST actually has that many freeware competitors (at least 10?) for Real Time protection even if we go down to the obscure ones (as opposed to on demand scanners where there are indeed a large number), mainly because I suspect most will follow Ad-aware/superantispyware etc in providing real time protection for the paid version only. After all you got to keep some features for the paid version...

Still, if you know of any others, I would be grateful if you could list them.

 

Basically, I removed this software as AVG anti-rootkit free found it had a rootkit on my system. Very invasive software...

 

I don't trust too much Real-time protection. I get spywares discovered by other softwares and ST even with Real-Time protection ON. Depends on the quality of the software...

 

Oh my...

 

Yes, they are famous for hidng their "protector" process so it's invisible as a defensive measure. Harmless if you know what you are doing.

See

http://www.tenebril.com/kb/showitem.php?faq_id=390
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1901907,00.asp

On the plus side, they have never being placed on the rogue list...

 

I have read everyones comments here about SpyCatcher express. I cant confirm them, but the people on these forums are trustworthy.

Anothing thing to consider is that they still seem to have a commercial version. There is SpyCatcher Express and SpyCatcher for $30/yr. Leads me to believe that SpyCatcher Express = slim version of SpyCatcher.

I might be wrong in that assessment, but I do wish to point out that there is no "slim" version of Spyware Terminator. ST is 100% free.

 

I do not trust any mainstream magazine/news outlet to deliver credible news, least of all about technology - they are designed to cater to the lowest common denominator and almost always driven by advertising dollars.

And I question the need for dedicated realtime antispyware at all. The trend as I see it is for antivirus to catch all vectors of attack - viruses, trojans, spyware etc. Because these apps no longer just use signatures but monitor behavior. On demand AS scans should be enough. I also find HIPS more trouble than its worth and its only usable by highly technical users who can understand the prompts.

 

Sandbox HIPS have no prompts...

 

Interesting, I have never actually tried them, I trusted, what they claimed, it looks, that I was wrong and you are right, ST is simply one of a few.

 

Why don't you try DefenseWall, no prompts. If my wife can use it, I'm sure you can use it too.

 

PCMag needs to find a reputable lab (eg. AV-test.org) or individual to perform anti-spyware reviews. Regardless, even though Spyware Terminator is free it will never touch any of my personal pc's, or the ones that I service, until they fix their lackluster detection rates. If they only had Nick Skrepetos on the payroll.....

Spyware Doctor has a free version w/ limited real-time protection.

 

This is a quote from the PC Mag Review was wondering if anyone could shed some light on it.....

?

 

I never saw a toolbar when I installed ST previously.
I'm thinking it's a seperate app.

Maybe Tokar can shed some light on the toolbar issue?

 

The toolbar is optional, and you can dLo ST without it @ majorgeeks dot com. Sort of like CCleanerSlim. Never installed it though. It has the "web security guard" in the toolbar

 

There are basically two versions of SpywareTerminator. One with the toolbar, which is required for WSG, and one without, a smaller download.
The version with the toolbar is the "primary" one shown on the download page; scroll down a little to find the download for the basic version.
If downloading the one with the toolbar, the option is offered during installation to install it or not,(a little like Ccleaner's offering to install the Yahoo toolbar.)
I prefer not to use toolbars, so have always downloaded the basic version.
Also, during installation is the option to integrate the Clam AV.
If none of the options are selected, just the ST application will be installed.No need to look elsewhere (eg MajorGeeks) for the version you want.
SpywareTerminator download page

 

Yeah I get this too. I do not like it either .
Im pretty sure it only will occur once. I can only recall a single popup letting me know about Crawler Smilies...oh and maybe another one for funutilities.com. Im not sure the full spectrum of popups, but they show up below the left side of the toolbar only once or so. After you click no (or close, whichever it is) you never see it again.

However, Im going to ask that they remove this.




I did want to bring up a bit of news with relation to PCMag and reviews of security software:

PCMag criticized ST for poor keylogger detetction. Now, I would be led to believe that it is poor detection of "legitimate trojan-type keyloggers". However, I just got the new PCMag (September 4, 2007) and I saw this review of Ad-Aware 2007:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2155541,00.asp

I separately tested the product's ability to detect and remove commercial keyloggers; in this test, it scored a big fat goose-egg. Lavasoft verified that they do not attempt to remove such programs. "We want to respect the business model of the companies that manufacture monitoring software." I can see their point, but I'd at least like to be told that monitoring software is on the system.

It is pretty clear that Neil uses commercial keyloggers to test the keylogger detection. So it is no surprise that ST scores poorly in this area since ST currently does not detect commercial keyloggers. However, we might change this and make commercial keyloggers part of a new group of items or something.

 

I found out that the feature can be disabled in the settings very easily. In the Crawler Toolbar settings, just go into the Advanced Settings and uncheck the option for Crawler Tips.

This option will be moved to the general settings (the first settings window you see) to make it easier to find and disable.

 

People say ST is a good free software...
I admit that it has a nice real-time protection,
but it caused a lot of problems in my PC.
I'm never going to use it again.

 

what problems did it cause?

 

First of all, it didn't remove completely.
Secondly, it did something with my internet connection after I
deleted it.
Lastly, ST's cr*p are all over my registry.
In my opinion, ST is a nice free bloatwar for me.
It's my OWN opinion, do not panic

 

Ah well,

It is the natural order of cascading security setups. I started with Spyware Terminator, Then switched over to SpyCatcher Express because it had a option to allow drivers temporarily. Both work okay as an IDS, found Spycatcher to be very agressive. Later on I switched to HIPS and when getting bored of pop-ups switched to sandboxes (DefenseWall on 1, GeSWall on the other). DW is the quitest!

 

I am not panicing. I am just taking notes on what we can do better to please certain groups of people.

If you dont mind me asking for more information:
-What was left all over the registry from ST? If the uninstall process needs to be improved, please let me know so I can forward this to the developers.
-What do you feel makes it bloatware?

• RAM usage? (sp_clamsrv.exe uses ~3MB, sp_rsser.exe uses ~35MB, spywareterminatorshield.exe uses ~3MB, spywareterminator.exe uses ~50MB...so total is about 90MB or so)
• HD space usage? (\program files\ST uses 18MB, \program files\WinClamAVShield uses 11.3MB, folders in documents and settings use under 512KB....so total is under 30MB)
• Number of files stored on the hard drive? (\program files\ST has 7 core files, 1 info file, 8 database files, 30 language files in 15 cab/inf pairs, \program files\WinClamAVShield has 8 files, folders in documents and settings have initially just 4 core files and the 36 extracted language files...so thats 58 without the redundant language files in the Documents and Settings, 94 with)
• Number of registry entries?

Im just curious. We just want to improve thats all.