Spyware terminator is it good ?

Don't forget good old spybot s&d has resident protection too with its teatimer. CA also has a free realtime version of pestpatrol available, its only downfall is it only removes low/medium rated spyware.

 

Never eard of it...
But... If you want to keep informed about "Corrupt" Antispyware check this link.

http://www.2-spyware.com/corrupt-anti-spyware

They keep it fairly up to date...

 

According to Spyware Warrior it's a rogue
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#spyterm_note
Do not use ST

 

Guess you did not read the whole article. Copied in it`s intirety from the linked report which is under the heading of De-Listed Applications: "Note on SpywareTerminator: We originally listed Spyware Terminator on this page out of concerns that Crawler, the company behind the product, had established connections with IBIS, a well known adware distributor responsible for such adware programs as Wintools, Websearch, & Huntbar. Although we found no problems in our initial testing with Spyware Terminator, and while the vendor itself announced that it was exiting the adware business (1), we decided out of caution to impose a three month probation period before we would consider re-testing and, if warranted, de-listing the the product from the Rogue/Suspect list. During that three month probation period we monitored the behavior of IBIS and Crawler. At the end of the three month probation period we re-tested Spyware Terminator, again finding no problems serious enough to justify listing the program on this page. As the vendor involved has not been involved in the distribution of adware for many months, and as the program itself exhibits no problems serious enough to warrant mention on this page, we have decided to de-list Spyware Terminator from the Rogue/Suspect list and can no longer regard the program to be "rogue/suspect."

 

I just gave SP a try after testing some other applications of its kind. So far i like it. Very view memory usage arround 14 MB (had no other resitent shield so far), no conflict with my security setup (i deinstalled Neoava Guard) and the best a free real time shield. I didn't tried the HIPS fetaure but will enable it now.

P.S. The beta has some nice new features.

 

I went to some fishy sites on the old laptop with this and it blocked cool web search

 

Can you send me the 'Fish' hunting places by PM. I am testing the Beta 1.6.0.789 right now.

 

sorry tommy this was a couple months ago when i first downloaded it.

 

I'm using it on the last 4 months, and I'm very happy with it...

It's an excellent complement to an AV...

The upcoming features also very promising...

 

I just had a look at the database. It's only 237 KB, seams very little comparing with other databases from a-squaered, Ewido etc. Does that mean less detection rate because of less strings, or do i miss something?

 

It's unfair to compare ST with a2 and ewido, which are AT. However, I also question about ST's database. Let's think about the size of superantispyware, spybot S&D, adaware. SAS's size(zipped) is ~1200KB(core+trace). Adaware's is 765kB. The size of Spybot S&D(zipped) is more than 1MB(not sure the exactly size, but i could tell from the update). Therefore i would doubt the ST's detection rate is on the par with those three, although it's really good on other aspects.

 

It could detect less than the best AS programs, but its Real-time Shield is great, doesn't slow down your system because is well designed, and is free...

The installation also a have a great feature, that you can decide the level of acknowledge, and this way you can adapt the program to the user to prevent to receive alerts that they doesn't understand...

I found this very useful to install on my friends computers...

 

one thing that i have thought of is i know they used to be a companie spreading spyware called crawler but i was thinking have they made spyware terminator because they now want to help people stop spyware and learned there lesson?
or could they turn back to there old ways?


lodore

 

I've been running ST now for a week with HIPS enabled. It fits in very well with my armada of security apps. I'm impressed with the depth of protection offered as well as the low system hit.

 

Me too, and I'm liking this program more and more. I think it beats out Windows Defender by a long shot, and and runs much lighter too. I also have used Arovax Shield in the past as a light weight HIPS, and can't see going back to it with Spyware Terminator having HIPS and so many other Features.

 

As i use Neoava Guard, a HIPS which is getting better and powerfuller each time by only 4 MB memory use, i am more interested in the malware/spyware/trojan detection of ST. So question is detects it malware as good as others even it has this small database?

 

I mainly use it because its Real-Time Shield can protect important system areas to control what is happen, without slowing down your system, even if its detection is better or worst than others AS programs...
For me is the best program to complements an AV...

I also don't use its HIPS feature because I don't like how the current HIPS programs works...

 

I have been using Spyware Terminator for some time now, and am very impressed with the product. I read everything I could find until I was convinced it was a trustworthy program, then installed it to try it out. I was seeking a real-time replacement for CounterSpy. I had become very fed up with CounterSpy's hefty resource usage as well as some updates taking well over an hour on my dial-up connection. I tried the HIPS function, but did not like it as well as System Safety Monitor. However, I love ST's small footprint and very quick updates. There is a comment I read at TechSupportForums that I found very interesting regarding ST's prevention capabilities:

"Unlike Windows Defender it works with all versions of Windows so it's the stand-out choice for Windows 9x users. It's no slouch either. Like Windows Defender it has strong active protection. Indeed with its built in HIPS system that warns you of any unrecognized intruders, it has stronger protection against unknown threats than the Microsoft product. This was confirmed on some tests I ran on drive-by download site where Spyware Terminator proved to be impregnable."

The quote is from: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

I don't use the ClamAV function, as I already have NOD32 2.7 set to maximum protection. I have used ClamAV in the past and haven't been impressed. It was good for finding a lot of false positives, but that's about it.

After a great deal of experimentation, I found a setup that works wonderfully without any conflicts or problems whatsoever. I have ST's resident shield active and set to scan everything except Services and INI files. I assigned those duties to System Safety Monitor (free version 2.0.8.583). I also turn the HIPS duties over to SSM and have HIPS disabled in ST. With this setup there are (as least to my knowledge) no overlaps or conflict of duties. At first I made the mistake of failing to disable ST's HIPS while running SSM - wasn't a good idea - take my word for it. However, disabling ST's HIPS function solved the problem, and they have been working like a charm since.

I was also formerly using WinPatrol mostly to watch over startups and the Hosts file. I have turned that duty over to ST also. Main reason is that WinPatrol polls to find the changes, while ST monitors real-time. As an example, last night I updated the Hosts File with my Hosts Manager. As soon as I hit the "save" button to update my Hosts File, ST came up with a warning and asked to block or allow the change. WinPatrol was also running, and warned me about the change some 10-15 minutes later. Personally, I would rather be warned about any changes to my system or files immediately rather than long after the damage has been done.

What I love most about my setup (NOD32, Sunbelt Kerio Firewall, ST & SSM) is the vast improvement in resource usage as compared to my former security setup. My current setup runs takes about 100mb less memory than my former setup of NOD32, Kerio, CounterSpy, Winpatrol & Ewido.

I have tried to use apps that are more preventative in nature and that prevent malware from installing in the first place, rather than attempting to scan, find and remove the damage that's already been done. Also, I have also been using SuperAntiSpyware free just for scanning, and found it be extremely reliable. As far as scanning itself, ST does have it's share of false positives, but I rely on my other on-demand scanners more for that function, and use ST mainly as a resident shield. I love ST so far, but wouldn't rely on it as my only AS scanner. However, I would have to say that CounterSpy, Ewido, A2, Spybot S&D generated more false positives on average than ST. So far, SuperAntiSpyware is the only scanner (that I use) that hasn't generated one FP.

While my setup is far from fullproof (as no setup is going to stop everything), it's a pretty powerful group of apps, especially considering how little resources it takes to run it. I hope this helps some of you who have been trying to decide whether to try this product or not. I think it's a pretty effective weapon when used in conjunction with the right apps.

 

Originally posted by KDNeese:

It doesn't work on Win98 in realtime. (not that I disagree with the rest of your post, I like this program. Thanks for your informative comments.)
http://forum.spywareterminator.com/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=476

 

I have used Spyware Terminator and thought it was a very good program. Actually I have a couple other anti-spyware programs and shut them all down for a couple days using ST exclusively. The ST active protection proved very good and none of the other programs reported any spyware on my computer as I scanned with each after using ST. The other programs I scanned with were CounterSpy, Spy Sweeper and AVG Anti-Spyware. I also use NOD32 and had it running while I was using ST but NOD32 has not stopped much spyware on its own.

If you use ST I would recommend not utilizing the Clam AV. It seems to be a bit of a resource hog.

I don't believe that ST has any spyware included and my firewall did not indicate anything unusual going on while ST was running. I doubt Crawler has "come clean" with its previous involvement in propulgation of spyware. And I cannot say that ST ignores Crawler spyware either. I did not test it for that and no longer use ST. It would be interesting to run some tests to see if ST recognizes the Crawler toolbar as spyware though. But anyway, if you go to the Crawler web site you will find they are still pimping their toolbar as well as suspect screensavers. And their privacy statement in regard to those downloads reveal they collect user info. Whatever their definition of "personally identifiable user info" is probably set by their own standard.

A couple other things, in response to the comment about the ST user reviews on download.com: I once downloaded a screensaver from download.com which had a 4 star editor's rating. But the SS (developed by scenicreflections.com) contained a trojan. Scenicreflections had 100+ screensavers on download.com, many with 4 star editor reviews, but dozens of complaints by users who also found trojans. It was nearly a full year before scenicreflections screensavers was taken down from download.com. In an email response I received from scenicreflections I was told that the trojan reports were false positives. I reported the issue to download.com and all the screensavers were off their site within 48 hours. So download.com's response is great, but I would suspect their policy of not allowing spyware on their web site is questionable. At least they need to review their follow-up policies in regard to that issue. It may be possible that the screensavers were later "updated" to include spyware. Who knows what happened?

Another thing is that there seem to be other companies formerly affiliated with spyware which have come out with some great products lately. I believe Comodo used to fall into this category and they have a very nice firewall, free for public use. There is a lot of money to be made in security apps. And purchasers of such apps seem to be a pretty loyal following once they find a product they like. So maybe the tide is turning and some of these companies are simply making a financial decision?

 

The above statement was a quote from the website I was referencing. I've only tried ST on my current computer, which runs XP - was unaware that it didn't run real-time on Win98 platforms (my older Win98 computer went belly-up a while back). I guess my main purpose in quoting the author was to give readers an idea about it's real-time protection (particular the quote concerning the drive-by download blocking).

Also, I do want to clarify one issue in reguard to one of my previous posts - something that I found out earlier today: ST does a good job of letting you know if your hosts file is in the process of being changed, but it doesn't seem to let you know after the fact. Today I shut down ST before updating my hosts file (didn't want to be bothered with answering pop-ups), updated my hosts, then started ST again. Though the hosts file had been altered, ST did not notify me of the change. I then started WinPatrol and it soon alerted me that the hosts file had been modified. So, apparently ST's shield does a good job of alerting you concerning events at the time of occurance (if it is running resident at that time), but doesn't detect system changes after the fact. While ST seems to be a decent program, the longer I've used it the more weaknesses I seem to find in it. I still think it's a decent program, but it seems to be somewhat limited in its overall scope of protection.

As for acr1965's statement concerning Clam AV, I would definitely agree (I believe I said something similar in a previous post). I would think that running ST with Clam AV would cause some real conflicts if one is running another AV, since it is a BSOD in the making if someone is running two AV's at the same time. While I applaud the efforts of those who work on the Clam AV project, it is not an AV that I would rely on for good protection.

Regarding Download.com reviews:

I read at a particular security website (although can't confirm) that even though software websites like Download.com and others test applications for malware, that can't ensure that malware is not included when the app is downloaded. The reason is that the files are not physically at the Download.com servers (or whoever - Snapfiles, Softpedia, etc), but the "download" link is actually linked to either the author's site or another mirrored site, where the integrity of the downloaded file cannot be totally verified to be free of malware. I know that this has been a real conflict with Softpedia.com, and is why their website is blocked in many Hosts File lists (including mine). Since they cannot completely verify that the files customers are downloading are free of malware, I would think the only way they would learn of them is through customer notification (such as with the Download.com screensaver issue), thus enabling them to remove those particular downloads. Also, I don't know about anybody else, but I take the reviews at Download.com with a grain of salt. There are too many variables, such as user competency levels, software conflicts, etc, to be able to determine how a certain software might act on your own particular system. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

 

Can anybody tell me if ST has also kernel level protection like AVG anti spyware does ?

 

That's the default setting. You can set it as low as 1 minute in the free version. Real time in the paid version.

 

I have the paid version of Winpatrol and have it set to monitor real-time. Maybe it's just the peculiarities of my system, but Scotty has never popped up immediately after updating my hosts file - usually takes it a bit before notifying me. However, I still like the fact that WinPatrol can undo the changes made, which is an area where ST seems to be limited. Plus, WinPatrol was the first security app I ever used, and I've grown pretty fond of little Scotty - couldn't bear to part with him.

 

I've been using ST for the past several days. I found it at Snapfiles.com in their huge freeware section. I've also been running it with their Clamwin real time thing which, I think, makes Clamwin a real time protector rather than on demand. Not the best antivirus yet, I know, but for a safe surfer I think it's probably adequate - and getting better.

I trust Snapfiles, and don't think they feature a known spyware company in their lists. I'm impressed with ST so far. It found 4 bugs that Defender and a couple other programs I tried missed.