Tauscan....

Discussion in 'other anti-trojan software' started by ardvark, Jul 18, 2003.

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  1. ardvark

    ardvark Registered Member

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    Greetings...

    The only purpose to this post is to vent my frustration
    concerning Tauscan and to hear other stories and opinions, if anyone has any to share.

    This is the second time (the first one was on my personal system, the second on a machine I was
    working on for a customer since I do tech work on
    the side,) that I have come across trojans that Tauscan
    has outrightly failed to detect. The first one was something called "TR/WinReg.Start Page" and the
    second "Downloader.Checkin A." This was according
    to two different antivirus programs, one of them having
    a poor Trojan detection rate to begin with! On the
    system with the Checkin trojan, I downloaded Tauscan
    after the AV had picked it up (but couldn't clean it, nor
    could the file be moved,) installed it and ran the test
    and while the test was running, the antivirus came up
    with the "alert" window but Tauscan failed to see it on
    two seperate tests.

    I have Tauscan on my personal machine but after seeing this, I think I'll remove it and find something
    else :mad: I bought a license for the 1.6 version about
    two years ago and I think I'm sorry I did. Does any
    one else have any thoughts on this matter?

    Best regards...
     
  2. Jooske

    Jooske Registered Member

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    Hi Ardvark,
    sorry to read your frustrations.
    Can have but one recommendation: shop around, try evaluation versions, update to the latest definitions and scan to the deepest. I fact i hope nothing is found as your system should be clean and fine, but look in the forums over here for instance what people use and like and experiences before actually buying something immediately, promise yourself to write your experiences and questions first and wait with paying a day or some -- it's weekend anyway so you might not have your registration key till mondy if you would, so play around!

    Edited:
    Think this is a good Checkin description with the removal.
    As it is adware it is not a necessary addition to an AT. Maybe more for the spyware detectors.
    http://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/checkin.shtml
    Startpage is discutable as well, if it belongs there, i would say yes, as some versions really change the registry, while others say "no" as it arrives lots as a JS.
     
  3. Paul Wilders

    Paul Wilders Administrator

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  4. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Hi ardvark. I have Tauscan as a backup for the excellent BoClean program since BoClean does not have an on-demand scanner. According to the BoClean people you do not need one and there may be some truth to this but I still wanted an on-demand scanner just for the heck of it. I have yet to contract a Trojan (knock on wood) but I have had to resort to downloading the latest updates for Tauscan manually since the autodownload never worked for me. Tech support was of absolutely no help (compare that to Bocleans tech support which has become legendary). I hear more good comments about TDS and BoClean than any other programs. Anyway, good luck.

    Acadia.
     
  5. JimIT

    JimIT Registered Member

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    Location:
    Denton, Texas
    Very happy BOClean user here!
    ;)

    (My recommendation should you not require an on-demand Trojan scanner)

    BOClean = [glow=red,2,300]"HULK SMAAASH!!"[/glow]

    :D
     
  6. Jooske

    Jooske Registered Member

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    The only only only (multi) pity (although very understandable from their position) is BOClean has no trial but on the other hand it has a very good support and money back policy.
    Since you have Tauscan to scan already, don't throw it away yet if it is for those two files.
    DCS very famous for the outstanding and fast support too and very educative, keeping the users really in the drivers seat. (i ever joked somewhere this is why you see me online so much on both forums, in my drivers seat)
    For TDS i do love the scripting possibilities, with which users teams built very nice scripts, emulators, for extra security, personal use, practicle tools, okok, some fun scripts too.
    BOClean and TDS, both have resident protection (TDS for the registered version the exec protection)
    I never installed BOClean myself, but users comments everywhere as again the one above here (hi JimIT)
    are very convincing.
    I tried a few programs while once trying TDS years ago i was impressed and did not hesitate to get it within a few hours and never regretted. And looking forward to the new TDS-4 family, supposed to ...... ok, read that in the forums.
    It will be the same like looking for cars, pc's, other stuff, everybody has their own reasons why the one is personally preferred over the other.

    I keep to the advice, try every evaluation product first to see how you like it, read the link Paul gave, which reviews there reflect in general what you find here in the discussions forums.
    And you know what:
    BOClean and TDS can run very fine the one beside the other (not that it is necessary to run both of course!) :D
     
  7. JimIT

    JimIT Registered Member

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    Denton, Texas
    Hi Jooske! :D

    Jooske makes great points. TDS is a great program, and DiamondCS also has cool and useful freeware tools like APM and AutoStart Viewer, which are very handy.

    You won't go wrong with either of the top 3 AT's, in my opinion.
    ;)
     
  8. ardvark

    ardvark Registered Member

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    Hi Jooske, JimIT, Acadia and Mr. Wilders...

    Thanks a million for your responses! :) I will be definately taking a look at the ones you guys suggested. Tauscan's updater function never worked
    for me either. Extremely flawed. The only way to get
    the updates is to download the file manually which
    can get tedious at times.

    Best wishes....
     
  9. Jooske

    Jooske Registered Member

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    In fact --as basically you are rather safe, with your installed program, occasional online scans, and a good AV beside it-- i hope you really do take time to shop around and bridge the time till TDS-4 family releases and leave the whole security world in AAAAHHHHHHEEE! (and more, leaving all behind them) although in case you would opt for TDS-3 there would be no reason to wait for that as TDS-3 registered users are upgraded to 4 for free anyway.

    Edit: btw JimIT, of course, i suppose everybody has all the free tools from the DCS site in their personal toolkit! No matter which other programs they use.
    The easiest way: create in the C:\ a new folder Console.
    In the autoexec put that folder in the path, so from allover your system you can use those commandline tools you store in that folder; i stored more tools inthere, just very handy to have them all together.
    The AutostartViewer is used a lot, APM is only for the NT/2000/XP users and very revolutionair
     
  10. tutti frutti

    tutti frutti Guest

    hey all, jooske - dont u just love her? :D
     
  11. Jooske

    Jooske Registered Member

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    Hi tutti frutti
    just helping a user not to spend his money immediately and after a while being walking around the internet with questionmarks if it was the right decission even though it might be, much nicer if people are really really sure and happy.
    Of course i know what it is for me, but i love to see people happy, really happy with the stuff which supports their needs the best.
    And yes, those free tools can be used beside all so if you didn't have them, it's saterday night fever, go and get them (around 30 degrees C over here these days -- see us dutchies not used to those temperatures all a bit euhmmm... feverish or so..)
    Anyway, fruit mix and all, enjoy the tools to play with. It's your extra protection! If you'd joined as a member i could have given you a nice karma cookie, i don't like eating alone :D


    Oh euhm Ardvark, once you get to the TDS evaluation: as long as it's unregistered you'll have to update via the website manually too, but registered users press the button from the console or in the configuration checkmark the "automatic update" so they get it all several times a week home delivered all automatically without any extra costs.
     
  12. ardvark

    ardvark Registered Member

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    Hi Jooske :)

    I haven't gotten that far yet, one of the things I have to
    pay strict attention to is system resources. I absolutely
    can not stand applications (which run in the background) that drag your system down noticebly.
    That is the only thing I will say good about Tauscan,
    it leaves practically no footprint. I also run AntiVir as
    my AV along side it. Both act like they aren't even there
    and I'm using an old AMD 350 with 128 MB of memory.
    Would this factor alter your advice to me? I've heard
    of TDS, even went to their website but I have no experience with their software.

    I'm not sure if Tutti Frutti was joking or not but I
    certainly appreciate the help and advice you and the
    others have given me on this post! :)

    Best Regards...
     
  13. illukka

    illukka Spyware Fighter

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    hi tds is great but you might want to try an alternative too: http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter it has a 30 day trial
    trojan hunters resident protection(thguard) is very light on resources
     
  14. Jooske

    Jooske Registered Member

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    Location:
    Netherlands, EU near the sea
    The heaviest processes are TDS startup with everything checked and the Full system Scan.
    I have an older slower system too and very little RAM, win98se, running it fine day and night, together with WormGuard and PortExplorer and some more.
    Of course i use MS Word or other programs and printing jobs, whatever at the same time.
    I even tested the current TDS on an old P166 where i reduced all RAM till 40mb and running winME and still doing fine with that.
    I noticed since ZAPro became much ligher in resources my whole system runs nicer, while TDS, WG have not changed and PE was a new addition. In fact my impression is PE helps win98se to close dead sockets and threads much faster and releasing the space for other processes immediately. When i close PE it takes much longer in general for that refound space.
    TDS is not really light but as light as possible, but i'm used to start it manually after the windows reboot, and if it would really be a problem people can leave the Process Memory Scan out of the TDS startup scans and do that manually afterwards. I have everything checked and scan on highest sensitivity so i ask some of my system, but i also keep unnecessary programs closed till TDS is ready with whatever i want it to do.
    TDS scans multithreaded to speed up the process.
    This way i'm very sure my system is really clean and in top condition, while the resident part (exec protection) only installable on registered versions keeps it that way.
    TDS most of all for trojans, drats, worms,
    WormGuard especially for worms and scripts and other malicious code (running completely unnoticed in the background without using any resources), Port Explorer for all connections including unauthorisized connections and possible trojans and lots more using very few resources.
    All three products come as 30 day trial.
    Make sure to read the www.wilders.org reviews on these programs as well.

    As i stated before, you are protected, it can be better. But you know immediately if something is wrong and are able to take measures, different from completely new users.
    So i mean you have time to keep Tauscan up while evaluating other products and see how they react on possible other finds.
    And there is no need to uninstall any of them while evaluating another as they run ok with the others installed on the same system. Not sure what happens if you run them all at a time for your resources.


    For the stats: with TH i have no recent experience myself since beta 0.92; long ago i was shopping around and installed that too, looked at several sites and a few made me so uncomfortable i didn't even bother to download or install their products even though i heard very positive exclamations about them, and after installing TDS stayed with the last one. Can only say i never regretted. The contrary, i have grown from innocent, beaten and hacked (which cost me a whole new system, CPU, motherboard, HD) to much more in the drivers seat and able to help others, while learning each day!
    See how the speech technology in TDS with msagents enabled opened a whole new world, where i learned some scripting and TDS proofs security can be really fun as well while very fine protected.
    It most certainly stimulates the creativity in whole groups of people, while that scripting also enables to add all kind of daily practicle tasks to your system, besides smack the hacker tools, of course.
    WormGuard saved my computer's life various times from bad nasties.

    So now it's up to you to try them out! Enjoy!
    And don't hesitate to ask moer questions, hope we'll be able to answer them.
     
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