WSA #45 in Top 100 Tech Products by PC World!

Discussion in 'Prevx Releases' started by PrevxHelp, Nov 10, 2011.

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  1. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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  2. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    I'd be more excited if there was a single PC licence for Essentials at a sensible price. With only a single PC to protect, I just can't justify the move to Essentials when my current Prevx 3 licence expires in March. I don't want just the AV because it is the Identity Protection feature that interests me most, despite the misinformation on the website regarding the feature comparison of the different editions that still hasn't been corrected.

    I'm also not particularly thrilled by the fact that I still haven't received a new licence key for the migration from Prevx 3 to WSA. It seems that existing Webroot customers are being prioritised over current Prevx customers during the migration, even though the new product largely consists of Prevx technology.
     
  3. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    Isn't that because Webroot has a much larger userbase than Prevx? If that is so, it seems logical they'd want to transition those users first as it's a much bigger task to undertake.
     
  4. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    If it's a much bigger task then why not deal with the easier task first? At this rate, I may not get a migration until my existing Prevx 3 license has almost expired.
     
  5. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    if the previous lic's work now you can find the last version of webroot for as little as 10$ doesnt get much cheaper than that.
     
  6. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    I don't think a Prevx 3 licence will work with WSA, hence the need for a migration. Haven't tried it though ...
     
  7. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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  8. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    The transition of Prevx users to WSA is massively more difficult as it uses a completely different platform for managing license/eCommerce.
     
  9. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    Okay, that's fair enough even if a little disappointing to existing Prevx customers.

    My main issue though is the official pricing policy on the Webroot website. The nearest equivalent to Prevx 3 with SafeOnline is WSA Essentials. For a single PC user like myself this represents a 60% price hike. Living in the UK as I do, this is over 60 US dollars at current exchange rates for a year's protection, which I consider is just too much to pay when compared to the competition.

    I realise that by shopping around, I may be able to get a better deal this year, but I have to take into account that discounted prices may not always be available and one day I may have to pay the full price if I decide to stick with Webroot. I agree that for users with multiple PCs, the current pricing policy makes sense, but it's ignoring the market segment that I'm in.
     
  10. Triple Helix

    Triple Helix Specialist

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    Looks great the only security software on the list thanks for sharing! ;)

    TH
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2011
  11. Muddy3

    Muddy3 Registered Member

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    The solution to this is easy. Renew your Prevx 3.0 licence NOW for three more years (which I have already done :D ). You will pay reasonable Prevx prices, and Joe has already guaranteed that in due course all existing Prevx licence holders will be migrated automatically and without extra charge to the equivalent WSA.

    Btw the Webroot.co.uk website are already offering WSA AV for 1 user: http://webroot.co.uk/En_GB/index.html . Hopefully they will add WSA Essentials some time in the not too distant future?
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2011
  12. Techfox1976

    Techfox1976 Registered Member

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    In US$, AV 1 user is $40, E 3 user is $60, and C 3 user is $80. I'd not expect a 1-user license to save you more than $10 given the price spread.

    I mean, security software isn't like any other software. You can't say "They made it and now they just make copies of it and have a 99% margin." After all, you have security researches working year round who have to be paid, constant updates and technology upgrades, constantly maintained servers for distribution or cloud, and everything else going into it. The fact that security software costs so little by comparison is pretty amazing if you think about it.
     
  13. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    Thanks to everybody who has kindly sent me PMs containing links to discounted deals, but with 4 months left to go on my current Prevx 3 licence I don't plan on spending any more money on Webroot/Prevx at the present time.

    I still have an unresolved technical issue where WSA causes my system to hang on shutdown, so I don't currently have WSA installed. This is a problem on some Windows XP systems that has been reported by a few users. I am trying each new beta as it is released to see if the problem is fixed. If it hasn't been fixed by the time my Prevx 3 subscription has expired, I won't be replacing Prevx 3 with WSA anyway.

    Just to recap, I do think that the official pricing policy regarding WSA Essentials is very reasonable if you have more than one PC to protect. My reason for posting is to suggest to Webroot that there should be a single PC licence for Essentials, priced at no more than £30 per year in the UK.

    This is for two reasons. First, as WSA Essentials is the nearest thing to a direct replacement for Prevx 3 with SafeOnline, it would seem a reasonable thing to do in order to avoid a large price increase, in percentage terms, for existing Prevx 3 users with a single PC who want SafeOnline protection. Second, a major competitor to WSA in the cloud AV market will be Panda Cloud Pro which does have a single PC licence for £25 per year in the UK; and which will soon, in version 2, include a two-way firewall that will bring it closer to WSA Essentials in terms of its feature set.

    Discounted deals apart, there is a risk that Webroot could lose market share unnecessarily due to an uncompetitive pricing policy. Considering that WSA Essentials isn't a full security suite (no two-way firewall, anti-spam, parental control, etc), pricing it at £40 per year in the UK makes it a very expensive option for users with only one PC to protect.

    As Joe (PrevxHelp) is the official spokesperson for WSA, I would like to hear from Joe as to whether Webroot are planning to reconsider this.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2011
  14. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    Not to detract from everything you're saying, which I fully understand because we're talking about this unusual situation of two companies merging into one and the need to support existing customers from both sides, it has to be noted that the point about losing market share might not be valid.

    Symantec, for example, charge £49.99 for their IS product. But wait a minute, the protection it offers is for up to 3 PCs. There's no option for only 1 PC. It is a popular product that seems to sell well, and I don't believe everyone who buys it has more than 1 PC.

    WSA Complete would be the competitor to Norton IS in terms of the same pricing in this example. WSA Essentials is cheaper by £10.

    Looking round, a lot of the top tier vendors seem to be offering the 'up to 3 PCs' model. I know this isn't helpful in comparing this situation to theirs as the Webroot/Prevx merger is different and I appreciate that. I'm only highlighting the business model they've chosen thus far is not dissimilar to others.
     
  15. Pierrequiroule

    Pierrequiroule Registered Member

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    Is that not interesting! I have been experiencing that same issue every now and again - and for quite a while - without realizing that it could be connected to WSA! The only difference being that I am running WSA on Win7 Pro x64 - not on Win XP...

    I wonder if it has already been reported by Win7 users.
     
  16. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    We did have a few reports of this but I'm not aware of any outstanding reports at the moment. pegr/Pierrequiroule, if you're seeing the issue frequently, I'd be very interested in a remote session if possible to debug it.

    Thanks!
     
  17. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    At the moment, I'm not aware of any changes to the model to include a single user PC license for the Complete product. The price is already significantly discounted and as TonyW and Techfox1976 have pointed out, it is in line with what other vendors have priced their products at. A single user license would only be marginally less expensive for the full set of features - if you multiply it out, the 3 PC + 3 mobile product for Complete version should be:

    3 * $40 (for the AV version) = $120 + 3 * $20 (for the mobile product) = $180 (not counting the added value in the Complete product on top of it - this would be only the AV version)

    So, for $80, you're getting $180+ worth of protection. Considering that the AV only version is $40, I think our decision to have a 3 user minimum for the Complete product is reasonable and would indeed only end up with a ~$10 discount if priced back to one PC.

    As for the SafeOnline replacement, we are planning on having an equivalent free version for banks within SecureAnywhere as the Identity Shield. I would anticipate it being possible to use this version alongside an AV only license as can be done in Prevx 3.0 to create an AV + Identity Shield product with just the price of the AV version.
     
  18. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    Nowhere did I mention Complete; I was asking about Essentials, not Complete. It's the nearest to Prevx + SafeOnline which was available in the UK as a single PC licence for £25 per year. You are now asking £40 per year for the same protection: a price increase of 60%.

    I agree that for users with more than one PC, the current pricing of Essentials represents good value, but for users like myself with only a single PC to protect I consider £40 per year too expensive for a product that falls short of a complete security suite. For example, I could get ESET Smart Security 5 for the same price as Essentials.

    If this is to be offered free only to banks and not users, it would be unlikely to be of use to me as my bank uses Trusteer Rapport.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2011
  19. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    It's interesting that Symantec are currently offering Norton Internet Security 2012 for a single PC on their website at a 50% discount: i.e. £25 for a single PC for one year in the UK. It's also worth bearing in mind that, unlike WSA Complete, NIS is a complete security suite that includes the usual additional features that you would expect to find in a security suite: two-way firewall, antispam, parental controls, etc.

    The simple fact is that the Webroot pricing model is much more expensive for Prevx customers with only one PC, and Webroot don't seem particularly interested in keeping these customers. The attitude seems to be: Wait in line for a migration until existing Webroot customers have been migrated then accept higher prices at renewal or go somewhere else. I've had bad experiences with Webroot in the past and this is doing nothing to reassure me that they've changed.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2011
  20. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    I don't see that while visiting here, but perhaps it is elsewhere. If so, please PM me the details so we don't get sidetracked too much with mentions of other products in this thread. :)
     
  21. PrevxHelp

    PrevxHelp Former Prevx Moderator

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    Free to the users of banks as well as normal users (the equivalent of the SafeOnline version for Facebook).
     
  22. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    PM sent. :)

    Regards
     
  23. Techfox1976

    Techfox1976 Registered Member

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    On the lines of "won't shut down", I did some checking. Every won't shut down issue I've seen was because of third party drivers (usually old audio drivers) that don't pass Driver Verification testing. Updating them fixed it.

    If it freezes on shutdown, wait for it to actually crash to a 0x9f bluescreen (and possibly reboot). This takes about 5-10 minutes sometimes.

    Then examine the mini dump in WinDbg for the offending driver. Most of the time, the computer manufacturer stopped updating the bad driver, but a newer one can still be found. RealTek and SigmaTel audio drivers have caused problems (usually ones from around 2006/2007) and some IBM video drivers have caused issues.

    The alternative is to wait for a WSA driver update that reduces protection on systems with bad drivers just so those drivers don't have a tizzy fit.
     
  24. pegr

    pegr Registered Member

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    Very useful information, thanks.

    If I ever get round to installing WSA again in the future, I'll investigate along these lines if the problem is still occurring.

    Thanks again.

    Regards
     
  25. Techfox1976

    Techfox1976 Registered Member

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