Is Webroot an Antivirus?

Can one depend on it solely or is it not a complete antivirus? Reason I ask is because I've seen some people running Webroot with something else, and when I say something else, I mean I've seen people running it along side a full fledged antivirus like Bitdefender or Norton which seemed overkill to me.

Please advice as I have an 8 user / 3 year license that I am considering using it now in the hopes that they have fixed their false positives problem.

Reason I wanna try it is because they are the only AV along with EAM/EIS that have aggressive PUP detections

 

I hope so or else I haven't been doing my job correctly As for the PUA/PUP detections its always a tough call, its a definite grey area! What one AV company thinks is PUA another disagrees! Some people do run Webroot with other products, we do run alongside other AV's with other products. Probably the most popular combo is WSA with the free version of MBAM from what I see.

 

well MBAM isn't an Antivirus anyway and is used to detect other stuff that an AV may or may not miss.

But I am saying, i've seen people running Webroot with full fledged AVs and on the Webroot forums when someone says they have a problem with that, the mods don't advice them that it's a bad idea to run 2 AVs at the same time, instead, they tell them to add exclusions.

that's why I was surprised

 

I exclusively run it on my various PC's and my PC is as clean as a whistle. We are a full fledged AV product, if you want to run it alongside another AV that is always your choice. Generally speaking running two AV's isn't a great idea but we are a little different

 

I am running WSA alongside Norton Security 2015 with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Both are very good products.

 

see? this is just one example of what I mentioned! why on earth would you run 2 AVs together? that's just asking for trouble! the file being scanned by 2 AVs live at the same time! it's just overkill, plus, why do you feel the need to? hence, why I made this thread to ask why are people running 2 AVs which made me think Webroot is not a full AV

 

I wouldn't run two solutions with post execution behavioral focused detection simultaneously.

 

No they are not the only ones, Malwarebytes and ESET is also good against them. I actually wouldn't mind if WR upped their game against the PUAs a bit more.

WSA is different, and yes it can be used alongside another AV product if you want even if it is "full av" as you put it. Unless things have changed, as I understood it in the past is that in that situation WSA will not scan the file at the same time or before e.g Norton, but scan it after the other product is done with it if the threat passes the other product. But this could have changed.

But if you need to use WSA alongside something else...I feel that's up to each person to decide.

 

As SweX says, Webroot SA has been engineered to allow another anti-malware product that is running to step in first. This is why they say you can comfortably use it alongside another product if so desired.

The rule of not running two AVs together in real-time has been around for a long time and is generally sound advice due to potential conflicts with both products fighting to get in first. It seems Webroot SA is able to sidestep a possible collision and someone more technically minded than I might be able to explain why.

 

They hook differently on the system and they do this on purpose to be, as much as possible, compatible with other security tools installed. Other AVs have not been designed and tested to run at the same time with other AVs. How they do this, I am afraid, its proprietary unless they decide to disclose it.

 

Webroot is considered a Companion Antivirus

I disagree, there are other antivirus that can be considered companions.
http://malwaretips.com/threads/list-of-companion-antiviruses.12521/#pid92156

Once again to answer the question, yes, Webroot is an antivirus. But it can still be used with other antivirus. However make if someone wants to do this they will have to have the other antivirus already installed before installing Webroot.

 

There are a few that declares they can be run with others. If the producers do not declare it clearly (like MBAM, HMPRO, WSA, etc) then don't trust home made tests as each system is different and if it works for a user it does not mean it will work for another.

It has been discussed ad nauseam, running two AVs at the same time (not designed for the purpose) will not increase your protection. On the contrary.....

WSA is a fully fledged antimalware (unlike MBAM) that can be run with most others (not all). By experience it can be perfectly used alone.

 

I see, thanks everyone. I'll use it alone then

 

I use it alone with some adjunct protection including sandboxie to keep things isolated and appguard to stop things from doing much of anything. It's light and effective. It allows me not to worry so much about detection rates. Not much is getting out of the sandbox and if it does appguard isn't allowing it to run. Therefore allowing WSA to analyze and at some point detect it as malware. Just my two cents.

 

Installed it now....so far no FPs.... I hope I can continue like this, I love how light it is

 

I use it alone...tried VoodooShield and was fine but just run solo now. I never get FP's...in fact, an occasional FP might be nice....I feel like the "Maytag" repair man...all quiet, nothing to do (if you remember those days-I'm showing my age). I have seen WSA block a PUP or two in the past but no FP's. Good luck.

 

~Possibly offensive phrase removed~ Just got an FP!! I just wanna know who in the world sits behind the web URL Filter!! He blocks the entire web it seems and ublocks it upon request!!

I just got an FP for this very thread!

Wilders loads fine, when I clicked on this thread it showed a warning!

That was the reason I stopped using Webroot last year, it detected legit pages such as media fire, SVP (smooth video project), etc. as FPs! some of the most popular pages!

and no! I don't wanna disable the web filter! it's there to catch bad sites! seems like it catches everything!

 

not a single webroot machine i have here shows this detection. not sure why you are seeing this. what else do you run on your system and what is your connection (do you use anything like dns, vpn etc etc etc.) i only ask because i know once before you posted a fp and i didnt see that one either so im just being curious.

 

I have to admit Wilders gets pretty bad sometimes, but never have I seen anything like that. LOL

 

LOL... never seen either. Something must be going on with the system, injection?

 

No problems here with the website.

 

I have had success putting WSA on relatives/friends 'clicker' machines. At least I don't get calls every few weeks asking me to remove malware, so I guess that means it is probably working fine and I know my father in-law renewed it for another 3 years so he seems to like it... He used to use Emsisoft, but the older version failed to notify him when it expired so he won't go back, then he used Avira, which he got infected 3-4 times with. I personally don't use WSA but cautiously recommend it under some conditions... For me PERSONALLY - I find strangeness with it, false positives, and some system issues or annoyances. I don't care to go into it otherwise I will be asked for logs I can't provide as I don't run it any longer, and have passed along the $5 licenses to family/friends. Suffice it to say, I was pretty unhappy with it.

Also, with your Wilders FP... Strange thing, Untangle gives a Intrusion Detection Warning for some pages here. So it isn't the first time I have seen a security product kick off a warning on Wilders.

My guess, you'll be uninstalling it before the end of next week.

 

Emisoft which can be an excellent stand-a-lone with an awesome detection rate or as a companion now also detects PUPS

 

This is due to a bug in the Firefox Webroot Filter Extension, and a pretty bad one at that. This bug is (usually) triggered when accessing webpage links in Firefox with a right-click and then selecting "Open in a new tab". When doing this, Webroot no longer pulls determinations from its own BrightCloud database but from another apparently dodgy location. They have recently acknowledged that this is a bug and are currently working on fixing the problem.

Workaround until they have fixed the problem: never access weblinks in Firefox with a right-click. Configure Google to open a new tab when you left-click.

See these posts here and here for further information on this.

 

Emsisoft is insanely good on PUA's now. In fact, it's one of the only products we've tested that picks up some of the really obscure tracking/datamining stuff nothing else does, and that includes Trend. Emsisoft is the only product I have tested, ANY product, that correctly detects MIXPANEL as spyware. That's impressive, and it means someone at Emsisoft has done their homework.