My Spyware Doctor subscription has expired....

Very pleased to have found this topic. My Spyware Doctor subscription has
expired as of yesterday and the Nod32 av will expire at month's end.
I experienced many frustrating slowdowns with SD during the year, but was
happy with the detection (or was I mislead to believe my computer was free of
spyware/malware?). As for Nod32, every system scan resulted in no
infections detected. Now, I am considering the purchase of the Nod Security
Suite and an anti-spyware/malware program other than SD.
Any advice?

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

I would vote for renewing your NOD32 subscription. But I don't see why you would pay extra for the suite, as all you get is a Spam filter and Firewall. I'd use a free firewall like comodo if you're looking for firewall protection. As for Malware, I'd recommend using maybe Superantispyware Pro in conjunction with Spyware Terminator. Both programs have some great new things coming up, and look promising. Also Immunization with something like Spybot or SpywareBlaster is always good. This should give you quite thorough protection. Best of luck.

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

Am I the only one who dislikes and distrusts 'Superantispyware' ? What a name ! I have never tried it, the same goes for Spyware Terminator.

I don't know what program would conflict with the security suite.

Counterspy may be the best choice, if your system (hardware and software) can handle it. But I wouldn't recommend it for a real beginner, even though it has a mode for a beginner and an advanced user. But it has a free 15 days trial, and during that trial the program has the same features as the paid version.

I once tried Ewido, now called AVG antispyware I think. It shouldn't be bad, and it has a free version. I myself still have the Spy Sweeper (WITHOUT antivirus) from Webroot, but I don't think you should count on the Spy Sweeper alone, insufficient protection. Not to mention the ask.com toolbar and search assistent they try to sneak in, never use the 'default installation' !

If you want to use two antispyware programs (part of a suite or not) it's probably a good idea to have programs that protect your computer in different ways. For example, Counterspy tries to monitor changes malware might make, and the Spy Sweeper uses shields.

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

Every heard the term "Don't judge a book by its cover?" - there's a reason for that, especially in the technology field. With all of the "Rogue" and "Fake" anti-spyware products, any name with the name "Spyware" or "AntiSpyware" in it can look "suspicious" - if you just judge by the name - if you really think about it, just about any product name can be thought of in a "silly" or "non-legit" way. I.e. What's a Symantec? What's a Norton? What's a McAfee?

Both SUPERAntiSpyware AND Spyware Terminator are trustworthy and reputable products each in their own way. If you do a simple Google, MSN or Yahoo search for SUPERAntiSpyware you will find hundreds of thousands of links on just about every popular security forum out there, including competitor forums where they recommend SUPERAntiSpyware (and others) to clean up items that other products miss.

Might want to give the products a try before telling people they are not trustworthy..........

 

Can't say I have ever heard SAS being untrustworthy. It is one of the very few anti-spyware products I have used that has caused no trouble with my system. And it runs nicely alongside NOD32. I really do not feel I have a tremendous need for a real time AS. But I bought the Pro version because I think it is good for on demand scans and I support a company that gives away a quality free product to the masses.

 

Fly: While I thought the same thing when I heard the name, after using it for many months, testing it on numerous clients computers, and performing my own tests with it, I have found it to be a very reliable, and effective. About the suite, antispyware programs shouldn't conflict with anything in it, being there's no separate real-time spyware engine in ESS. Now Spyware Terminator may not have the best detection, but I chose it because it monitors system settings, and provides an extra layer of security (and is free ) Now, Superantispyware is mainly a scanner and realtime shield. This is in theory is much like you recommended, using different methods of protection. And while you shouldn't use 2 realtime spyware apps at once, SAS was designed to be used alongside another program without interfering, so this makes them work together well.

And thank you SUPERAntispy, for backing me up, though I think it's possible there could be some bias present
You are absolutely right, both products I mentioned are reputable and trusted by many experts. I listed what I did because it was what I knew worked, having tried most of whats on the market; not because it is amoungst the biggest brand names, is free, or got a good review on a site.

So Greg, the choice is yours, but I would certainly recommend you save that $20 by purchasing EAV as opposed to ESS, and use that remaining money to contribute towards a purchase of SAS. Both programs are very resource efficient and effective. While SAS currently at v3.9 uses about 40MB of RAM, I'm expecting it to drop down to a modest 2MB (or somewhere around there) on its 4.0 release, which should be out soon. And if you feel you need the firewall, like I said, many of the free ones offer better protection than Eset's currently does. They specialize in malware...not firewalls.

 

LOL!

SUPERAntispy= Nick S. and FYI the forum ranking title/signature link is a giveaway too

http://www.superantispyware.com/company.html

 

LOL! Yeah I know who he is, I had read some posts by Nick a few weeks before I signed up here. Actually, I just changed the way I stated what you just quoted, before I even saw your reply, because I realized it made it sound as if I was only referring to his user name, and not Rank/signature.

 

Add me to the list of those using SuperAntiSpyware with Nod
these two programs work amazingly well together, and both
companies have top notch support should you ever have any
problems.

Regards,

Wake

 

Hi,

When boiling down to the selection of your bet on which AS to use, you probably would like to look at the brains behind the scene; some with hundreds years of experiences in total, some others with less. But, please do not let that be your only measurement of decision.

Search here, Wilders, It is fair to say that most security applications, either old guards or new kids, all get full attention here by our members. These programs will be subject to all sorts of testing, scrutinies and criticisms. In the end, Some real ( I mean real for real) winners will eventually emerge; According to my observation, SAS is, while SD is not.

Take care.

 

I highly recommend SAS to anyone who asks me what they should have on their computer for security. For antiviruses I tell em the top few and let them explore and pick for themselves but for antispyware I only have the one answer for them and I have tried most of them and really run them thru the wringer when I am testing.

 

I have used SAS free several times over the past year or so (most recently last week) because of the strong recommendations from Wilder's members. Each time I have uninstalled the program. I cannot find any basis for such support. It takes 23 minutes to do a "quick" scan, and finds no more than Spybot or Adaware (I currently use Adaware and SpywareBlaster on Vista HP).

 

Congratulations, you have a relatively clean computer. Likewise, I generally find next to nothing, maybe a few tracking cookies when I scan.
But on a visibly infected computer, or one with less than adequate malware protection, I find numerous high risk threats. Goes to show it's not a bunch of false positives.

 

If you want fast scanning, you (or anyone) may wish to try our 4.0 pre-release:
http://www.superantispyware.com/prerelease.html

As far as Spybot and Adaware, although they are great products, you may wish to be aware they don't have kernel drivers nor the ability to bypass the Windows API to look directly at the disk and won't see many of the new rootkits we are seeing in our labs. So you can come up clean in the scan, yet be completely infected.

 

By the way Nick, I'm loving the Pre-Release! Have been using it for about the past three days, and I haven't noticed any bugs. (Then again you've had quite some time to work on this release, almost 7 months) Looking forward to RCs & FRs, hope to see it password protected some day as well Keep up the excellent work!

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

I'd hate to see what you think about Combofix since you've probably never used it and it has an odd name.

Spyware Blaster is a prevention tool and not a scanner. AAW chokes on hard to detect/remove malware and is essentially a simple cookie & mru scanner. One would have thought that Lavasoft could have improved the detection rates over the years, but the bottom line is all they care about is protecting the name they made for themselves years ago as a pioneer in spyware detection. IMO they are a lot like Bose speakers.

The bottom line is that SUPERAntiSpyware is one of the top anti-malware apps on the market. Do a search on this forum and you'll pull back plenty of threads and individual posts stating just that. Have you ever considered that your pc stays clean because you exercise common sense? Next thing you know you're claiming that Avira, NOD32, and F-Secure are not worthy because they don't seem to find anything malicious on your pc.

 

Try SUPERAntiSpyware, thats what im going to when my avg AS fades away. SUPERAntiSpyware may have a slow scan but the guys i work with praise it.

 

Nope! Just do what you considered. No SD fanboys on Wilders.

 

Hello Nick, what about MBR rootkit?

 

Did you have a specific question? We have defs to block the installers for the samples we have harvested and received from our FileResearchCenter.com and sample submitters worldwide.

 

After it has infiltrated the MBR I mean.

 

Thank you to all for your advice and comments. I am honoured to have so
many replys to my request. I feel comfortable with the numerous recommendations toward SAS (pro) and a purchase of their product. I will renew the NOD32 Antivirus program and not purchase the ESS as recommended by Chris Taylor (thank you).
As for SD, I have visited their support forums periodically and lately the
comments from the users have not been kind. I also wish to mention that
Spybot is installed as a secondary preventative program.
Again, thank you to all for your support.
Enjoy;
Greg

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

I didn't say they were not trustworthy, I just think that the name 'Superantispyware' sounds somewhat crazy. Like, really over the top.

 

Re: PC Tools Spyware Doctor - opinions?

I must need glasses, cause it looks like you did.

 

gregf
Happy to endorse the comments here regarding SAS. I use the demand scanner, for that "ring of confidence" as a second opinion for SpywareTerminators' realtime abilities. (Happy to report it never finds a thing.)

(Oh, BTW, if anyone posts here saying that "XXX is no good because it never finds anything...", you should expect to be ridiculed a bit. That's more a measure of the expectation that arises from your dodgy surfing habits than your safe security habits.)

For a second demand scanner, should you need it, AVG AS and Asquared have seldom set me any problems, beyond the occasional FP.