The end of ThreatFire...

So there is no more free stand-alone behavior blocker in the market.

 

Yup - since its been incorporated into AV - a standalone BB is no longer necessary.

 

I will miss ThreatFire it was not a bad little product. I used it for a while on some of my older machine and its cloud kept the FPs down. Its sad that a mainstream free behavior blocker is no longer on the market. I know Micropoint was talked about for a while but no one has really talked about it recently.

 

Wasn't Micropoint only in Chinese anyway?

 

I have an installation file of Micropoint Proactive Defense Software (v. 111201.1.2.10581.0361en.r1) - interface is also in English.

 

From now and on, ThreatFire will bring good memories...Just like CyberHawk...

 

We had some screen shots here on Wilders of it in English. It did not really catch on here though it seems.

 

Indeed. Now just reliable memorobilia and retired relics that definitely served us very well while in the thick of it at the time.

Still would like to see some inventive/creative coder throw (just one more) BehavioralBlocker out there for us to swoon over again.


Regards EASTER

 

Emsisoft still has a powerful standalone behavior blocker: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/mamutu/.

 

Something is definitely up with PC Tools. On October 12th, ThreatFire was retired, Firewall Plus was retired and Browser Defender was retired.

Also, the last update for the SD+AV (PC Tools own engine) definitions was on October 12!

Since this date, I am only receiving updates for the Symantec database in PC Tools Internet Security and not the SD+AV database. So what gives PC Tools? Is the company preparing to shut shop and transition all the users to equivalent Symantec products? The fact that so much has happened on the one day of October 12 makes this something to think about!

If any of you are also active on the PC Tools forum, I would appreciate it if you could pass on this message to their forums and see if you can get a response there.

 

You can't get as good as responses on the PC Tools board as you use to be able to with the old tech forum manager gone. How are database updates coming along for PC Tools AV free edition? Are we going to see a Norton AV free ed or is it going to be 1.99 for a 90 day subscription?

 

Absolutely agree with you here.A lot of the HIPS and BB,s around today owe their very existence to earlier programs like threatfire etc.
The majority of todays HIPS style products are standing on the shoulders of these programs and its sad that they die away.
Much owed to them.

 

And most of them disappear after a couple years.

 

I'll pay to see that

 

PC Tools AV Free continues for now. Like I said, the Symantec database continues to receive daily updates - since PC Tools AV Free uses only the Symantec database, it is still receiving updates.

Threatfire also seems to be getting sporadic updates on PC Tools Internet Security, as well as the AntiSpam component. Only the Spyware Doctor database updates seem to have stopped completely.

It seems to me PC Tools is transitioning to using Symantec technology. However, the performance products are still being updated regularly from what I'm seeing, so the plan is probably not to outright kill the PC Tools brand.

 

Theres like a 0.00000001% chance that it could happen.

 

Really, I was not THAT optimistic

 

Given the current indications, I think PC Tools will discontinue PC Tools AV Free and Spyware Doctor and sell SD+AV and PC Tools IS only (along with the performance products). There's a small chance the PC Tools AV free might continue though.

I have been noticing new things cropping up on the PC Tools website - the logo change (note the similarity with the Norton logo), the addition of Virus Removal Assurance and PC Power Boost (both rebrands of the Norton Live Services), as well as recent addition of Norton cloud detections into PC Tools' scan engine. I think they are now going to make PC Tools "Norton Lite" for customers on a budget. Already Norton Utilities and PC Tools Performance Toolkit are way too similar to each other.

 

Symantec didn't need Threatfire. Its SONAR protection in NAV and NIS is built on behavior blocking technology based on a compnay they acquired in 2005.

Read the first paragraph of this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SONAR_(Symantec)

 

Oddly enough, there have been no updates whatsoever for my PC Tools product in the last 3 days. An anti-malware product without updates is essentially useless.....either they're preparing to release a new version or some shake-up has happened and I'm not getting any answers.

 

No updates for the AV database since the 25th. Got an update today that updated the SDNet (cloud) and Spam filter but no AV database update. Already it was only one update a day. How can I trust PC Tools when they aren't able to push out ONE update a day for the "comprehensive" database?

 

You can't

 

Yep, A while ago they also retired their free MAC AV as well. It's a pity as the firewall, threatfire and browser defender were all award winning products. The other issue I don't understand it seems they are now claiming to be the PC Mag Best Antivirus of 2012 but the artile only gives them an average ranking.

 

The free MAC AV iAntivirus has been resurrected as a Symantec product, but no longer includes any real-time protection:

http://www.iantivirus.com/

And its very odd what they claim about being the best AV of 2012 from PC Mag. I personally think Symantec is trying to cut the resources and staff on PC Tools; that's why they have discontinued so many products. ThreatFire's components still get updated in the suite as well as the Browser Defender components (now renamed Browser Guard). What they probably didn't want to do is fix bugs with the standalone products. ThreatFire was getting long in the tooth, drivers were old and they were struggling to fix a few bugs towards the end; Windows 8 compatibility was also another issue it seems seeing that PC Tools is yet to release Windows 8 compatible security products despite nearly all vendors in the market having released compatible versions.

Updates are back to normal today for SD+AV, PCT AV Free and the suite; I don't know what was up for the last few days.

 

It's funny... out of all the software I can think of when it comes to pure effectiveness in proactive security, ThreatFire was it, it caught everything. Sure, it had a few FPs, but those were taken care of decently, and I never felt like I wasn't secure in some area with it installed.