Webroot SecureAnywhere Discussion & Update Thread

running that system with windows firewall disabled as well as no pagefile. going to run it tomm and use it for the day. ill let you know how it goes. and yes you need to reboot after disabling the pagefile. so far though at least on this machine i am not seeing a huge difference. ill leave it on and see if anything builds up over time. yes things are just a bit slower but not a huge amount. this has windows 7 x64 and the drivers needed and office 2013 nothing more (its from a image i use of this system to test without anything added)

 

I assume without pagefile WSA is forced to use ram, and probably takes some of the processing activity on itself. With the firewall disabled, WSA doesn't even seem to recognize it's disabled, but I would assume that aspect of the product is non-function.

I still wonder why Webroot doesn't release a heavily stripped down 'complimentary' product to their WSA.. Something with no firewall crap, no optimizer, nothing but a PrevX like web/identity protection, and super basic cloud AV with a trimmed down interface? Also it puzzles me why this explorer/wf issue has persisted for almost a year now since I reported it. My 'guess' is they rely on hiding their processes within explorer and pagefile to keep them seemingly small, and lite. If that's the case WSA is essentially falsly advertising itself because one has to factor Explorer.exe+WFC bloating into the weight of the product.

Why haven't reviewers/testers reported this? All of them just look at WSA processes and say 'OMG ITS TINY' without bothering to look at the giant bloating of explorer+wfc.

 

I have no opinion about the firewall. But I don't care if WSA relies on page file or RAM. It's the lightest there is and scored 100% of 100 ITW trojans att MRG. It also has a sandbox for unkown processes. It's good enough for most. I don't even mind if explorer.exe takes 300 mb of RAM, as long as it's light and nothing else breakes... and I only have 4 gb RAM. More than enough for everyday tasks and heavy gaming, even if explorer.exe explodes.

 

The firewall has always been there they just decided to expose it for the 2013 & 2014 product lines and on Win 8.1 it will still block malicious files calling out. And the issue is only on Win 8.1 x64 and on Win 8 x64 the issue was not there. And with Win 8.1 you can't make any adjustments to WSA's firewall since Microsoft stopped access to it so why duplicate the API's when it's already there in Win 8.1 firewall and it works very well.

As I said above it's only Win 8.1 x64 that is affected so if what you say is true why doesn't it show up on other OS's and even Win 8.1 x86? I have no issues on Win 7 Ultimate x64.

TH

 

Actually heavy gaming exceeds 4GB by a pretty healthy margin. 6GB is considered the minimum for gaming, with 8GB for heavy gaming. Next year with Nitrous, Mantle, and Dx12, 16gb will be needed for heavy gaming.

 

I'm actually playing Battlefield 4 on Ultra settings. It's fine even though recommended hardware is way above 4GB RAM. Anyhow, all I'm saying is that Webroot doesn't cause any actual, real problems. For nearly all users it's only a theoretical problem, not a practical one.

Also, I'm using Win 8.1 x64 on two machines. I only experienced it _once_ on my HTPC when I just happened to check the task manager. I would never have noticed the phenomena if I hadn't.

I do agree with you when you say Webroot shouldn't market the low RAM-usage for their product if they're hiding the memory usage in page file.

 

100% agreement.

However BF4 64-Bit client may struggle with 4GB, but you are probably having some swapfile action with only 4GB. Many games push well beyond that. Thief with Mantle enabled will push 5GB. By mid-2015 most games will need over 4GB ram, and 2GB Video ram to function properly. I just upgraded to a 'stopgap' card for each desktop and those have 1.5gb of GPU ram. I'm waiting for the new DX12 cards before dropping the coin for a real upgrade. Anyone would be foolish to upgrade ANYTHING right now. 2015 brings a lot to the table.

 

They arent, Webroot has low memory usage because its signatures are on the cloud, this problem with explorer using a lot of ram is a bug affecting only Windows 8.1 x64.

The real problem is that Webroot is taking so long to fix this, WSA has many small annoying bugs that needs to be fixed.

 

I thought Joe had addressed this issue here?

 

Is there any chance of reducing false positives in the new version.SA Complete.Haven't been using because of that
Tom

 

False positives for what Files or Websites?

Thanks,

TH

 

Well this is what I got about the high memory usage on Win 8.1 x64: https://community.webroot.com/t5/We...er-exe-using-up-to-300mb-RAM/m-p/117664#M7014

Thanks,

TH

 

What does the web filter offer for protection really? Protection against phishing and malicious sites... but what else? It does not scan files (the WSA.exe client takes care of that). It's over sensitive with A LOT of false positives and it delays start of browser and a slight delay in response times when browsing to sites.

If I disable the web filter, all I miss is web reputation, right? Google's phising filter and AdGuards web filter will take care of that just fine without false positives.

Also, in the help file I quote the following:

It says the Web Shield protects me and my search result. However, disabling the Web Filter extension also disabled the image next to each link in search result. Why? It's the Web Shield that does this job according to official support site.

What's the difference between the Web Shield and Web Filter extension really? It seems to me the Web Shield is a gimmick as in reality it's the Web Filtering Extension that protects my search results.

 

There one and the same so when you disable the Web Filter Extension the check marks are also gone when searching along with Protection against phishing and malicious sites.

http://www.webroot.com/En_US/SecureAnywhere/PC/WSA_PC_Help.htm#C3_Shielding/CH3a_WhatShieldsDo.htm

HTH,

TH

 

How does WSA notify/block/prevent MITM/MITB attacks?

 

Identity Shield! http://www.webroot.com/En_US/SecureAnywhere/PC/WSA_PC_Help.htm#C6_IDProtection/CH6a_ManagingID.htm

TH

 

Yes. But the Web Shield does not work without the extension, right? It cannot show signs in front of search results anymore as it could in earlier versions. Then why even have the Web Shield in WSA.exe if it's the extension that provide protection? So basically you could disable Web Shield and run only extension still get the same protection as when you have them both enabled?

The Web Shield, according to all documentation of WSA, is obsolete since Webroot released their browser extension. Am I not right?

 

Correct and remember the 2014 versions are using BrightCloud for both Website Blocking & Check Marks so the need of extensions for now but you never know as it could change?

TH

 

As I suspected!

But then I ask myself (and Webroot), why even have the Web Shield in WSA.exe when it's not used anymore? The functionality has been moved to the browser extension. The Web Shield is obsolete. Or am I missing something?

It seems to me the documentation of WSA should be updated. The Web Shield does no longer show signs before search results anymore. It's the Browser Extension's work.

 

If you turn off from there then the Tray Icon will turn Gray with an Exclamation point so if you don't want the Web Shield IMO it's best to disable the Web Filtering extension in each supported Browser!

TH

 

And again it says:

So the extension does both jobs as it says above so if you have issues with the wording it's best to comment at the Webroot Community as there is no Official Support on Wilders anymore.

Thanks,

TH

 

There is also a difference between checking search engine results and just blocking malicious URL's. If you don't need the search engine checking, only malicious URL blocking, do you need both Webshield and Web filtering extension enabled?

 

Thanks! TH!

Posted here!

 

As I said above the 1 extension does both jobs so how can you separate the 1 extension?

Sorry Guys that's how it works,

TH

 

I think the Web Filtering does both? The Web Shield does not do anything according to my tests. I would like some more information of its functionality.