GIANT AntiSpyware 1.0.242[12-9-04] NEW

Has anyone even tried this program?
I installed the trial and it found 3 suspect items, although Spy Sweeper & Ad-Aware found nothing.
Is this for real or are these all false positives?

 

I can't get that link to work Nick, is it ok?

 

here is the link to Giant antispyware giant anti spyware

 

It looks good but dont know if I would spend money for it. There was been a few of these new programs popup here lately. I cant say for sure but I think they are rip offs. Me personally if I am gonna spend money on something like this I expect them to have some sort of database where you can see what it detects and all like pestpatrol, mcafee, norton, trend etc... I mean even adaware and spybot is free and even they have a list of what they detect. And I have looked at about 3 of these new spy/adaware programs and they come up short on a database makes me wonder why cant they even tell you what they detect and where they getting thier definitions from. Btw that pic dont list the files that are suppose to be infected. Run pestscan http://pestscan.com/ and see what it says lol.

 

Hi,

I decided to give this program a test drive. My system is supposedly clean from scans by SpySweeper, AdAware, and SpyBot. I scanned with these 3 programs all with latest updates before scanning with Giant. I came up clean with all three programs. I then ran Giant after being sure I had the latest update. Attached you will see the results. All of them are false positives. I can not advise you whether your results are good or false positive as you did not post the filenames and paths. But my advice to all would be from my results to be very careful what you have this program fix as you could very likely be deleting legitimate files.

The other issue I had was with the RTM. It kept picking up on a particular process, and I told it to allow it and remember this decision. But Giant kept alarming on it about every 20 seconds until I finally had to turn off that particular checkpoint.

My advice is this, AdAware and SpyBot both do an excellent job and work together well. Spy sweeper is also an excellent choice if you want to pay for it. SpyBot has some RTM built in and if you want RTM with Adaware you have to go to the Plus or Pro version. Giant is relatively new and could show some promise, but IMHO the false positives make it not advisable for the average user.

Regards,
Kent

 

Hello all,

I would just like to add that I tested Giant on a clean system with no adware or spyware. So my results have nothing to do with good positive results but only with false positive. The program may or may not do a good job at detecting adware and spyware but I did not test that, just the false positive aspect as the original poster was concerned about.

Regards,
Kent

 

Hi all,

First of all my apologies for not posting this in the right forum and thanks to bigc for moving it to here.

My mistake for not making a proper screenshot. Sorry.
With all the false positives PestPatrol is giving, I wouldn't trust that either.

That was my first impression on using it. As with all new anti-spyware we have to be careful. Already had some experience with rogue ones, but I'm learning. Thanks for checking.

I haven't deleted anything, because when it showed the results I didn't even bother to put it in quarantine. Couldn't believe what I saw on my clean system.
I only hope others did it too.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

Testing security/anti malware programs is one of the things i do for my job.

i've been testing Giant Antispyware for a while now and i am very impressed,
sure there are still a few FP's but that is not a real problem for me.
And you can't review a tool only on the number of FP's.

The way it is build and works under de hood is very clever,
and collecting samples from all users (SPYNET) is a very good idea.
It monitors all kind of changes on your system, like changes in your systems hosts file etc.

And i like the extra 'advanced tools'.

I'll expect that this program will be the fastes growing AntiSpyware tool
the next year(s)

 

Hi tuatara,

Based upon your message, I will try out Giant Antispyware. Have you had a chance to compare it to SpySweeper? Also, if I was looking at anti-keylogger protection, would you say Giant or SpySweeper are sufficient, or would a specialized tool like PrivacyShield Snoopfree (www.snoopfree.com) be a better choice. I have tried to get some independent opinions on PrivacyShield, but have come up empty so far.

Thanks for the help.

Rich

 

I also apologise for posting in the wrong thread.


I have Giant and it's a very good program. I noticed after being online for a few hours I never seemed to have anything on my PC after a scan which did impress me. I also have Spy Sweeper and it is very good too. They both have some extra features that the other one doesn't. For instance, Giant has an immunisation feature which SS doesn't but SS has a Favourite Folder protector which Giant doesn't yet have but the immunisation feature I'd say is far more important than the favourite folder protection.

On information, the Giant program seems far more professional and specialised in Spyware than SS. Giant has a 'Research Centre' where you can look up any spyware. Updates - I seem to see more updates on SS but I'd haven't had Giant all that long so I have to give it a chance before judging that. Support - I found Giant support is available and better organised than SS. Usually you get a reply within 24 hours with both.

The bottom line is I like both so much that I don't think I could give up either of them. (like 2 wives !!! LOL) Go for whichever one tickles your fancy because they are both excellent programs. Giant is becoming very popular and I dropped into Cnet and found it's approval rating over 90% with people just loving it so as I bought it myself I recommend downloading it and having a good look at what's 'under the hood'. With Giant you some some extra nifty security tools which are a very big bonus. Giant has inbuilt tweaks for the security freak and tech geek but can be used easily by the average home user while SS is more aimed at the average user with no extra programs or tools for the security conscious to tweak. For the DCS mentality Giant is a MUST because there are so many things to fool around with and tweak but you have to know what you're doing.

Both programs will intercept keyloggers. I also agree that Giant has great potential to win a major share of the Anti-Spyware market. It's just that good.

Dave

 

Hi all,

My initial reaction to Giant AntiSpyware is mixed ... but I have to do some more research to firm up my opinion.

When I ran the program for the first time, it looks like it didn't identify any new threats but had 4 false positives. One, which was indentified as a severe keylogger threat, appears to be O.K. though I need to do more research:

HKEY_Current_User]\Software\ASProtect\SpecData

None of the other spyware or anti-keyloggers that I ran identified this as a problem and it does not seem that my system has any others files on it that Giant inidcated should be there. One problem, for untrained users, is that it seems that the default is to Quarantine without a restore point. This could be a problem for users, who may automatically use default actions when Severe threats are indicated - especially a threat that Giant identifies as a keylogger.

Giant also identified Minibug as and Elevated threat on my system and this also seems to be false since I couldn't find any of the other associated files or processes.

My general feeling is that Giant looks and feels a lot like
PestPatrol ... too many false alarms and therefore not trustworthy. I am going to continue testing and awaiting comments from other testers.

Rich

 

Hi everyone
i ran a scan with this program and it found only 1 instance of spyware and it's a prog i have called fresh diagnois.does anyone have any opinions on or know this prog.it just tells all about your computer,like it, but would uninstall if it's really spyware
thanks
rita

 

this is the message it gives about fresh diagonis
I went ahead and uninstalled the prog,decided i didnt really need it and i work so hard to keep computer spyware free--didnt want to take a chance--ran giant again after uninstalling it and it detected no spyware at all

 

By looking at some of the responses here, the detection of "false positives" is an important factor in making a decision about anti-spyware software.

In your opinion, what percentage ratio of "false positives" would it take for you to consider the software too questionable to use?

IMO, having some "false positives" are acceptable but I really haven't decided what are too many for me. Using an "exclude files" list, if available in the software features, would take care of recurring alerts hopefully. If the software company has good support and corrects these "false positive" alert issues, I see no problem. I think having "false positive" alerts are only one aspect in deciding how valuable the software is to you to purchase it.

 

Hi Steverio
I,myself wouldnt want to many false positives.i like this prog,seems to have alot of good points.have a nice evening
rita

 

The FPs reported here could be a problem I admit, but I decided to download and test this myself, *after* reading the Eric Howes test results link in this
THREAD HERE and the relatively poor showing of AdAware and Spybot in the tests. Now, it is Part 1 as Eric says, but it did not go very well at all for the "Top 3". Geeze even Pest Patrol scored better BUT it did have 10 FP's and that is not good.

Giant Anti-spy scored the highest in that particular round of tests with 0 FPs which is a very good start/result IMO.

I did have bit of trouble with download, but I discovered it was because I changed the country field from USA to Australia, don't know why that happened, anyhow I have since dl'd, installed and ran.

I am impressed. Installed easily, step by step of what you want to have running, RTM, Auto Updates, etc. [Personally I clicked NO for each as did not want to have it calling out/conflicting with other apps running].

The first thing I did was to find the Update button which I did pretty quickly, and dl'd the latest which took verrry little time. [I am on dial up].

I then ran a full system scan, checking all options I could to scan for.

ZERO found. Great. No Spyware, but also means I had no FPs encountered.
To tell the truth I was a little surprised, thought I'd maybe get a couple of reports and would have to figure out what they were.

Scan time: 4mins 49secs.. Very impressive and it scanned almost the same amount of files that AdAware and spybot does on my system.

The tools options in it are pretty comprehensive, it has a 'Scan for vulnerabilities' option and gives you a breakdown of what you can apply/fix regarding those.

edit: Slightly misleading in my wording, I did not innoculate them yet, want to see how stable it is first.

Extensive information about your system, BHO's, Startup, Winsocks LSPs, etc. very detailed.

To say the least, yep, looks very promising.

I have now enabled RTM on it, and see if it conflicts with AdWatch/SpywareGuard, so far [1 hour] no probs.

Cheers, TAS

 

Yes Ron I think it is.....

If it turns out to be a a goer, I will buy it.


I will post some screenies... lousy quality, I apologise in advance, had to use jpg as gif distorted the blends too much, and had to drop compression to fit under 100Kb.

First... Real Time Protection.

 

some of the things it's protecting against...

54 58 in total for mine.

 

some things you can innoculate against.. bit like Immunize in Spybot I suppose but more detailed ?

 

I have 2 questions.
1. Can you guys compare the database sizes of AdAware, Spybot, and Giant?
2. Can you say if it has got any heuristics or "intelligent" checking(and also whether Adaware/spybot have such stuff) ?

 

no heuristics cause it is based on signatures. heuristics could cause false positives except for those very few superiour scanners imho

 

I tried this program also, because of Erik Howes' review, and i got the same false?? positive.
Another thing was: when i used the "tools--> advanced tools--> tracks eraser " my comp got in trouble: shortage of virtual memory, windows said.
I had to cancel the program with taskmanager.
I have P4 2.6 giga, 512MB, XP

 

Hi Ronny,

I received a prompt reply from Giant Anti-Spyware's technical support which confirmed that the ASProtect warning that I received was a false positive. They have updated their program so that there will be additional file and registry confirmation before flagging this as a threat.

Giant also caught two minor problems - remnants of old installs - which I allwed Gian to remove. I am pleased with the responsiveness of Giant at this point and will await other comments before making a decision between Giant and SpySweeper. Also, I still feel that I very straightfoward anti-keylogger such as Keylogger Killer or Privacy Shield Snoopfree may be a good safeguard to have on my system unless I am able to confirm that Giant or Spysweeper have similar capabilities. Trojans and viruses are pains, but keyloggers are really scary for me.

Rich