Anyone tried Spysweeper 5.5 upgrade yet?

Hi lodore!

Could you expand a bit on those steps as to the reasons you did that or what triggered you to do it? this is not a challenge since you know me I just want to grasp the thinking! Here I go again picking your brain, no shame

What is this self protect shield? Is it the behavioral shield? Mine is grayed out and I can't see out how/if I should turn it on?

Have a look at my email scanning thread, no one seems interested in it so I may ask the admin guys to pull it!

 

hello Escalader,
the self protective shield is used to stop malware shuttting down spysweeper processes.
if you go to task manager and try to shut down the spysweeper.exe or spysweeperui.exe it will tell you access denyed even with admin rights.
the only way to stop spysweeper engine service is to go to the spysweeper secret menu and turn off SPS.
then you can close spysweeper and shutoff the spysweeper.exe process in taskmanger.
once this is done you can change the service to manual of disabled if you wish.
but remember spysweeper engine service has to be started before the GUI will start.
the reason i done it was to try and work out if spysweeper was the reason why sometimes the pc doesnt start after a reboot.
it does the windows logo and bar but then the screen just goes black.
so i have to use the reset button and then press enter on start windows normally.
lodore

 

Thanks, but my version shows it grayed out, both those SS tasks you gave me are active? I think i'm just confused again

 

Thanks for your reply. Here's the big difference: I am not running the plethora of defense tools many here seem to be, so there is much less chance of such conflicts. I have AVG Free (antivirus only), which has always been well behaved. There is also Ad Aware (because I doubt that any single spyware program is going to give you complete coverage), but that is On Demand scanning only, and stays well out of the way. There have been no other changes on this system. I feel confident that this problem is due to SS 5.5 on its own -- because of changes Webroot has made -- and nothing else. And if there is no acceptable fix for it, they will soon lose me as a customer.

W2K is extremely similar to XP, but with a businesslike UI that I much prefer over what came later, so I'm rather disinclined to make the change anytime soon. The things I've found that can't be run just fine on 2K are pretty few and far between. (I think there are probably still a lot of large corporate customers who feel similarly.)

I've known about Wilders for quite some time, but was hoping there might be an official or semi-official SS users' forum here, as there is for some other products. So far, I haven't found anything like that, and the other discussion on point that I was able to find is here:

http://help.lockergnome.com/security/Webroot-Spy-Sweeper-forum-12.html

It is useful to get confirmation of problems like this. A number of them can often be dismissed -- for one reason or another -- but a pattern of them strongly suggests that the problems are real.

 

Hi Escalader. If there is a conflict, I suppose that it could be with Nod32. [But more than likely with ZA ] I haven't experienced conflicts with Nod in the past, but I suppose anything is possible. Nod32 has a module for internet traffic (Imon). This module checks e-mail (pop3) and malware trying to gain access to your PC from the web. I read on another forum (Castle Cops?) that another Nod32 user was experiencing web browsing slowdowns with SS5.5 but that is far from proof. So I am planning to wait till I hear from Webroot. V5.3 works just fine and I don't need the SS e-mail shield since Nod32 scans incoming e-mails already. I'll report back if/when I hear from Webroot.

Hi GDev_111. There is an "unofficial" SS forum at Castle Cops. Not a lot of posts but I have found some interesting info there from time to time. Try http://www.castlecops.com/f163-Spysweeper.html One question - Do you use a software firewall? Thanks

 

From Webroot Tech support:
"Hello,

If you are using Zone Alarm we would prefer if you would run the 5.3.2.2361 version of SpySweeper for now.

Thank you for contacting Webroot."

So I guess I'll stick with 5.3.2.2361 until a new release comes out.

 

Hey again Escalader,
for more infomation and instructions to disable the self protective shields read the post by Chubb
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=872555&postcount=90
also open task manager and go to process tab.
highlight the spysweeper.exe process and click on end process.
if it says access denyed the self protective shield is active.
this has nothing to do with the new behaviour stuff.
lodore

 

for the last few days my internet connection has been really slow.
i was blaming my router since it was the problem in the past.
when i was using portable firefox it was using 100percent cpu trying to load a simple website but took ages.
i just used the instuctions from Chubb to disable the spysweeper self protective sheld and then shut off the spysweeper.exe process in taskmanager and now the internet is instant like its ment to be.
so at least now i know the problem.
in the lastest build of spysweeper if you disable the self protective shields and put the service to manual it will set itself to automatic if you lanch the gui.
so my internet will run fast until my dad decides to update spysweeper.
lodore

 

No, I don't. At home, I have an industrial-strength hardware firewall. This is probably much more effective than a software-based approach. (It is also wired, rather than wireless, so that is one less issue to worry about.) On the road, I am usually going in through a router with its own firewall -- not up to the level of what I use at home, but should be adequate. My AV or spyware scans have very seldom turned up anything of more concern than a tracking cookie. I have seen the rare zipfile that was said to have a backdoor Trojan or worm in it (could also have been a false positive), but the download item was not of any great importance so I just deleted it.

Any idea how old that release is ? If it is newer than the 1/07 release I was using, I'd be satisfied (until the end of my subscription term) if Webroot offered me a download link for it. I may no longer even have that last version that worked for me. If I do, it is on an older hard drive that has been removed from service.

Edit: Just found this:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3263.html
but it is labeled as a trial version. If it is "unlocked" into full version by one's Reg. #, I might give it a try. Oldshep, thanks for the tip on Castle Cops. They seem to have at least 8 screens worth of threads on SS, many of the complaint variety. So far, I have just gotten to Page 2. If Webroot is insufficiently responsive to users regarding these problems, I hope that PC World, CNET, etc. will be aware of the situation, the next time they do a comparative roundup on these products.

 

Hi GDev_111. I don't know much about hardware firewalls. I think they are good for inbound protection but I don't think they provide outbound protection against any malware that might slip past your AV and AS. My router has a hardware firewall w/ SPI and NAT. But I use the software firewall as an extra line of defense for program control and outbound protection. Maybe just being overly paranoid

I'm not exactly sure when SS v5.3.2.2361 was released but the date on the setup file I have on my PC is 3/27/2007. I think you might find this setup file somewhere on the web if you can't get it at Webroot's site. You might try checking out the Castle Cops site I suggested. Seems like I read a thread with a link to this setup file... Yea, here it is:

http://www.castlecops.com/t193924-Spysweeper_5_5.html

Edit: I see you found the major geeks site for the file download. I think the link I gave refers to that same site. Cool.

 

Hi:

Ty, did the click on end process and it can't be deactivated. Good. Then the grayed out box is a mystery to me.

 

What I ultimately did was to pull that 3/07 install archive off of a backup hard drive. I have since reinstalled SS v5.3.2.2361 (no use of the Cleanup Tool), and all appears well. We'll see if the stability continues. With luck, it will continue accepting new definitions until this subscription runs out, and remain a reasonably capable anti-spyware program until then. After that, I'm probably done with them. If I can find a Setting to turn off the "update program" alerts, I may do that.