GreenBorder Performance

Hi Jerry,

We're not yet compatible with KAV6, and don't yet officially support Firefox, so I would be hesitant to suggest that you change or remove an existing protection for the additional protection added by GreenBorder.

You can however, send email to support@greenborder.com or a file a ticket in the support system requesting the free years' license, which can be used in future releases.

 

Hi f3x,

We do have a performance problem with NOD32 in earlier GreenBorder versions, we've fixed this in release 2.9.0.9109. We released this to download.com on Friday, but they run downloads through their own QA process before they make it available.

 

Hi Nic,

You're welcome for the offer.

During startup we create the virtual environment, this was preferable over doing this when someone starts IE. What we're doing at that time is the initial copy of registry areas and files used to spoof programs running in the GreenBorder environment.

The mshta.exe is what's running the Activity Monitor (which is a hypertext application). We'll add an option to disable the activity monitor in a future build. The Activity Monitor has a checkbox to disable the balloons, open the activity monitor and uncheck 'Show alerts when programs start'.

I agree the eventing of the activity monitor is somewhat lame. Most of it is a place holder for next steps. I can't speak for the product management, but the intent is to have activity lights to reflect each event catagory listed, and the ability to click on a catagory to view events. What you can do to view the virtual environment is to open a greenborder browser, then open c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe. Cmd.exe will then open in the virtual environment, and from cmd you can launch explorer.exe or regedit.exe. Note: Deleting files from GreenBorder environment will delete the files you've downloaded that are tagged (with GreenBorder Protection), and therefore accessible from within GreenBorder.

One more tip: If you want downloaded files to disappear when you reset GreenBorder, from the GreenBorder environment save them in %temp%. This is cleaned out after a reset.

 

Bill,
Thank you for the one year license for future releases. I emailed your support for the license.
That is very generous of you, and I appreciate it.

Regards,
Jerry

 

Hi Bill,

Thank you for the tips .

I didn't understand exactly how is working the "clean and reset" function, because files saved in "My Documents" are not deleted after a clean (still here, tagged as GB shortcuts), and some other files are left here and there; for example a shortcut to a program installed within GB, on the desktop. I thought every GB'ed files would disappear. Then I'll try your suggestion, and save them as temp the next time.


nicM

 

2.9.0.9109 now available on download.com...

 

Make that next major cycle.

The next maintenance build we'll support Microsoft OneCare (which Microsoft makes a moving target), and Spyware Doctor.

The plan is to add Kaspersky compatibility with the FireFox feature release (end of August).

 

Not sure where I read this, but a workaround for Firefox is to create a shortcut (to Firefox) on the desktop, right click, at the bottom of the context menu you will see "Add GreenBorder Protection" Click... and Firefox is protected. You loose the origional Firefox icon, but that's the price you have to pay.

...screamer

 

Hi Screamer,

Thanks for mentioning that, we do have the Firefox workaround in our Knowledge Base. http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/...et=14&hitOffset=218 186 132 106 96 18 12 6 4

There are a few things we would like to do so that Firefox users operate the same as IE users. Things like automatically run Firefox in GreenBorder when clicking on a hyperlink in Word, email message, or from a hyperlink in the 'Run' menu, that sort of thing. Plus run it through a full QA cycle and the whole press thing.

 

Hi Bill,

That would be great. More of the savy surfers are using alternatives to IE. Although I understand IE 7 beta 3 is more secure than IE 6, I prefer Firefox for all the add-ons and extensions available.

...screamer

 

I'm trying this software. I don't use Flash so that Flash tutorial was useless. Where is the help file? I don't have Acrobat Reader on this box. Is the Help File there? I hope not as I hate Help files in Acrobat Reader because I hate Acrobat Reader. It is so hard to navigate in it. I don't know about other users but when software uses Acrobat Reader for its help file, I go elsewhere.

I am a Firefox user from way back when it was Phoenix so I don't like having to try to use IE to see how this works. I don't see any "add Greenborder protection" at the bottom of the context menu on a Fx shortcut on the desktop. I have Fx 1.0.6 and Fx 2.0beta on this box. I tried both and no way to add protection that I can see. I also tried the link to the Greenborder knowledgebase and got an error about my session having expired. I clicked to start a new one and it said it was expired also.

I wasn't too thrilled when I installed this and it said I had to upgrade to Service Pack 2. This should run on Service Pack 1 also I think. I don't like Service Pack 2. I do have Service 2 on my main machine but I am thinking of reformatting and installing XP Pro SP1 because I like it better and because I have much greater speed on SP1. SP2 kills my internet speed. I do realize though that the average user that you are aiming this at will have SP2.

It works fine with McAfee Enterprise 8.5 beta. I have KAV 2006 on my host machine so I did not try to install it there.

It's on a virtual machine and it may make IE run inside a virtual box but it is still running everything through the Proxomitron with Sidki's 2006 configs. So, a virtual box, on a virtual machine, filtering everything through the Proxomitron. That's rather hilarious. Seems to me users would be better off just getting either Microsoft's or VMWare's free software and using virtual machines. What makes GreenBorder better than using virtual machines and simply taking a snapshot before your session and if you get infected or whatever just reverting to the snapshot? GreenBorder is not free ...Virtual machine software is and you can run as many virtual machines as you want with whatever OSes you want and for free if you have the MS disks already (which you do have for whatever the host machine is running and you have the disks for older machines with say 98SE or W2000) or you can install some flavor of Linux for free also.

One more thing: I just closed IE and went to open the GUI so I could see what the session showed and discovered that I can't even use this software for IE because the GUI is only half there. What is with you software companies? I just had to uninstall CyberHawk for the same reason. I use a 120 dpi which is common these days with everyone getting 19,20,24 inch digital LCD flat panels at very high resolutions that are designed to be run ONLY at that one resolution. Plus, remember the boomer generation? Well that generation is well into the reading glasses stage and many of them need 120 dpi also and the boomer generation is huge. CyberHawk tech support told me they will make the GUI window user resizable. You need to do that also. I can't even try this on IE if I can't see the full GUI. I wanted to evaluate both so that I can make useful recommendations to users over at my home site in the Security forum there.

 

Hi Mele20,

Excellent post! It's very valuable to have in writing what users normally utter under their breath. Typically someone who's had trouble or objections during the install or use will later respond with 'it was OK', when asked, thinking polite helps us. I've forwarded your comments to our product team for them to mull over.

The SP1/SP2 issue is something we discuss often. For filesystem security, we rely on features available in SP2. If you don't need SafeFiles (the ability to tag files so they launch only in virtual space), you can install on SP1.

KAV support will be delayed a build or two, we're focusing our resources on a releasing a build with Firefox support (in about a month).

Personally I don't like an entire virtual OS because it takes time to boot. To copy a file you have the binary choice of being able to copy the file or not (no tagged files). Plus that machine is a local machine which often has full network or API access to your host. If you enable things like copy-paste, that opens up the clipboard. So you have two things; network and clipboard which are open, and boot time takes a while.

I'll have to check out the screen resolution issue with our product team.

Best,
Bill

 

Thank you. I am very direct and to the point. I'm glad I didn't offend you as that was certainly not my intention. I wanted to give useful feedback. If/when the GUI problem is fixed, I will try your software again. Probably by then it will work with Fx and maybe even Kaspersky and I might load it on my host machine.

Ah...the Safefiles thing. The installer did say something about Safefiles being disabled until I installed SP2. I didn't really know what Safefiles does and as I said I didn't watch the Flash tutorial since I don't use Flash (unless absolutely necessary and I didn't think a tutorial was in that category One reason I don't use Flash is related to the GUI problem. I find that many Flash tutorials are not of much help to me because I can't enlarge the font and I can't read anything in the Flash tutorial as the font used is too small on my high resolution screen). Also, I didn't read the help file to find out what that was because I don't have Acrobat Reader installed on that machine and wasn't expecting a Help file to be accessed in that manner anyhow. That sounds interesting regarding tagging particular files to open only in the virtual environment. As I said, I wanted to use this software more for educational purposes so that I could advise users and friends regarding it than getting it for myself since I have VMWare and, so far, have been quite happy with using virtual machines.

You do have a good point about boot time with a virtual machine. I never shut down my host machine and I generally never shut down the virtual machine I use the most. When I do though, it does take time to boot it which for someone who turns off their computer every night might be very irritating. My guest machine has access to only one folder on my Host machine (downloaded programs) and I chose to share that folder. I could shut off any sharing if I wanted. For an average user, I really don't know which is better since I haven't been able to evaluate your software because of the GUI problem and the fact that I don't really want to have to use IE that much. I'm glad you will be adding Fx support soon. Will that include SeaMonkey? And Opera support?

 

Hello Bill,
I just downloaded GreenBorder and I am experiencing very slow speeds when loading pages or navigating to different sites. I am not a computer tech savvy person, just a user that wants the protection GreenBorder advertises. However, the added security is not worth the frustration of waiting 10 times longer for pages to load. Is this normal, and if not, is there a simple fix that I can do which doesn't require an IT degree?

 

Hi Paul7,

Our support experts are at support@greenborder.com, they like me to redirect support questions there because I make too many guesses. Plus email there logs a ticket.

Are you running a version older than 2.9.0.9219, and NOD32? https://supportcenteronline.com/ics...onID=100&fieldOffset=15&hitOffset=232 12 6 4

What support would do is ask you to save the configuration output from msinfo ("\program files\common files\microsoft\shared\msinfo\msinfo32.exe") as an .NFO file, and email that back. Then they would see if software is installed which may possible conflict, and try to replicate the problem here, and apply fixes if needed. Otherwise support would look for other solutions to your problem.

Bill

 

Hi Mele20,

Our next release will support Firefox, and we'll analyze SeaMonkey during our Dev and QA cycles.

As far as Opera, we analyze our web statistics and less than 1% of the web hits are from Opera browsers. So Opera may work, but investing a full QA cycle probably won't happen soon.

Bill

 

Hmmm... I wonder if this thread isn't becoming a de facto *support forum* for Greenborder. If so, isn't that contrary to the TOS?

No offense... just wondering.

 

Hey Bill. Just a note - The Opera stats are generally very misleading, as many if not the Majority of Opera users have Opera set to Identify their Broawser as Internet Explorer for compatibility purposes. You can also set Opera to be Identified as Mozilla.

 

I'm a little puzzled as to why you would be charging for software that obviously is still raw and in early development. It doesn't work with Firefox, it doesn't work with Opera, it doesn't work with SeaMonkey, it doesn't work if you have Kaspersky antivirus, use a 120 dpi, etc. Seems to me you should not be charging for this until it is fully developed and works with all normally used software. Over at my home site, this product is put down for this very reason. There are free rival products that work properly right now. Yours should have remained free at least until it works correctly.

 

I agree, for those with general support issues, please email support@greenborder.com, or go to https://support.greenborder.com. I don't want to violate the Terms of Service for WildersSecurity.

Thank you for the comments ToadBee and Mele20. We've had the product in enterprise environments for a couple of years, and those environments have much stricter sets of software installed. The consumer market is very challenging, since every combination of software programs possible will exist. I know our competitors have the same challenges, and there's often a trade-off decision between compatibility and security.

Sorry for the delay responding, for some reason I didn't receive instant notifications.

 

Is there a changelog for 2.9.19277??

On the download.com, it says: "Version 2.9.1 is a bug fixing release." So what bugs are fixed?

The new pricing of US$64.95 without discount seems very expensive.

 

I believe the marketing department will always test the pricing, however they've set the max price. First was the free year license up to July 28th, then it's the introductory sale at $29.95, then probably they'll test $39.95, and so forth. When the purchases slow down they'll adjust the pricing accordingly.

Software Compatibility
GreenBorder Pro 2.9.1.9277 is now compatible with:

• WebRoot Spysweeper 5.0
• Windows Live OneCare
• PC Tools Spyware Doctor
• AVG Firewall

Issues fixed:

• Malicious scipt warnings: Antivirus programs warn about potentially malicious scripts when GreenBorder Pro starts
• Email program errors: When I start my Email program, I get error messages and the program does not run
• Uninstall: A shortcut for uninstalling GreenBorder Pro has been added to the Start menu program group.
• RoboForm: I cannot use passwords saved with RoboForm inside GreenBorder
• Errors when GreenBorder Pro starts: “No program associated with this file” for GettingStarted.hta or ActivityMon.hta
• McAfee 2006: Sometimes GreenBorder Pro would not start with McAfee 2006 running.
• Hotmail: Using Hotmail freezes Internet Explorer
• NetNanny: Internet Explorer would crash inside GreenBorder with NetNanny running. Note: Internet Explorer does not crash, but NetNanny’s filters do not work inside GreenBorder.
• Compressed (zipped) Folders: I get errors whenever I open a zip file downloaded with GreenBorder
• “ClientMan.exe” spyware: Some programs warned that ClientMan.exe is potentially spyware. The GreenBorder service has been renamed to “GBSvc.exe”.
• EarthLink Total Access crash: Internet Explorer would not work on computers running EarthLink Total Access and using a proxy server.

Software Conflicts
GreenBorder has determined that the following products do not work with GreenBorder Pro. Until we can resolve the issues, GreenBorder Pro will not install on computers running these products.

• Tenebril Spycatcher
• Proland Protector Plus

​

 

2.9.19328 is out...

 

@Bill@GreenBorder

Bill, when do you suppose that support for FireFox will be included?

...screamer

 

Hi Screamer,

We will officially support FireFox around the end of the month which will be a feature release, then shortly afterwards Kaspersky support in a maintenance release.