HitmanPro.ALERT Support and Discussion Thread

I wish it did rule on my PCs. The rest of us users cannot, or do not wish to, almost constantly fiddle around, figure out error messages and incompatabilities. I am just left with the feeling of being a guinea-pig. Not only that, there is sadly no proper support for this product, essentialy just this forum for experts / geeks.

I realise that security is a moving target, but please Erik & Co, please work out a way to give 80% of users a very stable product and don't keep updating it and introducing new incompatabilities. I also realise that the incompatabilities are introduced by the other products, but I think it may be a pointless exercise with a zero-sum result for HMPA to try and be compatible with MBAM/E, Zemana, Webroot, Voodoo, and a myriad of other security solutions. HMPA should stand up on its own and forget the rest, apart from the obvious and essential integration or compatability needed with Windows Defender and Sophos.

I am left feeling that I wish that had not committed to a 3 year purchase of this product. When it finally expires in December, although it's a great addition to Windows Defender, I doubt I will be renewing unless there are some seriously fundamental improvements to my user experience / compatability / stability. Perhaps the integration with Sophos Home may turn out successful, but SH is somewhat of a resource hog itself and the online control panel can be a pain to work with when setting exceptions and troubleshooting.

Don't get me wrong, I admire what Surfright have produced and it seems to be generally heading in the right direction, but there are too many rocks on the road and this journey seems to be uncomfortable and taking many diversions.

 

I use HMPA with only Windows Defender and MBAM because, as you said, other products sometimes introduce incompatibilities. HMPA already stands on its own in that it works fine with Windows Defender. Why not use it that way? If by error messages you mean false positives I don't see that they can be completely avoided.

 

I totally agree with this point, too many vendors try to be compatible with other security products, mainly because they got complains from security enthusiasts in forums like here stockpiling (conflicting) security softwares.

Average Joe will mostly use Windows Defender (if on Win8/10) then use maybe another one , not 5+ apps at same times. Too much security is no more security.

 

yes , it must be tailored properly to be compatible, and indeed being on Win7 helps (no patchguard)

 

Spot-on. As we know HMPA is already coupled with a second opinion scanner of HMP, so Surfright products are enough for most people on top of just having Windows Defender - possible exception to have one or two addons such as McAfee Siteadvisor or Flagfox or similar, ABP or uBlock.

 

Erik, is Alert able to counteract this vulnerability?

And what about AtomBombing?

Txs in advance

(PS: if so, how)

 

Well, you're correct that the more layers used the greater the chance for conflicts, and at some point additional layers may actually increase attack surface. As for "average Joes" it would be interesting to know what percentage use Windows Defender. It might be lower than you think because new systems typically come with third party AV pre-installed. I often have to explain to customers that Windows Defender (on 8 & 10) is actually quite good and they don't necessarily have to keep paying for whatever came with the system.

 

indeed.

yes me too, i often see the expired trial of the 3rd party vendor , have to remove it ; they ask me why, i said useless when you have one integrated for free. they smile

 

I had all manner of network connectivity issues on several PCs, even with network lockdown switched off. That aside, there should not be incompatibilities with common apps such as Word. It needs for more effort in testing and quality control.

 

I ran that config on one laptop too, but with MBAM 3.0 nothing but horrendous problems, even with HMPA removed, MBAM 3.0 is a complete amateurish PITA.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "there should be no excuses for people reporting incompatibility with common apps such as Word". Do you mean that there should never be instances of incompatibility with apps such as Word? It seems to me that exploit mitigation is really on the bleeding edge and we have to allow for the occasional problem. Did you ever try to use EMET?

 

Well, MBAM v3 is an example of a program that works perfectly for some people and poorly for others, but as you know there's a whole separate thread for that

 

Yep, used EMET and to be honest, on default settings, certainly had no issues with Office at all. Now on Win 10 there is no real advantage to use EMET and that's where I need HMPA to protect me. Still running 1 of 4 licenses bought, giving it a good chance, but life is too short to have to worry about fundamental compatibility issues with Word and similar

 

No need to resort to mudslinging like "they seem to be overwhelmed amateurs"

 

I think you have it the wrong way around. If you took a poll I would expect at least 80% of users to say they are more than happy with the stability and compatibility of HMP.Alert. I'm certainly one of them!
Just because you're having issues doesn't mean you're in the majority. It would appear most issues with compatibility are caused by poorly written, third party software, using programming techniques which are inappropriate

No compatibility issues here, running HMP.Alert on Windows 10 Pro latest insider preview with WD, Comodo Firewall 10, Voodooshield Pro and Office 365 Pro.
Have not had to 'tailor' Alert to be compatible either - everything just works and I couldn't be happier. Hats off to the Loman brothers.

 

No compatibility issues here.
The few I had, where all sorted out and fixed, by markloman, after sending him PM, or posting here.

It may depend on how someone asks for support, polite, or aggressive...,
but all major issues where sorted out anyway.

It's my impression, that some of the guys complaining loud, are running a tampered OS,
or had installed, deinstalled, installed and deinstalled several security products before...

My suggestion:
Start from scratch, and avoid any install, that you don't want to keep.

Tons of security is not needed, nor helpful, if you want to run your system without issues. Period!

 

Here is a suggested formula for success with HMPA. Run no more than one AV and/or antimalware program, and one firewall in addition to HMPA. Use caution with any product that has overlapping features with HMPA.

If none of the above works, try a clean install of Windows, and begin again at step 1

 

Got this after upgrading to latest FF, while launching. Closed the warning, and opened fine next time

 

TBH I have had no problems with HMP.A on my primary machine, which has more security softs than required

 

because Surfright did what they could to make you live happily with all of them

 

I have 130 users, various makes and models of PC, Windows 7, 8, 10 x32 and x64. In a year I've had a couple of issues that were fixed, that is it.

I suspect that more than 80% of other users actually have very stable PCs because they aren't obsessed with having multiple layers of security products like people here are. I tend to sigh when somebody complains about HMP.A not working and then reveals that they run three other anti-malware products with it. My policy is to have Windows Defender and HMP/HMP.A. It works fine.

Across the 130 PCs doing various business tasks I don't recognise your need to "almost constantly fiddle around, figure out error messages and incompatabilities". HMP.A has been an install and forget experience.

As for support, I have emailed the support address. I've had responses and more importantly fixes, again I don't recognise your comment "there is sadly no proper support for this product". It is a bonus that the developers are also here and responsive.

Of course I could be just lucky that my users don't have issues, but knowing how much they fiddle about I doubt it.

 

Sure. My comment was really in response to caveman's post #13116. I haven't really experienced this at all.

 

I accept that was an completely unfair comment, I will delete that part.

 

Any error messages? Have you tried disabling HMPA mitigations and risk reductions one at a time, to narrow it down a bit, instead of killing all processes at once?

And have you tried disabling F-Secure protection temporarily to check for possible incompatibility?