teatimer? what does it mean?

I downloaded Spybot and didn't set it for the teatimer because I didn't know what it was. Should I have? What is it and should I redo the program using the teatimer?

Thanks, Teresa

 

From the help section of Spybot>

What is the Resident TeaTimer?

The Resident TeaTimer is a new tool of Spybot-S&D which perpetually monitors the processes called/initiated. It immediately detects known malicious processes wanting to start and terminates them giving you some options how to deal with this process in the future: You can set TeaTimer to:

- be informed, when the process tries to start again
- automatically kill the process
- or generally allow the process to run There is also an option to delete the file associated with this process.

In addition, TeaTimer detects, when something wants to change some critical registry keys. TeaTimer can protect you against such changes again giving you an option: You can either "Allow" or "Deny" the change. As TeaTimer is always running in the background, it takes some resources of about 5 MB.

Why does Resident TeaTimer terminate the application before asking?

Because threats like toll dialers are time critical - they cost from the first second they've connected. In order to protect you, these have to be terminated at the moment they appear before they can connect at all.

Why is the TeaTimer called "TeaTimer"?

As we used to forget our tea, when we let it brew, we built a small tool with a system tray icon to remind us. We called this tool "TeaTimer". When we started to develop the Resident tool for Spybot-S&D, we also needed a system tray icon for this. As we do not like having too many icons in the system tray, we decided to put both tools together and kept the name "TeaTimer". The next version of the Resident tool will also have the functions of the original "TeaTimer".

You can find the Resident TeaTimer in the tools section.


I hope this helps

DC

 

To turn it on, would I have to redownload? I can't seem to find anywhere to turn it on.

Thanks, Teresa

 

Click on Mode>Advanced mode, then select the tools tab (towards the bottom left of screen) then select Resident and tick (to turn on) or untick Resident teatimer.

HTH

 

I didn't activate TeaTimer either, primarily because I seemed to remember that there are (or maybe were, and been fixed) compatibility problems with other security apps. Spyware Blaster in particular seems to ring a bell.

Since my searches here never seem to work right (lousy choice of search terms, no doubt), can someone kindly steer me to an appropriate thread for more info about this? Thanks.

 

Does anyone perhaps know which registry settings TeaTimer is protecting? Does it perform better than Arovax Shield for example?

 

While Spybot's Immunize feature and Spywareblaster can have conflicts with each other....Spybot's TeaTimer and Spywareblaster do not even cross paths.

Found @ the Official Spybot Forum:

How Spybot-S&D protects against the installation of Spyware/Malware

 

Thanks, bubba. Maybe it was my avast a-v that was the problem with TeaTimer, I'll check over there. Generally it's not considered a good idea to have more than one resident protection, although if they're essentially unrelated (like avast and TeaTimer) hopefully there's not a problem.