I know that these types of topics are prevalent around the forum here. But, I've spent quite a bit of time searching for a product that matches this criteria: Free, anti-spyware, real-time protection.
There are all kinds of free anti-spyware products. However, almost none of them offer any real-time protection. Spybot is commonly praised but it does not offer real time protection against spyware. It offers teatimer which is more of a nuisance than anything and is not a "real-time" spyware protection. Like spybot, most products require a manual scan to do any cleaning.
I have been using Spyware Terminator which has had a colorful history. I have been using it very prevalently lately because it is the first product I have found to be completely free, and real-time. However, although it has a great user interface, in my opinion, there are SEVERAL issues why I cannot continue to use this product. To keep a long post short, I just want to replace it with a FREE, Realtime product that protects from mediocre infections that somehow people manage to continually stumble across like Personal Anti-virus, and the like.
These scareware programs are extremely annoying, and for some unknown reason, not blocked by any of the popular anti-virus products.
Please share if you know of a quality product that does not require manual, periodic scans to do anything.
Thanks.
My understanding is TeaTimer is real time protection, but if you know that to be not covering spyware then I can't say different, but it is real time cover for whatever it does, but your right it is more a pain.
TBH I haven't heard of a single 1, well there is 1 I have seen suggested around, but I suspect it's the one you have been using, and if it is I would not use it, as you say it has a past, it used to be on the rogue list, but has fought hard to redeem itself over the years, but I still wouldn't trust it with such history. Avast however now states it covers for this as well, but I can't say how deep it goes, but it comes in the anti virus now, so you may find thats your best option currently, it's the closest thing to real time cover for anti spyware I have seen, hope it's enough for you.
Yeah yeah, the FREE part in the title is in all caps…
But…
Malwarebyte's real time protection is amazing, and about $25 for a lifetime license… it really is a very small cost to protect yourself…
@8210Guy: I did more research on Spybot's teatimer, it does appear to be more "real-time" protection than I thought, but I know that I was reviewing this product a long time ago and chose not to use it for a specific reason. I can't think of what that reason is now but I will review it again for possibilities.
@8210GUY and LDTate: I wish Avast or AVG did protect from scareware. Unfortunately, neither of these products as well as at least half a dozen top name anti-virus products do not protect from things like personal anti-virus, antivirus 2009/2010, and the such. It slips by like nothing even happened. However, recently, Avast did start to detect only a file or two related to Personal AV, but the infection still pops up fake warnings. I believe it is detecting the browser add-on but not the main file that pops the fake warnings up (pav.exe). It is quite frustrating, because you would think these highly rated products would detect these mostly silly (low-risk) infections. However, I have decided, do to the number of clients coming in with personal anti-virus and the like, that something else needs to be done. Many are return clients because Avast did not protect them from it. Others are clients with McAfee, Norton, AVG, etc. I believe Trend Micro has let it go too.
@Raktor: I agree, MalwareBytes is a great program. I have limited (none) experience with the real-time protection aspect. There are some questions as to running it alongside with something like Avast which are some things I believe I reviewed. I find that MalwareBytes works well on these scareware products, but then it misses more severe infections that Avast easily finds. Overall MalwareBytes is a great product. I think one of my concerns with the realtime protection was questions about its performance which may be lacking. Can you describe your "configuration" using MalwareBytes with other products?
Ultimately, I would like to find a good, reliable, lightweight, spyware/scareware/adware specific real-time protection that is free. I know that is asking for a lot, but it seems like there would be a lightweight progam that works well against this stuff that will also work well with other protection.
Spyware terminator has done well as protecting, it just has several design flaws that cost me a lot of time and effort to beat it into submission so it doesn't cause confusion and potentially detrimental behavior to clients.
I just don't know how people even get this scareware stuff on their computers. I am amazed at how many people are bringing this stuff in. Almost all my malware infections now are from scareware. I search and search and search trying to get infected by this stuff and can't find it, but these people stumble across it like it is sitting at every corner they turn. Its frustrating. Only one time ever have I had a fake pop-up come up while browsing the web that tried to trick me into installing something to "clean" the dozens of non-existent infections on my computer. Admittedly, at that time, I wasn't looking for it.
I think there's a number of reason's there isn't one.
1. There have been many layoffs, so these companies don't have the resources to try and keep up with the new infections.
2. Many anti-(whatever) are surviving on their reputations of being around a long time.
3. We've seen some good free (at one time) anti-malware / spyware programs grabbed up by anti-virus companies. Now IMO, they're worthless. IMO, it's just a matter of time before programs like MBAM and Combofix are grabbed up. It's really just a matter of money. You can't blame the developers for that.
It's a matter of what these companies will do with it once they have it. In order for these programs to keep up with the infections they have to tweek them almost dailey. If they don't hire the developer, the program goes by the wayside.
A good example is HijackThis. It's so outdated it's almost worthless. IMO, TM just grabbed it to try and add more market share for their anti-virus program. Now there traffic is down for OP's going to TM to download HJT along with help sites having changed to having OP's use different programs then HJT. TM is now saying they will be updating HJT. IMO, that's a little too late now.
Not to forget CWShredder either, since being bought out they haven't touched it, so it's effectiveness must be seriously undermined by now, although it still has a place in my toolkit due to it being good at the time it was done.
But in all my years online I have never seen real time protection for this from a reputable source TeaTimer is simply annoying these days due to numerous pop up's with every little thing you do, Windows Defender is quite simply a joke, and has been since day 1 lol, I suspect there is an element of scare mongering with the free A\V's saying this will only be covered in paid versions, as said they can't be blamed, they are a business after all, but it is a shame.
The best you can do without paying is to use the 2 Hosts files (MVPS and SpywareBlaster) and keep them updated, and use the Settings Manager panel from Adobe to close the back door to some of these things, add to that daily\weekly scanning from the stand alone scanners theres little more you can do.
Sorry about the slow reply, been crippling myself all day (more than usual lol) laying a floor, half a pound of flesh and several pints of blood later I finally finished, time to curl up and die now lol.
But the link above is the main page (Thanks pacman123), the settings manager appears when you click on the links to the left near the top, and it is the only way you can access these settings.
But in a nutshell click on the Global Storage Settings Panel link, then move the slider to None (it will make sense when you see it), then check Never Ask Again, check the bottom option Store common…. and should the 3rd party be checked, uncheck it.
Now click on the Website Storage Settings Panel link, again slide the bar to None, check Never Ask Again, and your done, should you have any sites listed in the box under the slider, click on Delete all sites, thats it really, I dare say the guys who go right into the fine print may have other comments\suggestions, but thats what I do with each system I touch.
*edit
Just realised I linked it above lol, you must have the same teacher as I did LDTate, they always signed they're name as Could Try Harder rofl.
I'm not sure if you are still looking, but if you are….. this may fit the bill, for some of your customers anyway. http://www.threatfire.com/about/
Regards
paws
Thanks for that post Paws.
Actually, I already use Threatfire as added protection now. I began using it alongside of Avast and Spyware Terminator.
So far, I have to say that Threatfire is very nicely designed, very lightweight, and easy to use. It takes next to no administration what so ever. It updates periodically, and I have had no negative effects or problems to speak of. However, it is a bit heavier on CPU resources than the other products. I notice it bounce qutie a bit on CPU usage in task manager while performing other tasks.
So far, it does come up occasionally flagging good programs during their installation procedure and you have to allow it. But, that is to be expected.
But, because it detects "behavior" and not signatures, I'm still looking for a signature based scanner that deals with scareware products. I'm still using spyware terminator, but I have yet to really see it in action at all. The progam's design needs a lot of work. There are several flaws that make the program function incorrectly. Namely when creating new user accounts or logging into different user accounts. They made program specific and important settings about the behavior of the program be stored in the user's registry so it disappears for every user and has to be reconfigured. I've taken to loading a .reg file into the default user registry (requires loading the default user hive into the registry temporarily) and then loading a .reg for each user on the system. Its stupid if you ask me. Hope they see this message.
There are other issues, but I'm not going to go into them here.
Thanks.
Sorry for bringing this back up from the past, but I have just come across a new solution, that offers free real time cover, and it's a good company so looks promising, but I am unable to test it just yet as I don't have access to a system without real time cover, but I should be able to check it out in a few days, but I remembered this thread so thought I'd give it a mention for you to check it out as well, hope it's as good as they're other software. Link and reference removed
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