What is the best resident protection spyware blocker out there that is free, works with Comodo Firewall, and avast!. Also, is Spybot S&D count as a “resident” protector if I have the immunizer on and the bad download blocker on, but not the Tea Timer?
Thanx
And also, do I need a Resident spyware protector with avast! and Comodo? I mean, I don’t want to be vulverable to spyware.
It won’t be bad… But it’s possible to live only with on-demmand scanning if you use safe web habits…
Windows Defender is a good resident.
The same for Spyware Terminator.
Other free on-demmand good scanners are: SpyBot, Ad-aware (from Lavasoft), SuperAntispyware, AVGas, a-squared.
And immunization tools of SpyBot, IESpyAd, SpywareBlaster.
Oh, all work with avast and Comodo 8)
Your best bet is a browse or search of the General forum titles (as this is unrelated to the avast 4 Home/Pro forum), where this subject has been covered a number of times, there are even a couple of polls. The problem being best is a subjective title.
Can someone give me a list of “real-time” spyware blockers, so I can do my own research?
And sorry … but what about the warnings that some of these products, run as resident, will stop avast starting up properly come the next avast program update?
I run SpywareTerminator with Comodo firewall and Avast Home. No Problems at all. I did have Teatimer enabled, but disabled it because it and Spyware terminator were advising of the same events.Spybot’s Bad blocker is not a “resident” as such, it prevents connections to known bad addresses. Teatimer neither, but it acts as one in one way, in that it guards against registry changes, which can make a big difference as to whether spyware can install itself properly. Winpatrol is another that does this (and more), almost in real time. (Min interval usually 1min).
I would not rely on Windows Defender. Reading reports on other forums indicates that it lets a lot of things through.
I think those are the only free resident antispy applications. Wait! There’s another…Spydefense. Seems OK, I ended up uninstalling it because it didn’t update for weeks.
Hi all :
As far as I know, there is no trustworthy antiSPYWARE/antiTROJAN program that
provides "real-time" protection for FREE. Is best ( trustworthy ) to choose from what
antiSPYWARE Expert Eric Howes recommends at :
www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy .
NOTE : He did NOT include "Counterspy" because he is the Director of Research there.
Spiritsong,
True, the program has not been around long enough to be considered “trustworthy” yet at spywarewarrior, who say this about it’s de-listing as “rogue” (in March this year):
Note on SpywareTerminator: We originally listed Spyware Terminator on this page out of concerns that Crawler, the company behind the product, had established connections with IBIS, a well known adware distributor responsible for such adware programs as Wintools, Websearch, & Huntbar. Although we found no problems in our initial testing with Spyware Terminator, and while the vendor itself announced that it was exiting the adware business (1), we decided out of caution to impose a three month probation period before we would consider re-testing and, if warranted, de-listing the the product from the Rogue/Suspect list. During that three month probation period we monitored the behavior of IBIS and Crawler. At the end of the three month probation period we re-tested Spyware Terminator, again finding no problems serious enough to justify listing the program on this page. As the vendor involved has not been involved in the distribution of adware for many months, and as the program itself exhibits no problems serious enough to warrant mention on this page, we have decided to de-list Spyware Terminator from the Rogue/Suspect list and can no longer regard the program to be “rogue/suspect.”
Note: not to be confused with Spyware X-terminator from Stompsoft
However, if you look at the opinions of a few users, who haven’t been riddled with popups and adware since installing it, (quite the reverse, in fact), you might perceive a different view.
My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the application is trustworthy.It’s definitions are not as broad ranging as some, there has been the odd bug in it’s development, it’s not always straightforward, particularly for a newbie, to set it up correctly or to know how to respond to an alert. A check of the forum content will reveal this, and more. It will also reveal a genuine appreciation of the product. My PC is important to me. (That’s why I use Avast). And I’m quite happy to have ST guarding the malware side of it.
So will Windows Defender work with avast! and Comodo, I think I am going to use that.
what’s spybot tea timer. I’ve got Avast, Windows Defender, Service Pack 2, Spybot, Ad- aware SE Personal, and Spyware Blaster. they all work perfect and keep my P.C clean. I havent had a major problem with my P.C since installing these. Spyware blaster is really helpful it’s not a scanner but helps stop spyware from getting on the P.C in the first place. windows defender also stop harmful things getting on the P.C and also has a scanner. I would highly reccomend downloading service pack 2 (windows.com) as it protects your P.C considerably.
Hi JJ :
From the bleepingcomputer "Tutorial" on Spybot :
"TeaTimer - This program will constantly run on your computer in the background and notify you of any changes to system settings on your computer before they are allowed to happen. "
Hi GoPack :
Even though Windows "Defender" is on Howes's "Trustworthy" programs, in the past it has
has a couple of undesirable features, such as CUMULATIVE Updates, instead of INCREMENTAL
Updates, etc . IF you use SAFE Surfing Practises, you do not need "real-time" antiSPYWARE
protection .
thanks for the reply. do i have to turn it on or does it work automatically?
It is off by default (check Resident tab), I never used those functions as they can remove the avast icon if you don’t know what it is doing, I have also replaced it with another anti-spyware with all resident functions either disabled by default or disabled by me.
But you have the program in front of you get to know it, check out its settings, help file, forums, etc. That way you get the best out of the program, that same is true of any security based program, delve into them learn what they do you will get more out of them.
what's spybot tea timer. I've got Avast, Windows Defender, Service Pack 2, Spybot, Ad- aware SE Personal, and Spyware Blaster. they all work perfect and keep my P.C clean.
I don’t run any antispyware real time. SpyBot’s teatimer is a CPU hog. :
The faulty popup has not been fixed as far as I know, though there is a user fix for it.
I am always puzzled why people are so concerned about spyware.
SpywareBlaster’s immunization should help IE users and no harm applying it also to us firefox users. Running something like CCleaner takes care of cookies and temporary files.
Nowadays I surf using Sandboxie. You would not get any spyware in theory using it.
Maybe it’s not that everyone is so concerned about spyware per se, but use the term to describe malware generally, including adware, trojans etc. I know I have.
And malware is, I believe, quite likely to be encountered. Just looking around a few help forums, there are literally thousands of users requesting help for malware related issues.
I certainly went for resident antispyware in a big way after my infection, which because I didn’t treat it correctly ended up with a reinstall. (prob not a bad idea, since a trojan was involved.)
BTW here’s an interesting sandbox test. Sandboxie comes out looking pretty good. http://www.techsupportalert.com/security_virtualization.htm
I tried this for a while, but couldn’t get the computer to run correctly with it.
@Go Pack Go
Allow me to make this simple for you. As far as resident or real-time protection is concerned, spybot search & destroy does not provide that. Immunization is not the same as real-time protection. Spyware Terminator seems to be effective, though somewhat controversial depending on who you talk to because it is made by a company called ‘Crawler’ which has been known in the past to link to spyware. Windows Defender is much improved now that it is out of beta and is a bit under rated. Windows Defender, while not the toughest protection, does provide effective and solid resident protection. Download it and visit www.spycar.org and test it. When I tested it, it passed the test there with no problems. I would also add the free version of a-squared in which you can run a manual scan from time to time to make sure Windows Defender hasn’t missed anything. While I haven’t used SUPERAntispyware, it has been recommended by others here and appears to be a good program. The free version does not have resident protection but you can always run a manual scan as a second or third opinion on your PC to again insure that noting has slipped by Windows Defender. Oh and let me also add that it might be a good idea to surf the web with either Firefox or Opera if you’re not already doing so. Ignore all spam that you might receive and before you download software from the internet, just look up the software in google. Trust me, if it is bundled with trojans or spyware, you will find plenty of information about it in the search engines. Pretty simple isn’t it? 
OK, I am going to use Comodo free firewall, avast! Home, and Windows Defender real-time. Now, if I can I use Spybot S&D’s Tea Timer at the same time as Windows Defender for extra protection. Because on the Wikipedia page for Spybot S&D, it has a step-by-step for Spybot’s Tea Timer to work in the background without consuming resources, does this work? Will it help any if I use both Defender and S&D? If so, will all of these products work together w/o conflict? ???
I also have Ad-Aware SE free, Defender, and Spybot S&D for manual scanning so I am good in that category, but I am curious about the Tea Timer working in the background using minimal resources, contridicting it being a “hog” in a previous post.