I have seen mention of problems of using other security software with Avast, so I thought I would offer up two that I know work.
The first is Threatfire, which is made to work with your Security software and improve your protection from new, unknown threats.
The second is K9-Web Protection, it’s an internet filter that runs as a service on Windows 2000 and up. It can block malware sites, phishing sites, https sites and most any other sites you can think of. It works with any and all browsers, so it can’t be defeated by using a portable drive. I use it for adults and kids who like it for it’s ability to block ads and redirection. While it’s nice to be able to stop the malware, it saves a lot of time if you don’t get sent to the infected sites to start with.
Both of these can be used with other security software as well, not just Avast.
Also u dont need K9 web protection because avasts web shield is hot and accurate. If u need additional protection try some on demand scanner like MBAM. Also spywareblaster can be used to immune ur pc.
Suggest Win Patrol, stops registry writes and auto run programs from writing to registry without your permission and its free plus compatible with Avast!
Scotty is on patrol always
That maybe but K9 will let you track who goes where, limit when and how long you can browse, warn you if someone is is trying to go where you don’t want them to, plus you have full control and feedback as how sites are rated and/or allowed.
What does Symantec have to do with it? Threatfire is produced by PCTools.
It is still being developed and is in version 3 currently, I get updates every day. Your “Firewall for Theadfire” mainly comes away with that it’s badly coded. If we stop using everything that is badly coded, we wouldn’t have Windows or anything Microsoft based now would we?
I’m using K9 and Threatfire on two older laptops runnning Windows Xp, for over half a year now, and it has kept them both clean and Threatfire has alerted me on some dodgy software.
Neither machine is running any other active security software except for the firewall.
Once a month I do full scans with Avast, AVIRA, plus on-line scans for spyware, etc.
Now I’m saying anyone else should run without full active protection, but my two systems are so old that if I use anything else actively, they become unusable. The full scans alone take hours, and they can’t be used during the scans, either.
K9 does the most by not letting us be redirected to “bad” sites, so there is not a lot for Threatfire to do.
Well, hopefully your not doing full scans with both of those anti viruses active.
Secondly, are you using Avast with those pc’s? because Avast has a site advisor too.
I can’t use Avast actively because my systems are way below the requirements for any antivirus except Avira, which the realtime protection slows the system even more that Avast.
And no I suspend all realtime protection during the scans and only run one at a time.
While we’ve touched on the subject of Spywareblaster (which I have used), those of you with slower systems may want to read this post before you go all out with it or Spy-Bot.
Symantec owns PC Tools. It has since '07/'08, if I remember right.
Updates are not the same as development. Symantec, as the “big fish”, likes to buy up the little fish. But instead of eating them, it nibbles off a little, then takes them home and typically throws them in a fish tank of stagnant water, feeds them as little as possible, and waits for them to die.
But if it works for you, that is really all that matters. Just a heads-up.
P.S. I have provided a link with in-depth technical review of ThreatFire. You personal experience changes nothing about the fact that the whole thing is sloppy coding which doesn’t really do what it claims to do and has huge chance of conflicts with other security software because of the obnoxious hooking used.
One review can’t decide the fate of any product, are there any other other bad reviews, because I have found alot of good ones. That added to the fact that c/net, PCmag and PCWorld editors give it 4-5, out of 5 stars, with the users giving it 3-3.5 stars.
Your reviewer doesn’t say which version he tested, PCTools bought Cyberhawk which it released as Threatfire 3, with the current version being 4.7.0.17, most of the revisions have addressed bug fixes.
If you only have one bad review, perhaps he just has an axe to grind.
Unless you care to try it yourself as I have and then inform us of your first hand experience?
Yeah, I can inform you about my experience. Have tried this multiple times, it’s been always slow as molasses, issues reported took ages to fix (some of them remain unfixed until now), and it did cause conflicts much more often than acceptable. That review is spot on from a guy who knows his s**t (and kindly note the date, no, they did NOT test 3 years old version before Symantec pretty much nuked PC Tools) - not the PC Mag kind of consumer blurb by Rubenking. :
Well thank you, now if you would have just told me that you had used it and did indeed have issues with it on your system in your first post, this thread would be much shorter.
I’ve been spending to much time in the video game system mod forums, and the first thing everyone does is start trashing everything the posters say or do. All the “experts” trot out all their site links on why it’s wrong and start beating their chests on how they have degrees and certifications on everything under the sun. Problem is none of them have done what the person is posting about, much less the way they did it, so they have no first hand knowledge.
So to me the bottom line is I’ll take the word of a knowledgeable user over any online expert, no matter much he knows his s**t, because he don’t know jack about how or what I’m running on my system. It still would have been nice if he would have listed the version of Threatfire he reviewed because like I said they have been bug fixing the heck out of it and a out of date review is worse that useless. All we know is the date he posted the review, we don’t how long it took him to do the tests, assemble and create the post, much less if he even used the most current version available at the the time he began. Good reviewers admit that their reviews were only valid at the time of the writing, the better ones will update then as they publish them to the web and only the very best will update them after they are published. I would like to see him compare his finding to the other produces that claim to work the same way, because it the other products are using the same dodgy system calls, it may prove to be more a matter of chance that multiple calls are being made to the same place, at the same time by multiple programs, instead of bad code on the part of only one of them. The real problem is no one has taken the time to write good clean efficient code since we gave them more than 640 MB of ram to put it in.
So among us knowledgeable users you have a system that it doesn’t play nice with and I have had it on four that it did. Which I guess proves running anything on a Windows system is still just a crap shoot at best.
You can also do a search on this forum (Search button is on the top toolbar of the forum page) and put in various names of software to check for conflicts. I have worked with users re: Threatfire, as well as other software, which you can search and review, if you are interested to check out conflicts.
It would also help if you gave us information about your system (OS, RAM, 32 or 64-bit, etc.), your security set up, what version and product of Avast you are using as well as the following:
The review is valid pretty much for any version of TF. It is about a design problem, not about fixing cosmetics and little bugs. And redesign has never happened and most likely will never happen.
But you notice he was quick to give it anyhow and not just as his opinion but as the only way it can be, complete with his pet expert.
I seems I opened an ugly can of worms when I titled my post as “Security software that will work with Avast.”, I should have titled it “Security software that I have used with Avast.”.
All I expected when I started this thread was for others to post the software that they have used with Avast, the “well I had trouble with that one, but this one works for me” and “I may try that one and I’ve been using this one” type of tread.
I’ve been messing around with computers since the early days of DOS and PCs had no sound but beeps and the only color was the tint of the monochrome monitor. The only thing two things that have not really changed is that 1: No software will run right with every combination of hardware and other software and 2: No software is final, they will always push a “improved” version out, be it just added bells and whistles or a complete recode, that and the new version is not always better than the last one.
This has all left a bitter taste in my mouth, I’ve even held utility software support forms up as an example to the video game forums as how people can post and expect helpful advise without being taken to task, I see that was only because I had not posted of late.
Those of you who attempted to control the madness and be the forum members I remember so well, I thank you and truly don’t know how you keep your sanity. As for myself, I am first going to contact the forum moderator and see if I can have this thread removed and secondly I will think long and hard before ever attempting to open another thread on any forum.
