[2.Bi-Weekly]ASC, S360, AdAware, Spybot, and others

[MediaGuy1974]

Hi Gang,

I'm a builder/repair guy, and my clientele is mostly senior citizens, so I'm gonna come at this from a slightly different angle. The parameters for my experiment are as follows:

 

Assumption #1: Seniors, for the most part, have very limited computer skills. I teach classes to seniors, and their biggest request is always "how do I download something?" So assuming they'll try any of these products is an extreme stretch. Unless someone like me does so for them.

 

Assumption #2: Seniors are terrified at the stuff they hear about, on the internet (ie viruses, malware, adware, and such). They want badly to download and install various software defenses, but even after spending time teaching them how to do it, most just don't have the balls to actually do it.

 

Assumption #3: Even if they do have the skills, it's difficult for them to decided which product(s) to use. They tend to arrive at Norton & McAfee, because (a) that's what their computer manufacturer recommends, and (b) that's what all their friends are using.

 

Assumption #4: The word "free" has obvious negative connotations. And when they DO decide to buy, they get fished for an arm and a leg, and more importantly, they get pissed when someone like me goes through their computers and finds all the ugly stuff that Norton, or McAfee missed.

 

One Sidenote: I find the ugly stuff when I get the computer with the complaint that "it's creep crawly slow", which is a direct result of the Norton and such, to begin with.

 

On to the test.

I received a computer to work on which was the perfect test subject. It was purchased 4 years ago with a Norton subscription, right out of the box. They have spent the money every year to maintain the AV subscription. The computer has never been checked for adware, spyware and etc. So 4 years worth of internet stuff to begin with.

 

As a repair guy, there is no piece of AV or security software that I haven't at least played with, purchased or free. Over the years I have eventually gravitated to IoBit products for many reasons. (ie. easy of use, efficiency, overhead consumption, and such). I'm a firm believer in "free for home use software. It usually contains enough functionality to protect the unknowing public. And, I install ASC on every PC that I touch, it's that good, and that "problem free".

I installed ASC on the test subject, updated, and ran it. As you one would expect, it found THOUSANDS of problems, 4 years worth. I ran the repair function, rebooted, ran ASC again. It found a few stragglers, ran repair, rebooted, and ran ASC again. There was one entry that it could not clean, move, or anything. 2 more attempts left me with the trojan " Infostealer.bzup ".

I ran Norton, and it found nothing. Uninstalled Norton, Installed Avast, ran it, found nothing. I went to Symantics site, read up on the trojan, did their recommended treatment, wouldn't remove it. And that's when I decided to take part in your experiment.

Log files from 3 different programs are included as attachments.

Since I really love how ASC works, and plays well with others, I left it installed and active throughout my tests. All software was ran in it's "out-of- the-box" configuration.

 

First ran S360. It found 50 items that it identified as problems, and it only took 8 minutes. Most were related to MyWebsearch, and other really common stuff, with one exception. There were 3 fragments related to "GameVance". Never heard of that one before. I told S360 to shut down without cleaning or fixing. UnInstalled it and moved on from there.

Installed, updated, and ran AdAware. After 40 minutes, it found 15 problems, none of which were not found by S360. I told it not to do anything with the entries, UnInstalled and moved on.

Downloaded, installed, and updated Spybot. I quit watching the clock after it had been running for over an hour, and the program didn't have a timer that I could see. Spybot found 40 entries, again nothing that S360 didn't find. Told it not to clean, UnInstalled and moved on.

I tried a few lesser known freewares with about the same results. But the was NO Program that found ALL the stuff found by S360. While I would have expected those results, I was surprised that only ASC found the trojan. S360, with it's "unlock and delete" function allowed me to delete the culprit hook.dll, which then allowed deletion of the registry entries. MalwareBytes is the only other program that I know of that includes this option. I quit using MalwareBytes for my clients, because it gives them too many opportunities to do serious damage to their systems, and in the past I've found that it really doesn't offer much that is not available with other programs. It's a great tool for the repair guy, but I keep it out of the hands of the "less than average skills" clients.

 

SUMMARY: (Again, log files are attached) I gave up on AVG a year or so ago, when it became so "overhead intensive". My new favorite AV software is Avast. And, I believe that the combo of Avast, ASC, and S360 is the most effective FREE way of protecting our PC's. That's what I run on my own PC's and I haven't had a problem in ages. I have never touched the purchased versions of these softwares, but if the freeware versions are any indication, I'm sure they are all top-shelf. Throw in SmartDefrag, and you've got a definite winner.

One more sidenote: The infostealer.bzup trojan disguised itself as "HP Mouse" software. It set off the whistles when I realized it was a complete Dell system.

TEST RESULTS.zip

[enoskype]

Hi MediaGuy1974,

 

The format of IS 360 & SS&D reports in txt files are very hard to follow.

 

Try to give them in a different format also.

 

Cheers.

[MediaGuy1974]

What Format Do You Want??

 

If your own software doesn't produce the log files that are readable, what should I do? I say that gently, not with tone. I've been doing this for quite a while, and yes while tedious, the text files give me the information I want. I believe spybot produced a .log file, which I converted to .txt for the purpose of sending to you guys. Your site doesn't allow for much flexibility when it comes to uploading those things, and the size limitations. I may have missed something somewhere, but does S360 (or the others for that matter), allow for other options regarding the report format?

[enoskype]

I have only asked you for your own good for the sake of evaluaters of the reports to read them more easily.

 

Cheers.

[solbjerg]

Hi enoskype and MediaGuy

I tried to make them a bit more readable and placed them in a .zip file that I am attaching.

Is it OK?

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

I have only asked you for your own good for the sake of evaluaters of the reports to read them more easily.

 

Cheers.

[enoskype]

Thanks on behalf of MediaGuy1974, that's what I meant solbjerg. :idea: :smile:

 

Cheers.

[MediaGuy1974]

OK I Get It...

 

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. It looks good to me.

Thanx Solbjerg

[solbjerg]

Hi enoskype

Yes, but we do not want to hijack his comparison :-)

There is still room for improvement :-)

For example an empty line between each different subject would make it easier to read.

Just a suggestion though!!

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Thanks on behalf of MediaGuy1974, that's what I meant solbjerg. :idea: :smile:

 

Cheers.

[solbjerg]

Hi MediaGuy

You are welcome, - I just used a couple of minutes creating them.

Perhaps I should have done it in Word and a saved them as .doc and zipped them and attached them.

But you could try that and see if it generates more readable documents.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. It looks good to me.

Thanx Solbjerg

[MediaGuy1974]

I can do that....

 

Thanx to the both of you. Yer input is much appreciated. Now that I know what you want, it's a piece of cake. Time consuming, but hey, I've nothing more to do. And if it helps the community, I'm in.

One question tho. This thread is getting kinda long, should I post it as a new thread, or just add to the end?

[enoskype]

Please continue with this thread.

 

Cheers.

[solbjerg]

Hi Guy

Just stay in the thread - but place the new (zipped) attached file in your first post (deleting the previous ones), I think that will be best.

If they aren't better as docs, then just use the ones I zipped - it's yours anyway :-)

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Thanx to the both of you. Yer input is much appreciated. Now that I know what you want, it's a piece of cake. Time consuming, but hey, I've nothing more to do. And if it helps the community, I'm in.

One question tho. This thread is getting kinda long, should I post it as a new thread, or just add to the end?

[MediaGuy1974]

Done,,,

 

OK, I did as you suggested. Please check it out for me to see if it's for the better. I appreciate you both. Happy Motoring.

[solbjerg]

Fine Guy - easier to read :-)

Thanks!

Cheers

solbjerg

 

OK, I did as you suggested. Please check it out for me to see if it's for the better. I appreciate you both. Happy Motoring.