|
|
Cheap Software - Webroot Spy Sweeper Antispyware 5.x
|
Our Price: $4.99
List Price: $29.95
Your Save: $ 24.96 ( 83% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Webroot Software
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Batteries Included: 0
Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Webroot Software Inc
EAN: 0667208664108
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+
Feature: ActiveX Shield thwarts drive-by downloads and blocks potential spyware threats that use ActiveX components to disguise their installation on your computer.
Format: CD
Label: Webroot Software
Manufacturer: Webroot Software
Model: 66410
Platform: Windows 98
Publisher: Webroot Software
Release Date: 2005-10-01
Studio: Webroot Software
|
|
|
Features
|
ActiveX Shield thwarts drive-by downloads and blocks potential spyware threats that use ActiveX components to disguise their installation on your computer.
Spy Communication Shield prevents further spyware infection by blocking incoming and outgoing communication to web sites known to host potential spyware threats and disables spyware programs’ ability to re-install during removal.
BHO Shield blocks the installation of Browser Helper Objects – a small program that runs automatically every time a user opens an Internet browser and has the capability to track website activity or install a toolbar or add-on without your consent.
IE Security Shield prevents spyware from adding website entries to your Internet Explorer security settings – which could lead to unwanted downloads and put your personal data at risk.
Includes 1 Year Subscription of Version Upgrades.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Your most reliable protection
Comment: By far the greatest dangers lurking on the internet are not viruses but trojans, browser highjackers and cookies. While Norton is arguably the best anti-virus software and the best firewall it has flaws. Long before Norton will notice a problem, Spy Sweeper will bag it and tag it. Hackers have learned to hide viruses in cookies and trojans instead of sending them out on their own. With Spy Sweeper you have excellent protection against trojans and cookies and fair protection against highjackers; these are the nasty bugs that cause your browser to lock onto their web page.
Here's some comments on Spy Sweepers operational behavior. It is slow to start up so give it some time. The first thing it will do is load a fresh copy of instructions from their website every morning. This will delay browser operation but it's necessary to keep you out of trouble. I just grab a cup of coffee and let it finish, which takes about 2 minutes. Spy Sweep is a little intrusive when it knows there is a program update scheduled so my advice is go with the flow.
As I pointed out, Spy Sweeper provides only fair protection against highjackers. There is free software that will cover this modest vulnerability but like everything free there is a price: poor updating. When you buy software, or subscribe might be a better word, they guarantee that they will support you. I've tried four softwares to cover this vulnerability and settled on Spyware Doctor and one made by Sun. Spyware Doctor does an excellent job, often catching bugs before Spy Sweeper. Between the two of them, I seldom fall back on Norton for protection. The only problem with Spy Sweeper is that it does not like other protection software and will frequently alarm during start-up. It's nothing serious, just close the window properly and all will be well.
If you can afford only one other protection, besides an anti-virus program, then spend your money on Spy Sweeper.
I hope this review was helpful. If so, please add your vote. I write these reviews at a considerable expense of time and money as a public service. I believe that Amazon provides the best reviews and often serves as the best means of efficiently buying products.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Version 5.5 slowed my PC to a crawl
Comment: As many people in these reviews have claimed, version 5 is a real hog. After installing and running the application for a few days, I was forced to remove it. It slowed everything to a crawl. Switching between windows took 2 seconds. My CPU usage was usually at 90 to 100 percent. Fortunately for me, the disk I purchased had version 4.5 available as well. I have been running that version for about a day without the same problems. I would recommend to my friends and family to avoid version 5.
Sincerely, Steve in Florida
Customer Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad and oh yes, the ugly!
Comment: GOOD: detected spyware that I didn't even know was there.
As you read on, keep in mind I am a recently retired engineer who spent his last few years supervising code writers' (even wrote some myself).
BAD: Out of the box had bugs for Vista (and XP, IMO) so when I went to update for the "fix", their server was painfully slow ... oh so slow. It was throttling me. After nearly 2 hours for the 14.5 Meg download, the "fix" was in. Now for every manual update, it gives me a nag screen to purchase (for $10) their version that adds virus protection.
UGLY: Telephone support. After 40 minutes on hold, someone answered. Not sure why as he was of no help, but he did speak English! I asked if they could send me a CD with a version that works to avoid the slow server problem. $8.95 plus S&H. I asked how to eliminate the nag screen since I did not want to buy their virus protection. He said, "can't be done". I then asked to have my 30-day money back guarantee, he said it had to be within 30 days of purchase, not activate date! I am over the 30-day limit -- this was a Christmas gift to me by my wife and with holidays, I just didn't have time to install ... sigh ... "too bad, sir."
My recommendation is to not deal with this company, as they are not flexible and want to charge for everything. Nickel and dime you.
With that, I give them the lowest rating possible. Wish I had read customers reviews here first before buying at Best Buy. Caveat emptor.
Oh, and if you must purchase, only buy the single user one, not the family or 3 user version unless you need it -- will save you money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Webroot Spy SLEEPER
Comment: I purchased SpySleeper to fix a recent infection in my computer. Although it detected and cleaned 2 trojans: trojan-fisher-bzub and trojan-downloader-zlob, SSleeper missed the trojan-spyware.webhancer. I had to use PC Doctor to detect and clean it.
Now I am having to work with Webroot online tech support to clean a final infection that it missed, and it has taken 7 days of trivial pursuit and poorly written quick fixes to get them to look at a scan and (hopefully) come up with a fix.
Phone tech support hold times are about 20 minutes as they are having to deal with significant Windows Vista compatibility problems with their product.
Although this product has had a good reputation, it is now asleep at the wheel in many ways. If you are trying to fix an infection you would be better off doing a Windows reinstall than spending time and money on SSleeper. Read the PC World recent review on antispyware to confirm what I have posted (poor infection removal, last place in overall ranking.)
2/25/08 update: It took 3 weeks to remove all spyware with ssleeper thru tech support. I have removed ssleeper from my active startup programs and use it only to run occasional scans after updating it. I do not plan to do anything with my computer during ssleeper scans because it slows to nearly lockup speed when a scan is running. Also, after definition updates, ssleeper automatically opens a new browser window that advertises the webroot antivirus product (kind of like what adware does!)
Pitty the poor people who do not read the more current reviews of this product before buying (amazon, your default should be to display most current reviews first.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Had a good 4 year run...
Comment: I used Spy Sweeper since 2003. Great product and never had any real issues with it until... V5. While it was excessive with resources and slowed considerably I continued to use it because it did its job and did it quite well... until version 5.5.7.
After upgrading to 5.5.7 my desktop failed to appear after boot. Basically Spy Sweeper disabled my entire pc. I could only do a hard and lengthy reboot and the same thing happened. The desktop failed to appear, no functions were available. If by chance the desktop did appear, it locked up soon after. This behavior was consistent on 2 PCs and a laptop. I can't run the latest first person shooters on them but they are robust with 1G Ram (one with 2GB because I edit a ton of audio and video since I dabble in filmmaking).
After opening a ticket and several exchanges with webroot it was suggested I call for phone support. After several tries and being left on hold for (realistically it was probably 20-25 minutes) but felt longer, I used a removal tool I received from webroot to remove 5.5.7 and reinstalled the older 5.3
Couple months later one subscription expired so I decided to remove Spy Sweeper from that PC. I tried using Windows and CCleaner to uninstall but it didn't work. I use the removal tool from Webroot and that worked. But on reboot, my PC locked up when any key on the keyboard is pressed. I try to reinstall from the CD and that doesn't work because I need to enter the key code and the keyboard locks up the entire PC. So I do a system restore to the previous day. Then I tried to install from the CD again but I get the same error message as when I tried to uninstall. The unins00 yada yada is missing.
So to fix this, I log in using Safe Mode. I delete the Spy Sweeper files manually, one by one except for one that wouldn't delete. Then I deleted the registy entries. I rebooted and tried again to install from the disk. That worked. Then I uninstalled using the normal Spy Sweeper uninstaller and FINALLY, that worked and the software is removed from my system. I run CCleaner and remove the excess files and registy entries.
After an extensive search I found a replacement for Spy Sweeper I'm happy with. I don't know what happened to it. It was an incredibly good product that appears to have gone really bad. I can only hope they fix the issues with Spy Sweeper and get it back to being the dependable, well oiled product it used to be.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
SPY SWEEPER (SMALL BOX) (WIN 98,ME,2000,XP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
