Customer Reviews

Webroot Spy Sweeper AntiSpyware

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Update 3/9/05

Webroot is really doing their homework. My suto update has me up to 3.5 which has nearly 69,000 definitions installed.

I stopped using IE in favor of Firefox so I had to stop using the Yahoo tool bar with Anti-spy, but trying other packages in concert with Spy Sweep so far Spy Sweeper has found more and been more thorough than any of the other anti-Spy products.

I am trying CA Pest Patrol on another system and will compare the two programs and update again. My experience with CA EZ Armor has been very positive so if Pest Patrol is along the same lines as EZ-AV and EZ-FW I expect to be impressed, but for my money Webroot has the best and most thorough product.

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I use this in combination with Ad Aware. Spy Sweeper finds items that Ad Aware misses and vice versa. The first time I installed the package I ran it and the system found several questionable items. I ran Ad Aware right afterwards and it found 3 more.

A few weeks later I did the reverse on my daughters computer. Ad Aware pronounced the syetem clean while Spy Sweeper found a keystroke logger.

I suppose no one package will do it all. Last week I ran Spy Sweeper and Ad Aware. Both said I was clean. The I installed Yahoo Anti-Spy and it found two items one was another key logger!

Webroot does have great tech support, and they keep the software automatrically updated for you. The latest has over 30,552 signatures. It does a good job, but there is no single package that will find all the spyware out there. I recommend using this in concert with Ad Aware or Yahoo Anti-Spy.

I've been using SpySweeper for 2 years now. It generally does what it is supposed to do. However, it was nearing time for me to renew. SpySweeper becomes a huge, irritating nag when it comes time to renew. Not only does the software bug you all the time, but Webroot sends out reminder e-mails too. With 3 weeks left on my subscription, I decided to renew, mostly just to get rid of all the nagging. Well, guess what? - the renewal process reset my expiration date. Rather than giving me 3 weeks plus 1 year, the renewal starts immediately, and ends in exactly 1 year - which means, that I've been ripped off for 3 weeks of paid subscription. Maybe Webroot thinks their users are too stupid to notice this deceptive practice of moving up renewal dates. I've complained to them - and if they don't make amends, then I cannot recommend this product to anyone.

Review of Spy Sweeper AntiSpyware ver 3.5:

Installation was trivial on my two-year old XP system and Spy Sweeper didn't conflict with other programs running, including Norton Anti-Virus 2003. It's possible to micromanage which features you want to turn on/off. If you insist on using Internet Explorer, this product is critical, although I prefer Firefox for my browser which does a better job with pop-up ads and such.

Even with Firefox, however, Spy Sweeper found spyware and cookies that Ad-Aware missed. On a full sweep, it takes something around 10 minutes to sweep your disk, so while it's not super-fast, it's not super-slow either and for the most part, you will be running this product when you aren't using your computer.

The license is good for a year's worth of updates and assuming Webroot continues to keep up with what's out there, this is a piece of software that will give you peace of mind for a very cheap price. Highly recommended.

Spysweeper by Webroot is now at version 3.0.

The good news........Webroot provided me with V3 under their
ONE YEAR of free upgrades AND updates.

Version 2 was good, but version 3 has a lot of cool new features, like all the new "shields".

So, when some Mal-ware program tries to change your browser home-page, an alert comes up and asks you if you authorized such a change.

Other shields include a HIJACK shield, IE tracking, IE favorites.

One especially neat one is the STARTUP ITEMS shield.
Before a program becomes a startup item, this shield pops up and asks you for authorization.

NOTE 1 : At this point in time, no single anti-spyware product appears to protect you from ALL potential mal-ware threats.
In fact, I have 4 different, FULL VERSION, products.
I alternate between these 4 programs almost daily.

There is a major amount of detection overlap but not a COMPLETE overlap. Each of the 4 programs finds stuff that the others didn't.

NOTE 2: I've debated folks in newsgroups about mal-ware detection s/w. Several folks comment that since there are FREE s/w packages, so why would anyone PAY for s/w?

First of all, remember, no single package detects every s/w threat out there (that I am aware of).

IMHO, the most indepth ones are NOT free s/w packages.
However, the freeware ones are good to an extent.

As for my personal PC's security, I use the following s/w packages: 1 firewall, 1 virus-scanner and 4 anti-spyware packages.



NOTE 3 : My favorites?
a. Spysweeper
b. Pestpatrol
c. Mcafee Anti-spy


NOTE 4: Watch out for wolves in sheep's clothing!

There are several "self-proclaimed" ANTI-spyware packages that actually INSTALL mal-ware onto your pc! You in fact, are shooting yourself in the foot by installing such programs.

I have owned Spysweeper for several years. I have found that a large amount of spyware is not getting caught. In many cases, a **portion** of the spyware was caught, Spy Sweeper did not remove the complete spywhere and I kept getting hits. Tried out XoftSpy software and it found and removed ALL of the spyware.

Even more, I get constant e-mails from Webroot telling me that my "Subscription needs to be renewed." and that I must send in another $25 to renew. I got caught in their scam once until I started checking my subsciption date. They frequently send out banket e-mails telling people their subscriptions are up even though they may have as much as a year left. I have contacted them several times on this issue with no response or correction.

I am only keeping this software installed because I paid out the bucks for it. I would not recommend it to others mainly because of the decptive business practices and the inability to perform as advertized. Look elswhere.

I feel duped! I bought Spy Sweeper at the computer store a year ago. It was the 2.6 version. At first everything was great. I got my definitions, it found traces, it detected spy cookies. When I ran the definition update, I had no problem with the firewall. Every time they said upgrade, I did. Then I started getting renew e-mail. I had months to go and they sent me renewal e-mails sometimes two or three a week and I ignored them, not only because I knew the year wasn't up, but I also was suspicious that it was just another spammer out to get my credit card information. I e-mailed them asking if their renew mails were really from them, voicing my concerns. I got ignored, to when I eventually got to speak to someone, they didn't even know what their renewal e-mail looked like! The problems began when I updated the latest version which is the 4.5. When I would try to update my definitions I'd get a warning that there's was a problem and contact webroot, while it had no problem noting that I had the latest version updates. No settings were changed, not even my firewall which was blamed by them. I think it's them not me since now it's suddenly happening. They refuse to address it. Then I checked their site about my subscritpion. I knew I had one because I bought it at the store, my subscription doesn't expire until June and if I was invalid I doubt I could upgrade to newer versions. What did their page say? No subscription! When I wrote I never got a straight answer about it. Then I was told that the program was corrupted, download a new copy of the latest version from their site. I did. What did I get? Boxes that said subscription not activated. They knew I had one and they won't change it on their site or give me explanations. After pestering does my latest version now say when I expire. I've asked why it goes online to scan when it doesn't need to and I get ignored. So I decided to call but wasn't sure how because I'm in a different time zone. It took several days for them to get back to me by e-mail saying that their Mountain Time is treated like my Eastern time to get a hold of someone. The first person I spoke to after four tries at 15-20 rings each, was nasty, especially when I told him to slow down because he mumbled. I downloaded what he told me to do, he said nothing about the firewall issue despite him telling me he read my tickets about it.The second person sounded like he'd smoked one too many joints after he decided to answer the phone after 15 rings. He didn't know how to answer any of my firewall questions or why their page kept saying I had no subscription when the program in it's latest version finally admitted I'm current after pestering. They don't give you straight e-mail answers. They don't answer their phones hoping that after the 15th ring you'll give up. It won't scan everything even when no other programs are running. In the new version it found a spy cookie, it kept repeating the same one over and over despite my checking it as "always remove".Never did that with the previous versions. I don't like a company who answers questions selectively. I don't like a company who makes you wait 20 rings. I don't like a company who blames your computer settings when they never affected the previous versions. Webroot's Spy Sweeper will be replaced in my desperate search to find a spyware program that actually works, and whose staff answers my questions and not mislead me about my subscription status.

I'm a software tech., and regularly run "several" anti-spyware programs. The older versions of SpySweeper, caused problems...!
I really like the newer 4.5 version (read my review on tips...).

I purchased this program because of a bug in SpyBot that did not allow it to complete its sweep. Although I fixed that problem, I'm not upset at having purchased this program at all.

Spy Sweeper consistently picks up cookies and Spyware that both Ad-Aware and Spybot: S&D did not identify. That combined with the effective Spyware shield (both logical and easy to use) make Spy Sweeper well worth its purchase price.

This product requires no effort to use. It installs quickly and is immediately ready to sweep through your files. On the initial sweep through, it corrected a serious problem caused by adware. When it reviewed the files on my kids computer, it identified 24 adware and similar programs that had been installed with some of the web packages my kids use. The programs are quarantined for now but both our computers are finally working the way we need them to.

I have to say that I have the same experience as others have noted with Webroot's lack of support. I bought two copies for my PCs. One installed and registered OK (not as easy as Symantec's Live Update system, but I eventually got it to work). Once that was done, it's easy to use. For the second copy, the registration system never worked, so the program refuses to update on the web site. There is no way within the program to register and no useful info on their support web site on how to fix this problem. I opened an online support ticket more than 2 days ago and no response. Waited on the phone for 15 minutes, then was cut off and told to leave a message, no return call more than a day later. For a program like this, if you can get updates, it is useless. And their registration and support system is BADLY BROKEN. I'd look elsewhere until they fix these problems.