Hey everybody. I’m new here to the forums, but I’ve been running CIS for over two years now. With the latest install (version 4), I’m starting to think that Spybot is old news and I’m not sure if I should keep it. Defense+ seems to do an awesome job and there doesn’t really seem to be much going on with new versions of spybot anymore. I’m running windows 7 x64 if that makes any difference. I’ve perused through a few forum topics about how spybot works with CIS, but they were all about specific issues that people have had (and they were all quite old threads). None really answer the question as to whether or not it’s really necessary to run both. I’d prefer to have only one, but I don’t want to be getting rid of an important layer of security. Please let me know if you guys think it’s OK to get rid of Spybot. Thanks.
P.S. I also have Windows Defender running as well.
Many (including me) believe that Spybot S&D is outdated. For the best spyware/malware detection I would recommend SuperAntiSpyware (SAS) & Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM). CIS is great, if that’s all you want to run you should be fine. If you want to run some other apps for layered protection, check out those other two I mentioned.
what do you mean with no new versions of spybot?
i think you didnt noticed its increasing database growing. its nearly the one million now. as i started with it, it had around 9000 things to look for.
cis is something completely different then spybot s&d. the teatimer can be replaced with cis defense+ (much better choice). but the scanning with spybot once a week (a few minutes) is nothing to get rid of.
many antivirus products dont look for all types of malware. some free versions explizit tell you that they dont look for spyware.
disable the teatimer when you use defense+ . then spybot s&d is is a good on demand scanner for spyware beside a regular antivirus program. it is NO standalone antivirus program, but a very good addition.
there are spying programs out there, which arent viruses! thats why spybot tells you something like this: “you might lose rights to use a software after spybot has cleaned its spys”.
i dont see one reason to erase this program.
He asked for an opinion and we gave our opinion. IMO MBAM ans SAS are superior to Spybot in detection. I also don’t believe that you have to have a dedicated anti-spyware program running in real-time. If it gets past your CIS then your scanner(s) should get it. Spybot (even according to many Spybot users) has alot of catching up to do and have been VERY slow to develop V 2.0. When (if) they ever release it I may give it a look but the current version is buggy (freezes), slow, and could use a boost in detection if you ask me. That’s my opinion.
spybot s&d isnt running in the background, when you disable teatimer. i use it once a week after the updates. its a nice “looking eye against trouble” which might have been undetected by an antivirus guard running permanently, for example in comodo antivirus.
malwarebytes a-m is used seldom.
and avira runs as guard here.
what i wanted to say: dont trust one program too much, so sb s&d is not a bad choice to add as a weekly searcher. not running all the rest of the time. some minutes, not like a full time virus scan of comodo cis.
it does what is was made for. and you can exactly read, what it can detect while its searching. in my eyes its a lot
I agree with you, just not on the program. I have CIS 4 and Immunet/ClamAV running real-time and MBAM and SAS for on-demand scanners. I’ve tried Spybot S&D 3 times and always found it very buggy. I don’t really think I need 3 on-demand anti-spyware scanners at this point but I would like to see Spybot get it together anyway. It’s ridiculous how long it’s taking them to release V 2. Even if I did use them they would have lost me because of that.
I must admit, this thread peaked my interest and seeing as how I haven’t used Spybot in quite a while, I reinstalled it. Lo and behold, 19 issues that SAS & MBAM had missed, apparently none of which were FP’s. I guess you learn something every day, and I’ll admit when I’m wrong. ;D
Thanks for all your replies. I’ve decided to go ahead and not install it this time. I realize that it is an excellent on demand scanner (and always has been), but I don’t have much need for that. I’ve been running those scans for over two years and I have not once found any problems whatsoever. I guess I’m just a safe surfer As long as my real time protection is sufficient enough to give me peace of mind, that’s all I care about. Thanks again…and yes, I will check back to see your thoughts on this post
One of the big problems with Spybot is its immunize feature. All this feature does is add thousands of domains to your HOSTS file. Large HOSTS files in turn affect system performance. Many people recommend disabling the DNS Client service to avoid this, but of course this in turn will affect browsing performance because each URL you want to visit requires your system to contact whichever DNS service you use instead of just looking at the cache hosted locally. Even frequently visited sites will take longer to view due to this.
This is compounded by the fact that the HOSTS file is not an indexed file. Each URL lookup must be done sequentially, (The lookup must start at the beginning of the file each and every time) which obviously will slow down your browsing experience as each site you attempt to visit requires a full or partial scan of the HOSTS file before the web page is loaded.
As long as my real time protection is sufficient enough to give me peace of mind, that’s all I care about. Thanks again…and yes, I will check back to see your thoughts on this post 