"stopsign" Anti-virus

[wonderent]

I was wondering if any of you have ever heard of

an anti-virus program and/or security suite called

stopsign. A tech repair guy sold a friend of mine

a lifetime support of this company for $99 ...all

for support on 3 computers too.

She is in another town, had a virus, and I suggested

to her all of the obvious security programs, but her

tech guy talked her into this. He told her it had won

awards from pcworld, so I thought maybe I was just

behind on the latest and greatest.

After going to pcworld and finding nothing on it,

I am worried that she was talked into something

not so reliable.

Sure would appreciate anyone's comment on this!

nancy

[garmanma]

At one time it was considered malware. I would'nt use it, but that's just my opinion

Mark

Donna's security blog

[wonderent]

Appreciate the input, Mark.

Edited December 6, 2006 by wonderent

[blim]

Isn't that the commercial where they have funny accents and say "whorms and gohrms"? If so, I also heard it wasn't any good but it was a long time ago and I waited to respond to see if Stopsign may have improved. Guess it hasn't!

Oh shoot, I just remembered this---close to a year ago, Pat (Sidekickcat) posted PCWorld's list of the top AV's and Stopsign was nowhere on the list if I remember right.

Shame your friend bought such an expensive gadget where so many can be gotten for free or free or close to free with rebates.

Liz

Edited December 6, 2006 by blim

[irregularjoe]

Have them get the free AVG.

Much better.

[TheTerrorist_75]

I would tell your friend to return the product and demand the money back. Have her print out the information below to bring with her. Tell her to stop doing business with that individual.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#ss_note

Note on eAcceleration Stop-Sign: eAcceleration's Stop-Sign anti-malware scanner was listed on this page primarily because of the company's history of employing deceptive advertising and drive-by-downloads (1, 2, 3, 4). The company was also known for removing and/or disabling competing apps. These objectionable business practices were employed primarily during the years 2002-2003.

Sometime during 2004 the company underwent reorganization. Not only have the worst of the company's download and installation practices been halted, but the company has completely overhauled its stub installer application, giving users much more control over the software modules to be installed on their systems (1, 2).

While testing indicates that the "threat scanner" is still slow and has occasional problems with false positives -- in large part because of the use of heuristics, which cannot be turned off by the user -- we can no longer classify this application as "rogue/suspect." Nonetheless, this anti-malware application -- at least in its current state -- cannot be recommended, given the many excellent competing anti-virus, anti-trojan, and anti-spyware applications that are available (some for free).

Domains: eacceleration.com, eanthology.net, stop-sign.com, veloz.com

(Note: other domains associated with this outfit include: accelerationsw.com, buttonware.com, buttonware.net, clicksales.com, downloadsales.com, homepageware.com, oodlz.com, signupsales.com, webcelerator.com) [A: 6-26-04 / U: 8-7-04]

[wonderent]

I would tell your friend to return the product and demand the money back. Have her print out the information below to bring with her. Tell her to stop doing business with that individual.

Thank you all so much for helping out. Terrorist, as always,

I can't thank you enough for taking time to check this out

for me. I am now torn --not knowing whether or not she will

be offended that I am not positive about this tech guy she

seems to like. My guess is that he is getting some kind of

kick back or would never ever have suggested this.

She is a senior citizen like me...just not as aware of things, so

is, I'm sure, easy to take advantage of.

I need to figure out a way to tell her and will! Appreciate the link

--that will help in my endeavor!!!

Thanks again,

nancy

[TheTerrorist_75]

I would tell your friend to return the product and demand the money back. Have her print out the information below to bring with her. Tell her to stop doing business with that individual.

Thank you all so much for helping out. Terrorist, as always,

I can't thank you enough for taking time to check this out

for me. I am now torn --not knowing whether or not she will

be offended that I am not positive about this tech guy she

seems to like. My guess is that he is getting some kind of

kick back or would never ever have suggested this.

She is a senior citizen like me...just not as aware of things, so

is, I'm sure, easy to take advantage of.

I need to figure out a way to tell her and will! Appreciate the link

--that will help in my endeavor!!!

Thanks again,

nancy

Just email her the link and quoted information. My aunt is the same way. Because her so called computer tech (I won't touch her computers) tells her something is great she grabs it. My other aunt calls me all the time saying that my obstinate aunt's computer is always messed up and in the shop. Of course they both fall for those emails dealing with get rich schemes and love playing games on insecure sites. They also love online casinos.

Edited December 6, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[wonderent]

Terrorist...thanks for giving me a laugh about your aunts

[even though it's not funny]

Edited December 6, 2006 by wonderent

[shanenin]

Their are lots of bad techs out there. By bad, I mean they ONLY care about making the bill larger. I know the owner(I'm friends with his lead tech) of one of my competing repair shops in town. He will say and sell anything so long as it makes him money. He does not care one bit about his customers. My hunch is Stop-Sign must be giving a huge commission to push their product.

I have to live with myself everyday. That means I can only recommend products and services I would want recommended for me. I sometimes think this hurts my business, but at the end of the day, I feel good about what I have done(or not done). This hopefully will pay of in the long run. I want to be known as the tech company who treats his customers fairly. Once I get a client, they will stay with me, and get me referrals.

I currently usually recommend my clients use a free anti-virus like avg(I don't make anything on it). Then I also offer to sell them spysweeper for their anti-spyware needs. I am only making a 10-15 dollar markup on it.

Edited December 6, 2006 by shanenin

[garmanma]

Although I prefer AVG and Avast for free programs, most ISP's now provide free antivirus programs. Many are not so good but more trustworthy than StopSign

Mark

[wonderent]

Thank you all so much. I am going to compose a note to her

today. Really appreciate all of the input...and was also good to

learn something new. nancy

[mikex]

Her "Tech Guy" may not have any tech experience. He may just know a little more about computer than her. Give her a link to this forum. She will then kick her "Tech Guy" to the curb.

M

[shanenin]

Her "Tech Guy" may not have any tech experience. He may just know a little more about computer than her. Give her a link to this forum. She will then kick her "Tech Guy" to the curb.

M

I think you are being kind. It was probably maliciously given advice so that he could make a large profit on. I have a hard time believing anybody with some tech knowledge would recommend something like that.

Edited December 8, 2006 by shanenin

[baker7]

Her "Tech Guy" may not have any tech experience. He may just know a little more about computer than her. Give her a link to this forum. She will then kick her "Tech Guy" to the curb.

M

I think you are being kind. It was probably maliciously given advice so that he could make a large profit on. I have a hard time believing anybody with some tech knowledge would recommend something like that.

I certainly wouldnt tell ANYONE to use any program that I would not have used myself. I think G4 used to be sponsored by the company that makes Stopsign, and they actually were "convinced" to remove any ads that dealt with it, because our TS folks over there knew it was a bad program.

I, being a Tech, am out there to try and HELP people fix computers. The only thing I charge for when dealing with some people is Travel Expense to and from thier residence. Others, I chage a rate that is commeserate with the time I spend working on the machine in question. I am fair, and not trying to soak my customers, but sometimes, I have to charge more because once I went back 7 times in a month. I have a client that uses Juno, so the cost is rediculous - they charge like $25-50 per incident for tech support, and $9.95 per month for access - that is rediculous.

You have to know what it is you are doing, or you will mess up peoples computers.

'Nuff Said

Brian

Stopsign is garbage

[Naming is hard]

I'd be careful, they used to have Ads on Tech T.V and they would have almost the exact same ad for two different Anti-Virus programs...The whole thing always seemed fishy to me so i stayed away.