jonah said:
Personally I don't think reducing the protection level of your AV is a
good idea, its doing exactly what it is supposed to do despite many
attempts to stop it, proves how good NOD 32 is + what are these AVs
that allow this spyware to run in stealth mod anyway? I don't want
them.
I tend to agree, I don't really want to reduce the level of protection if it
can be avoided, after all the whole purpose of putting an AV on is to
protect! AFAIK most of the AV products do not detect SpyAnywhere in stealth
mode, according to the manufacturers anyway I haven't tested any other AV
products, I just know that NOD32 doesn't give a damn if it is in stealth
mode or not, it still detects it, and even if you add it to the exclusions
list it still pops a warning up regularly to let you know the application is
there! I guess that could get annoying for some people in other
circumstances and I would've thought that adding an application to the
exclusions list would stop the AV from doing anything about that
application, including pop-up warnings...... oh well...
I can see your point though, you want to monitor juniors net usage, I
just don't think the sort of net monitoring software you are using is
any good in a home environment. Normally this stuff is run by a sys
admin on a company domain network where everyone is on limited
accounts and the AV / Firewall stuff is done by dedicated commercial
solutions that are way more configureable than basic home stuff even
if it does boast of Pro credentials.
I understand, it was just good as it provided access to the files and
e-mails and chats, plus screen-shots, all in one package whereas things like
Net Nanny may block access to sites but still doesn't stop some of the other
problems we were having, which I won't go into here but it was desirable to
be able to check on files and some other activities if possible - which was
why SpyAnywhere/SpyAgent was being considered as well as Net Nanny (strange
that NOD32 doesn't detect SpyAgent in stealth mode but does detect
SpyAnywhere??? hmmm....)
On a home PC network where you really need security software the only
way any spyware is gonna work is by compromising security in the first
place..........................innit?
I would suggest trying it from a different angle - instead of spyware
put junior on a limited account then use content management to block
places you do not wish junior to get into. There is a lot of software
/ literature etc out there to do just that even, windows has content
blocking built in if you can be arsed to mess about with it for weeks.
For example Norton Personal Firewall 2003 which you can use with NOD
32 and a Router is easy to set up and has pretty good parental control
features that should be ideal.
(Note I said Norton Personal Firewall 2003).
This way you get to put the stoppers on iffy surfing + your security
is enhanced not compromised.
Yes, well, as I said above the sus net surfing was just part of the problem
but is currently controlled by Net Nanny. There were some other concerns
that this doesn't solve though and although the spy software I know is
intended for different markets it did provide what we needed (and more,
which just wasn't used) without having to use a separate package for each
task... We are running behind a router but I still don't want to reduce the
level of AV protection if it can be avoided - so far Spytech (who make
SpyAnywhere) have been unable to offer any help, other than to ask NOD32 why
their AV detects spy software (??WTF??)
Thanks for your comments, it was nice to see another sensible response to
the question!
