SpyBot and SpywareBlaster

I've been checking several of my computers and the same thing appears to be happening on them all.

When I open SpywareBlaster on any PC, I notice that the "Restricted Sites" always seem to say "Partially "Enabled." One item is always disabled.

I've read: "Since you're also running SpyBot, be advised that at present, SpyBot & SpywareBlaster have a disagreement about the inclusion of IE restricted site CoolWebSearch (3650) Hotlinkfiles (dot) com....
SpywareBlaster is ENabling it, SpyBot is DISabling it.
A simple "solution" is that EVERY time you hit the IMMUNIZE button using spybot, you must, afterwards, reimmunize with SpywareBlaster."

Does anyone know if this is true. Is SpyBot disabling it? I've read that "collwebsearch" is considered spyware and wonder why SpyBot would be disabling it.

Can anyone explain as this has us quite confused.

Alice

I've never had any conflicting problems. Are you using the latest versions for each product?

I can confirm that this is actually happening. I enable all protection using SpywareBlaster. If I subsequently click the immunize button in Spybot SD, the protection for CoolWebSearch (3650) Hotlinkfiles (dot) com in Spywareblaster is disabled.

I have SpybotSD 1.6.2.46 with all updates and I have SpywareBlaster 4.2 with all updates. Both of these are the latest available versions (I believe).

The Forums at SpywareBlaster say there is a disagreement between SpybotSD and SpywareBlaster about the blocking of this site. Could you please tell us why SpybotSD considers this site safe.

This has happened before between SpywareBlaster and SpyBot Search & Destroy a few months ago. Merely checking the SpyBot S&D immunizations will remove one(this time) or more SpywareBlaster immunizations, usually in the IE Restricted Sites.

This usually happens when Safer Networking no longer considers a site malicious and removes it from it's sites list. Removing it removes it from SpywareBlaster immunizations also.

SpywareBlaster Protection Compatability Issue

Spybot/Spywareblaster conflict CasaleMedia

I'd rather play it safe than sorry.. if SpywareBlaster considers it a threat, Spybot should not counter it. Even if Spybot thinks it's safe, which I am inclined not to agree with a name like "hotlinkfiles", Spybot should keep it in the unsafe category.

Just MHO.

After immunizing with SpyBot Search & Destroy, I reimmunize also with SpywareBlaster. Since I have multiple Windows users on this machine, I must do it for each user in turn as SpywareBlaster doesn't immunize all users MSIE Restricted Sites in one fell swoop.

I am using the latest version of SpyBot and SpywareBlaster.

Has anyone from Spybot Admin replied to this "problem?"

Alice

I will have to be blunt about this one, because to put it in plain English one program has a site that was removed, but when you open the other program, it tells you that it has been partially enabled.

Depends on how you interpret and respond to bitman's reply. Personally, I will not say "Yeah, yeah it's just one site, get over it." because that would be unreasonable and confusing.

What I will say is that I have read several of bitman's responses several times to make sure I have not misunderstood what he was saying.

The forum has encountered this issue several times (I am assuming it has been resolved in the past threads) and what really happens is that one of the two parties would come to an agreement and probably erase the problematic entry all together. I am sure there are also users on the SpywareBlaster forum in confusion.

My personal opinion is just that I would ask myself, out of those tens of thousands of sites that are being held in the HOSTS file, how many will I actually visit in my lifetime (bitman said something very similar to this)? The HOSTS file will continue to grow expand, some dead sites may be removed, but the list itself will continue to grow.
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I would not call this a solution (I am sure something will be resolved in the near future, because it has been done in the past) but rather a reply to clear some things up.

I'll put it even more simply.

Spybot Search and Destroy appears to maintain their list more frequently than SpywareBlaster, resulting in these usually temporary differences.

In this case note that though the domain itself is still registered, it appears that it may be no longer operating as a file hosting site, which is probably why it existed on the list in the first place as a storage location for malware.

Whether it has gone out of business permanently or exactly what the current condition might be, I think I'd tend to trust that the Spybot S&D Team took the time to investigate before removing it from their list. The fact that some of you don't trust them indicates to me that you have no concept how your security strategy really works and probably shouldn't be using it if that's the case.

What's funny is that I have stopped using Immunization completely on all but an old Windows 2000 Pro PC that will soon be going out of service when Microsoft stops supporting it on July 13th. There are many more effective and dynamic systems built-in to Internet Explorer 8 SmartScreen Filter and other similar online systems that do this job far more effecively today, so I simply don't use it anymore on Windows XP or newer os versions.

Bitman

1) this isssue has been fixed as of today's (14 April 2010) SpyBot update.

2) SpywareBlaster has just released a completely updated PROGRAM, version 4.3 ;
see http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=270158