Firefox Works With Housecall 6.5

[Mike Rochip]

Trendmicro Housecall 6.5 works with Firefox and Dr. Orca. However, you have to uninstall Ad-Aware SE because it is incompatable with Housecall 6.5. Personally, I like Housecall 6.5 because it catches stuff other scanners (SpyBot, MS Antispy, Ewido Online Scan, etc) do not detect on my PC. It's not nearly as fast as the IE version but seems like it has definitions others don't. The stuff it flagged I Googled and most of the info from the Web was in languages other than English. Ironically, a lot of the websites were in French .

 

You have to use the Trendmicro EU site here..

 

And yes, I realize that I seem to be the only person on the planet who uses Dr. Orca.

[rridgely]

It catches stuff that spybot,MSAS, and ewido dont catch because its a different type or program! Trend micro scan scans mainly for Viruses and a few types of spyware.

 

It does do and ok job on spyware but not great. If you have a decent AV and those other programs I dout that trend micro would be finding very much on your system.

[Mike Rochip]

That's true but I thought it may be good for people who have banished IE from their computers like englishmen has. I usually rotate the AVs I use so it's good as way to doublecheck the others. Except for MSAS which freezes and causes millions of page faults.

 

This is what Housecall 6.5 found: KEYL_SE.67682, ADW_SE.70084, and TROJ_SE.69649. I'm not fully convinced that they are malware because I couldn't find much info on them.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[mpossoff]

Hi Mike,

 

I use primarily FF but still have IE(just in case FF doesn't work).

 

Also have Ad-Aware SE Personal.

 

I'm not very versed with PC's and such is why I am asking for help.

 

Are you saying that House call is better than Ad-Aware?

 

If so just to re-iderate.... unistall Ad-Aware if I want to use housecall?

 

You also talked about the IE version, what is that?

 

Marc

 

Trendmicro Housecall 6.5 works with Firefox and Dr. Orca. However, you have to uninstall Ad-Aware SE because it is incompatable with Housecall 6.5. Personally, I like Housecall 6.5 because it catches stuff other scanners (SpyBot, MS Antispy, Ewido Online Scan, etc) do not detect on my PC. It's not nearly as fast as the IE version but seems like it has definitions others don't. The stuff it flagged I Googled and most of the info from the Web was in languages other than English. Ironically, a lot of the websites were in French  .

 

You have to use the Trendmicro EU site here..

 

And yes, I realize that I seem to be the only person on the planet who uses Dr. Orca. 

 

25736[/snapback]

 

 

 

[Mike Rochip]

I'm not as knowledgable as other members such as rridgely, Andavari, Tarun etc. so my answers are from my personal experience.

 

I wouldn't say that Housecall is better than Ad-Aware. I've noticed many people have different results than other other people using the same products. On my PC Ad-Aware hardly ever found anything other than cookies, which CC removes when you run it. MS AntiSpy never seemed to find anything on my PC and locks up quite a bit. Other people thank it's the best one to use and I do use its Real Time Protection feature. Some people have a favorite scanner and don't use any others. I use quite a few different ones and run one every couple days so that they overlap. It's pretty much a matter of personal preference of how they work on your PC and which features you like best. One thing is critical to either method which is to check for updates frequently. Malware authors are always trying to outsmart the AV scanners and find new ways to get into your PC.

 

I would try to run Housecall before doing anything with Ad-Aware to see if it works. The advice to remove Ad-Aware is from Trendmicro's web site. It says Ad-Aware has a feature that prevents Housecall from updating files it needs to run when using Firefox. I think IE works with or without Ad-Aware.

 

The difference between using IE verses Firefox is that IE can use ActiveX or Java whereas Firefox only works with Java. If you use the ActiveX version you may have to give Housecall permission to install the ActiveX control and with Java you may have to update to the newest version. Housecall will let you know either way.

 

This link is to Housecall 6.0 which is an older version for IE only that is quick and easy to use.

 

This link is for Housecall 6.5 which is the newest version. It allows you to choose either IE or Firefox. It's a little more complicated (more features and scanning options) and it takes quite a bit longer but seems more comprehensive than 6.0.

 

If you're pretty consistent with how often you scan and update, after a little while the scanners won't find malware very often which of course a good thing!

 

Good Luck, Happy New Year, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

[mpossoff]

something I'm not clear on...

 

are you suppose to run Housecall in both IE and FF?

 

in other words start the scans in both IE and FF browsers?

 

Marc, from the USA

 

I'm not as knowledgable as other members such as rridgely, Andavari, Tarun etc. so my answers are from my personal experience.

 

I wouldn't say that Housecall is better than Ad-Aware. I've noticed many people have different results than other other people using the same products. On my PC Ad-Aware hardly ever found anything other than cookies, which CC removes when you run it. MS AntiSpy never seemed to find anything on my PC and locks up quite a bit. Other people thank it's the best one to use and I do use its Real Time Protection feature. Some people have a favorite scanner and don't use any others. I use quite a few different ones and run one every couple days so that they overlap. It's pretty much a matter of personal preference of how they work on your PC and which features you like best. One thing is critical to either method which is to check for updates frequently. Malware authors are always trying to outsmart the AV scanners and find new ways to get into your PC.

 

I would try to run Housecall before doing anything with Ad-Aware to see if it works. The advice to remove Ad-Aware is from Trendmicro's web site. It says Ad-Aware has a feature that prevents Housecall from updating files it needs to run when using Firefox. I think IE works with or without Ad-Aware.

 

The difference between using IE verses Firefox is that IE can use ActiveX or Java whereas Firefox only works with Java. If you use the ActiveX version you may have to give Housecall permission to install the ActiveX control and with Java you may have to update to the newest version. Housecall will let you know either way.

 

This link is to Housecall 6.0 which is an older version for IE only that is quick and easy to use.

 

This link is for Housecall 6.5 which is the newest version. It allows you to choose either IE or Firefox. It's a little more complicated (more features and scanning options) and it takes quite a bit longer but seems more comprehensive than 6.0.

 

If you're pretty consistent with how often you scan and update, after a little while the scanners won't find malware very often which of course a good thing!

 

Good Luck, Happy New Year, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

 

25760[/snapback]

 

 

 

[rridgely]

No you dont have to run it in both browsers.

 

 

Mike thanks for the link to the old housecall. I cant stand the new one.

[mpossoff]

No you dont have to run it in both browsers.

Mike thanks for the link to the old housecall. I cant stand the new one.

 

25762[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

I like the old one way better, much faster.

 

Marc

[Mike Rochip]

No you dont have to run it in both browsers.

Mike thanks for the link to the old housecall. I cant stand the new one.

 

 

LOL I found the link in one of your postings!

[englishmen]

Housecall 6.5 still does nto work for me i still get the api error thingy.

[Greenknight]

I tried running Housecall 6.5, on Firefox 1.5 (I have AdAware SE Personal), it seemed to update ok (though it took an hour!), and the scan ran for a while. But Firefox crashed before it was finished, don't know why. I'll give it another try, see if that happens again.

 

<edit> I was able to complete a scan with Housecall 6.5. The whole process took a couple hours, even though I'd run it within the last 24 hrs updating still took about half an hour! While the scan runs, the clock showing the time remaining is the most useless I've ever seen, at one point it said 6 1/2 days! (I'm not kidding, it really said that! Why would the word "days" even be in the program?) Then it was 1 1/2 hrs, then 2 1/2... you get the picture.

 

When it was finally done, it had found 3 cookies; no telling what they were, it just gives some funky code numbers for them. Since it had found something, it recommended I scan again! (sure, that's gonna happen...)

 

Then I went offline and ran a quick ewido scan of the Firefox profile folder. This found 4 more tracking cookies Housecall had missed. Can't say I'm too impressed with Housecall 6.5.

[Andavari]

I honestly don't see how/why Ad-Aware would have to be uninstalled to use HouseCall, unless of course Trend Micro is referring to Ad-Aware paid versions that include Ad-Watch which is resident. I don't see how the free version of Ad-Aware (Ad-Aware SE Personal) could conflict with it at all.

[Mike Rochip]

I honestly don't see how/why Ad-Aware would have to be uninstalled to use HouseCall, unless of course Trend Micro is referring to Ad-Aware paid versions that include Ad-Watch which is resident. I don't see how the free version of Ad-Aware (Ad-Aware SE Personal) could conflict with it at all.

 

 

That's what I was wondering. The fix I mentioned was actually listed for PC-Cillin but I tried it and Housecall did run without any errors. Later I reinstalled Ad-Aware and tried to run HC 6.5 and the message about error while downloading files was back and HC froze. According to TrendMicro:

 

"The Ad-Aware software by Lavasoft has a feature that prevents files from being copied into the computer."

 

I've never heard that before, Ad-AwareSE Personal has never been described as providing real-time protection as far as I know. TrendMicro's support doesn't specify whether it is only specific versions of Ad-Aware causing problems. Some people think the AdBlock extension is the issue.

 

The verdict seems to be that HC 6.5 for Firefox is a whole lot of work for questionable results. Like Greenknight said the results are confusing with no info available on what it finds. I think it's great TrendMicro is trying to provide an AV scanner compatible with Firefox, hopefully there will be improvements. An easier to navigate support section for Housecall would sure help, but I'm guessing since HC is free it's not one of their main priorities.

[rridgely]

I use both and dont get an error. Not sure on this one, never heard of this problem

[Tarun]

Yeah, several online scanners return false positives.

[rridgely]

Yeah, several online scanners return false positives.

 

 

I find that is only the case with the ones that dont actually remove anything. Panda, trendmicro, and a few others seem to be pretty good about that.

[Mike Rochip]

The first time I ran Housecall 6.5 if found these:

 

KEYL_SE.67682, ADW_SE.70084, and TROJ_SE.69649

 

I Googled them again and there are lot more posts for them now then there were before. One poster said these names are TrendMicro's in house designations for various malware. I'm now thinking they were actual infections because I had been having a couple annoyances recently such as the IE home page I use wouldn't load, IE froze up once, some sites returned a "database missing" error etc. I wasn't too concerned because the AV scans from various vendors I use didn't detect anything. However, after reading through the Google results, I noticed that some of the symptoms people are discussing are the same as mine.

 

I'm betting I picked up the malware from the phishing site I visited after I fell for the fake PayPal message.

[Mike Rochip]

The first time I ran Housecall 6.5 if found these:

 

KEYL_SE.67682, ADW_SE.70084, and TROJ_SE.69649

 

I Googled them again and there are lot more posts for them now then there were before. One poster said these names are TrendMicro's in house designations for various malware. I'm now thinking they are actual infections because I've been having a couple annoyances lately such as the IE home page I use won't load, IE froze up once, some sites return a "database missing" error etc. I wasn't too concerned because the AV scans from various vendors I use didn't detect anything. However, after reading through the Google results, I noticed that some of the symptoms people are discussing are the same as mine.

 

I'm betting I picked up the malware from the phishing site I visited after I fell for the fake PayPal message.

[Mike Rochip]

Sorry, I posted the previous message twice by accident and couldn't seem to delete the second one.

[Greenknight]

Don't think I'll bother with Housecall 6.5 again, if I want to spend that much time I'll use Bitdefender (requires IE): http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php

 

My new favorite is eTrust, (also IE only), it's much faster (but how well it works I can't really tell): http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

[Andavari]

I agree Greenknight, the size of HouseCall's definition file alone is near the size of a full-featured antivirus program, HouseCall stopped working on my system when they added spyware scanning. The only online antivirus I now use is Microsoft Windows Live Safety Center which scans for viruses and spyware, and it currently doesn't require some 8MB definition file like HouseCall which would take 30 or so minutes to download on my dial-up connection.

[Greenknight]

I tried that MSWLSC scan, it was also pretty slow. But if it works well, that's what's most important (and I have no way to tell for sure). I do like the way it can scan for open ports. If it can actually close the open ports, that will provide users of the XP firewall something that's been lacking up to now.

 

I ran a BitDefender online scan the next night, also a long process (2 hrs 35 min to update and scan). It found 2 suspicious files the MS scan didn't, but they might have been false positives. I had set the option to have it ask me for a prompt if it couldn't heal the files, but instead it just deleted them. So I can't check those files to find out if there was anything really there.

[Monkey Proof]

for about a month i had been having trouble with accessing the houscall scan. the page would hang up when linking to the european site. i tried diferent things to trouble shoot the problem, i even made a post at Lunarsoft about this. untill i was even having trouble acessing the MS update page. with RRidgley help that problem was solved. turns out that Norton firewall was blocking access to MS updates. on a hunch i decided to try Houscall again with Norton turned off and i was able to complete a full scan. i am a little confussed with the result as Housecall found 1 infected item. it listed the Maxthon brower as grayware.

 

 

[Andavari]

I tried that MSWLSC scan, it was also pretty slow.

 

The only way to speed up those free online virus scans is to disable your resident/real-time protection in your installed antivirus, which is what I've been doing for 5+ years when using online virus scanning services. Now if I leave eTrust EZ Antivirus' real-time protection on my scan at MSWLSC would take at least 25% longer, it's currently at about 28 minutes to scan, well it actually takes approximately the same amount of time to scan my whole system as eTrust EZ Antivirus does.

[Greenknight]

I do turn of my resident AV when doing those scans (unless I forget). It's good that you brought that up, though. Some people might not be aware of that. When running any other virus scanner, whether online or not, you should shut down your resident AV protection.