Malware Bytes Pro or Threatfire ?

I now have Malware Bytes Pro (working on access), should I get rid of Threatfire ?

 

MBAM Pro and Threatfire use different preventative technologies. Heuristics(MBAM Pro) and behavioral(Threatfire). Unless you're seeing a hit on performance or a conflict between the two, you might consider letting them both run.

Since I use Threatfire, and have for some time, that makes me prejudice.

One important difference though. MBAM Pro will stop known and perceived(based on it's definition files) malware from ever reaching your computer. Threatfire won't bark until some abnormal activity is attempted, at which point TF will stop the suspicious behavior in it's tracks as well as the program responsible for the attempt.

In short, if something(unknown, zero-day) manages to slip by your security(firewall, AV, AS, AM), Threatfire is there.

I'm referring to the individual version of ThreatFire, not the version incorporated with PC Tools Firewall Plus.

 

This is basically the conclusion I came to last night after viewing numerous threads on this issue on diiferent forums. Many people claim Threatfire causes their system to lag, and my system NEVER lags .
Only one other thing, I am only using Windows 7 firewall, not an aftermarket one, whereas on previous computers I always used a software firewall. I'm thinking with Malwarebytes active, as well as Threatfire, a firewall would be overkill. I don't surf the web like a horny 14 year old, I use common sense and I haven't had a malware issue in a long time. I've read the sticky about how to keep your machine clean etc. I'm trying to keep my system light, even though when I bought it it was top of the line, that was more than 2 years ago, but it still runs great and since I haven't had any troubles, does anyone see any reason I need to use a firewall ? I was only thinking about these last night after getting MBAM pro working, and starting looking at forums on these topics.

AH - only issue im having is SAS will freexe up in different areas of my C drive (which is a SSD) but i might could fix that with a reinstall . Other than that I have no signs of malware.
Question remaining is : software firewall or no ?

 

Alrighty. I nuked Threatfire, and installed Privatefirewall 7.0 .
I ran leaktest before the change, and results were bad. I can run leaktest now, and i appear to be protected.

 

Interesting. Threatfire never let leaktest through for me, unless I over road Threatfire's objections. I'm not running Win7 either though. Threatfire has not caused any lags for me either.

If everything is working better for you with Threatfire removed then that's the way I would leave it. Since MBAM has added features lacking in Threatfire, if I had to choose between the two I would keep MBAM. Fortunately, I don't have to make that choice.

As for software firewall(s), the only time one is not needed is if you have a hardware firewall. No matter what other security measures you have in place, don't believe a software firewall is over kill. After you, a firewall is your first line of defense.

 

I have had Threatfire installed for about 2 years. I use my computer pretty much daily, and especially at times like these, while I am unemployed, I am on my computer and the internet all day . During all this time, I can not remember ONE instance of threatfire notifying me of any type of activity . I'm certain I had the settings on moderate if not high alert .
Privatefirewall 7.0 seems to be doing a great job so far - I've got it in training mode, probably will keep it in training mode for a week. I think I now have a more effective defense, and will see if perhaps I have been lagged by Threatfire and just never realized it because I've used it for so long .

:major

 

I'm pretty sure you could use all 3 at the same time since they are totally different types of protection, and as long as you have decent specs, there should be no lag whatsoever. In the past, I used MBAM Pro, Online Armor (the free one), ThreatFire, MS Security Essentials, and Avira's AntiVir (the free one), and had no lag at all. This was on a WinXP Pro SP3 system with 2gb RAM and plenty of free space on the hard drive. They all ran great together.....

Now with Win7 X64, I use MBAM Pro, SpywareBlaster, MS Security Essentials, Avira AntiVir (the free one), and Autorun Eater (to protect against infected USB flash drives; I use A LOT of my flash drives at work on infected PCs and I don't want to bring the crud back home). I have no lag at all....

 

I wish I could convince mine of that LOL Unfortunately, I don't have enough granular control of which ports it blocks or what can and can't use which ports the way I can with the software firewall. It's a hardware firewall incorporated with the modem. So, currently it stops Thunderbird from sending outgoing email and prevents Windows from connecting to time servers like time.nist.gov.

Although that's the way I'm setup, I'm not sure I see the advantage of a hardware firewall if the software firewall is blocking incoming as well as outgoing traffic. Well, other than it will be active before the software firewall is loaded on a cold boot or re-boot. I've always read that having both is the way to go but never quite understood the need for a hardware firewall if a good software firewall is in place.

I suppose the hardware firewall reduces the amount of work the software firewall has to do?

Thanks chaslang I'll search for more information about having both.

 

Well, now that I've made the switch Im' getting odd freezes : when ESC'ing from fullscreen milkdrop in winamp, in SHIFT 2. When I boot my computer, I get a popup error telling me "Profile not found" . Why couldn't I have just left well enough alone ?
:mad

Ran a fullscan with both Avira free and MBAM pro, nothing turned up, I just downloaded the newest SAS and will run a full scan with that shortly . I think the moral of the story here is DONT FIX IT IF IT AINT BROKE .

Story at 11 .

 

Sorry for taking your thread off track :-o

Think chaslang pretty well answered your question about software firewalls.

What steps did you take to 'nuke Threatfire'?

 

Maybe the problem is with the firewall and not malware.

You could try uninstalling the firewall with Revo Uninstaller, re-activate the Windows 7 firewall,
and see if the popup error disappears.
If it does, then you should try a different firewall.

If you use Revo Uninstaller, use only the Safe or Moderate setting, Not the Advanced setting.

I am using PC Tools Firewall Plus and Malwarebytes Pro with Windows XP sp3 and its working OK.

 

Well, due to other issues involving my Linux install, I had to reinstall Win 7 and got rid of my version of MINT I installed on a dedicated drive .
BLEH !:-D

 

If im not mistaken, I uninstalled it using CCleaner .

 

I suppose it's a moot point since you've reinstalled Win 7. None the less, a Threatfire uninstall can be problematic. The recommended uninstall procedure for Threatfire is shown at http://www.pctools.com/threatfire/answers/id/760/

Those instructions include a download link for a 'special cleaning utility' to be used if Threatfire does not uninstall properly:
http://www.threatfire.com/files/RemoveThreatFire(3.0).zip

Was just thinking that Threatfire might not have uninstalled completely, and could have been the cause of your "odd freezes" and your "Profile not found" pop up.

The method below has worked very well for me when uninstalling Threatfire:

• Right click on the Threatfire icon in the system tray and select "suspend" from the menu.
• Go to services [Windows] key + [R] Key, type services.msc and click the OK button or hit the [Enter] key. In Win 7 you will probably have to run services.msc with elevated privileges. Run as Administrator from the drop down menu.
• In the services window, double click on the Threatfire service, in the properties window change the 'Startup type:' to Disabled, click the OK button. Then close out the services window.
• Using Startup Control Panel Standalone Version under the [HKLM / Run] tab uncheck the box in front of Threatfie. Close out Startup CPL.
• Reboot the computer.
• Use Revo Uninstaller to uninstall Threatfire.

I've not tried this approach on a Win 7 machine, only XP(many times) and Vista(a few times), but it has worked everytime.