"Gateway Defender

Bill Henry-

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My ISP is offering “Gateway Defender” – a program they claim will interdict spam, viruses, phishing and other stuff at the server level before I receive it.

Has anyone used it? If so, how easy is it to manage?
 
WHY YOU!!!!!!! I oughta come up there and...

Oops...sorry Bill. I thought you were about to defend Gateway computers!!!!
 
Originally posted by Bill Henry:
My ISP is offering “Gateway Defender” – a program they claim will interdict spam, viruses, phishing and other stuff at the server level before I receive it.

Has anyone used it? If so, how easy is it to manage?
I doubt such a program will do what it claims.

For example: SPAM is email and your ISP will not know if a certain piece is email or SPAM. Your free email service (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc) will take care of that.

Phishing: Your ISP is also unable to block this. If someone sends you a "fishy" email and requests your bank data and you oblige, you ISP has no bearing on that either. Same thing if you go to a website and it asks the same no-no question.

If what your ISP offers is free, fine, if it costs money, you can decline it.

There are lots of free programs on the market that can do a better job. I use Zonealarm from Zonelabs.com for a free firewall to block intrusions and hackers.

I also use Spybot Search and Destroy which does a great job at intercepting virus and other cretins. And AdAware from lavasoft to scan for ad spam located on the hard disk. All those are the best in their class, run silently and are free.

Here are links to those products in case you want to tr them (all are free versions):

Ad Aware: http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

SpyBot Search and Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

ZoneAlarm:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?lid=dbtopnav_zass
 
Gateway are now the fourth (at least they were the last time I looked) biggest supplier of computers in the US, there presence outside the US is limited since they closed their factory in Dublin Ireland a few years ago and made a few thousand people redundant.

That said never the less Gateway have made a great job of reinventing themselves over the last year or so and from all counts are a serious player in certain areas of the computer business again…….and their shares are also performing very well.

Again in fairness to computer manufacturers about issues/problems that can arise with computers quite a lot of the faults can be traced to the user or outside contamination (viruses etc.) which can attack a computer………one of the biggest issues for the computer suppliers is the DIY or I have a buddy who can fix computers (yeah we all know the type) when they cannot fix the problem the simple thing for them to do is blame the computer manufacturer……….or the other type is the user who has difficulty distinguishing between a software problem and a hardware problem.
 
I am sure that Dell and Gateway are perfectly good Windoze based computers, but I have a Mac.

<u>Gateway Defender</> is a software package (not even remotely related to Gateway computers) which can be installed on my web site server. Gateway Defender claims to be able to interdict all kinds of nasties at the server level before they reach my little ‘ole computer, Clyde.

I realize that no program can filter 100% of these problem e-mails, but some of the testimonials claims that they have a 96% success rate with about 2% false positives and another 2% false negatives. I could live with that … if the control panel is easy to configure.

So, does anyone have any experience with “Gateway Defender”?
 
Originally posted by PaulN:
I doubt such a program will do what it claims.

For example: SPAM is email and your ISP will not know if a certain piece is email or SPAM. Your free email service (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc) will take care of that.

Phishing: Your ISP is also unable to block this. If someone sends you a "fishy" email and requests your bank data and you oblige, you ISP has no bearing on that either. Same thing if you go to a website and it asks the same no-no question.
But if you don't use a "free" email service, the ISP can use the same type of product the free email service does with the same results.

Phishing can be stopped using the same types of logic as spam, and if you never get the phishy email you can't respond to it.

I don't have any personal experience with the program, but I would give it a shot, especially if it's "free".
 
I also use Spybot Search and Destroy which does a great job at intercepting virus and other cretins.
The idea that Spybot Search and Destroy will block viruses (viri?) is, I think, a dangerous misconception. Its function (and that of Ad-Aware) is to find, and optionally delete, spyware that can send personal information to someone whose intentions may or may not be criminal.

Each of the two free programs will sometimes find spyware that the other misses, so it's not crazy to use both, but neither will stop a virus in the sense that Norton's or similar antivirus programs can.
 
Originally posted by Ron Eggers:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> I also use Spybot Search and Destroy which does a great job at intercepting virus and other cretins.
The idea that Spybot Search and Destroy will block viruses (viri?) is, I think, a dangerous misconception. Its function (and that of Ad-Aware) is to find, and optionally delete, spyware that can send personal information to someone whose intentions may or may not be criminal.

Each of the two free programs will sometimes find spyware that the other misses, so it's not crazy to use both, but neither will stop a virus in the sense that Norton's or similar anti virus programs can.
</font>[/QUOTE]You are mistaken about SpyBot, it does actively prevent a virus from infecting the PC (during a download, while clicking on an infected link, etc). It will detect, intercept, quarantine and issue a warning message about what was intercepted. I know it works that way, it happened to me many times.

I know all that because I have been using SpyBot for over 5 years and used it in companies where I was IT Manager for over 10 years before starting my own art business.

As for AdAware, it will scan the PC (user activated in this case) for any programs that are ad related (pop-ups for example, that appear on the screen, even when you are off line).

But again, the best defense against all the above is good old common sense.
 
Maybe you were using a different version of Spybot, but the free one I have does NOT block viruses and does NOT claim to block viruses. It claims only to remove spyware after it has infected your computer. Spyware, adware, viruses, worms, and phishing are all totally different things and there is no one program that blocks and/or gets rid of them all.

As to the original question, I'm pretty sure my dad has Gateway Defender on his Mac and likes it quite well. It is a Mac specific version of a spamcatcher. My ISP provider has their own version of a spamcatcher that we use and we have been happy with it. It filters out 90%+ of the spam and most of the phishing too.
 
I also use Spybot Search and Destroy which does a great job at intercepting virus

You are mistaken about SpyBot, it does actively prevent a virus from infecting the PC...

It will detect, intercept, quarantine and issue a warning message about what was intercepted. I know it works that way,....

I know all that because I have been using SpyBot for over 5 years and used it in companies where I was IT Manager for over 10 years ...
I have to respectfully disagree with this advice. Ron and Anne are correct and the above is very dangerous misinformation.

Unfortunately, Spybot Search & Destroy DOES NOT protect against viri. It does, however, effectively prevent and stop most adware and spyware bots/annoyances.

It is crucial to also have a virus scanner, such as Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, etc. It is also crucial to stay current with signature file subscriptions, and to check for updates daily. Most programs will do this automatically. There are over 70,000 known viri, and new ones are identified daily.

http://www.spybot.info/en/spybotsd/index.html

Best regards,
Mike
Tech forum moderator
 
Unfortunately, Spybot Search & Destroy DOES NOT protect against viri. It does, however, effectively prevent and stop most adware and spyware bots/annoyances.

It is crucial to also have a virus scanner, such as Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, etc. It is also crucial to stay current with signature file subscriptions, and to check for updates daily. Most programs will do this automatically. There are over 70,000 known viri, and new ones are identified daily.

http://www.spybot.info/en/spybotsd/index.html

[/QB]
OK, let's clarify a couple of things: Having all those programs does not mean one should not have a virus scanner (Norton / McAfee, etc). SpyBot, ZoneAlarm and AdAware are excellent additional programs that take care of a variety of malware.

Spybot actually immunizes the PC and can even prevent your browser from being hijacked (i.e. you want to go to CNN and your browser keeps heading to a porn site!)

And ZoneAlarm is a protective firewall; AntiVirus programs (Norton et al) are not firewalls and will not prevent hackers from taking over your PC. That's why Norton and others sell a seperate product called firewall!

So, next time my SpyBot intercepts a worm / virus, whatever, I will take a screen shot, print it, frame it and send it to you!
Please let me know if you have a frame preference!
 
So, next time my SpyBot intercepts a worm / virus, whatever, I will take a screen shot, print it, frame it and send it to you!
If the program intercepts a worm or virus, it will be purely by accident. Those are tasks beyond its design/intention/capability.

What it's good at stopping are adware bots, browser hacks, spyware bots, and many other annoying critters. I agree that it's a great program for those annoyances, but not for firewall/viri/worm defense.

Please let me know if you have a frame preference!
As long as its done to F.A.C.T.S. standards!


Have a good evening
Mike
 
I think the key issue here is that Paul is not being precise in his terminology. Spy-bot and Ad-Aware have nothing to do with viruses and worms; they have to do with malware of different sorts. Both are useful, and since both are free there's really no reason not to use both (especially since they seem to catch things one another misses.) Spy-bot can indeed be configured to immunize your computer from a number of threats- just not viruses or worms. It can prevent jerks from trying to automatically run junkware on your computer when you hit an afflicted web page, for example. Its main purpose is to occasionally scan your computer for a list of known bad things (key-stroke loggers, pop-up ad stuff, etc.) You definitely should have a separate virus control program as well. AVG is a free one that seems to work about as well as Viruscan or Norton, which are costly little buggers.
 
Hi Bill Henry,

I don't know about "Gateway Defender", but since my ISP introduced Brightmail (a similar product, I imagine) about a year ago, my spam count has gone down from approximately 200 per day to maybe 5 or 6 a week.
 
Hey Sarah,

Welcome to the Grumble!

It does sound like “Brightmail” is like “Gateway Defender”.

I had been getting 45 to 50 e-mails/day on my “Framers Loft” ISP – most of it spam – and had been forwarding it to my “personal” ISP on Earthlink.

I figured I had nothing to lose, so bit the bullet and subscribed to it. It costs $1.00 per month per e-mail box. In a week, it has intercepted 170 nuisance e-mails. So far it has shown no “False Negatives”, i.e. none of the intercepted e-mails have been ones that I wish to view (one can view them after the fact). The “Gateway Defender” has only allowed two “False Positives” – unwanted e-mails to sneak through to my In Box. I have since entered that spammers address into the “Global Block” section so, in the future, that jerk should not get through to any of the five e-mail boxes I have on that system.

Since those 170 e-mails were blocked on my server, they were not forwarded to my personal mailboxes either, so I’ve got fewer to have to weed through there, too.

The Control Panel is easy to use and navigate. The only gripe is that there is no quick way to import “acceptable” e-mail addresses in to the “Global Allow” section of the Control Panel. I had to Copy and Paste them individually. I took me about 45 minutes to do that.

So far, I’m very happy with it.
 
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