Webroot (including Prevx) Antivirus Private Beta

[iPanik]

Hello all,

I am very excited to announce that we're starting a private beta of Webroot Antivirus - the combined effort from the Prevx and Webroot teams which we believe will reshape the security industry. Our goal is to build the best security possible - we've taken everything we've learned from Prevx 3.0 and Webroot Internet Security 2011 and have built a brand new product set that is a fraction of the size and many times the efficiency of any product on the market today. This beta is based off of the original plans for Prevx 4.0 and the combined strategy of both Webroot and Prevx to leverage the cloud to protect users with the next generation of security software.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=300981

 

[jamescv7]

Well I'm not sure if its a right place, if yes feel free to move it.

Anyway.... The Prevx Moderator was the one post it (Wilders)

Hello all,

I am very excited to announce that we're starting a private beta of Webroot Antivirus - the combined effort from the Prevx and Webroot teams which we believe will reshape the security industry. Our goal is to build the best security possible - we've taken everything we've learned from Prevx 3.0 and Webroot Internet Security 2011 and have built a brand new product set that is a fraction of the size and many times the efficiency of any product on the market today. This beta is based off of the original plans for Prevx 4.0 and the combined strategy of both Webroot and Prevx to leverage the cloud to protect users with the next generation of security software.

This beta phase is on a first-come-first-serve basis. We're opening it up initially to a small group of users and will then close it so sign up fast There will be another round of beta testing after and we'll be introducing new features along the way. We request that in this round of beta testing, you send your reports/feedback directly to us via our dedicated beta feedback system - http://info.webrootcloudav.com/service.asp?Source=WEBROOTPBETA rather than post them publicly as it is still considered a "closed" beta.

Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope you enjoy how we're working to turn the security industry upside down.

Please follow this link to sign up : http://info.webrootcloudav.com/betasignup.asp

Link

 

[iPanik]

Looks very promising to me
Even though it's being sold under the webroot banner it looks like mostly Prevx tech.

Signed up for beta

 

[jamescv7]

I was on the process of making a new thread about this Private Beta, not expect a coincidence

Anyway, the GUI is really mixed of Webroot and Prevx (Options are same like Prevx)

 

[Jack]

Looks good,and I'm glad that this is running under the Webroot brand ... I never understood why Prevex has refused to give a fully 30 days functional trail for their products..

Looks like a disguised reputation system....This product might make some waves...

 

[jamescv7]

The options on heuristics was also same in Prevx products. In this case the performance will be same since it was adopted in Prevx.

 

[Ink]

Thanks for the news. Signed up and am looking forward to the beta products.

AFAIK, Prevx has always had the Heuristics with those options. Since I have not used their paid version I cannot completely be sure.

 

[Vextor]

Great, now I can test Prevx in a VM

 

[Ibrad]

Looks nice, I have never used a Webroot product before but I will most likely be trying this.

 

[eXPerience]

Looks good, and I'm sure the performance will look even better.

eXp

 

[Gnosis]

I love that interface. It is very simple and easy to read. I always feel that a cut and dried view of your the controls in any security product is a plus. That is one bad thing about Avira for inexperienced users--it is quite tedious to customize.

 

[Tweak]

I think PrevX has pretty much always done a pretty good job overall but sadly WebRoot has for a very long time on every system I have seen (thousands) been a major resource hog so unless this has finally been resolved and the detection improved because of the inclusion of PrevX it will be nothing but junk like their previous releases. I hope this will not be the case, there looks like some good potential here for now...

 

[Deleted member 178]

on Wilders they said it can be used as a companion AV, i dont need more to try it. hehe

 

[iPanik]

Ok so my key arrived this morning, so guess what i have been doing today.
PrevX is now called Webroot SecureAnywhere, but i will refer to it as WRSA.

Some observations i have made.

• It holds a lot of geek sex appeal, every aspect of the application can be tweaked.
• It is 100% PrevX tech with a Webroot badge on it.
• It is still reputation based.
• There is a firewall. It works like a front-end to Windows Firewall, and WRSA throws a warning if Windows Firewall is disabled.
• It has a behavior blocker.
• It has a restriction based sandbox.
• You can adjust the heuristics settings depending on where an applications is run from (for example you can give it more aggressive settings for everything run from a USB drive.)
• It logs EVERYTHING(!) about active applications. Everything from the time it was started to how many cpu cycles it has used.
• It feels very light.
• The settings are bot protected. If you change a setting you are met with a captcha.
• There appears to be an offline cache of sorts (not sure how that works since their database is reputation based.)

I have taken some screenshots that you can see here:
https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3233041/1/WRSA?h=5b476b

the resource usage after one hour of usage:

It is still very much a beta. There are some UI hickups here and there, the sandbox doesn't work very well for me, and there seems to be some conflict between WRSA and EMET.

Since i have it installed on my main system, and since it is a beta i will not be throwing links at it. I will leave that to the youtube guys.

 

[Ink]

iPanik, you beat me to it. I am running WRSA too, it does feel very light, but I haven't tried any of the features yet.

Except the Early Warning Scoring from HMP, which is nothing serious:
[attachment=430]

 

[MrXidus]

Thank you alot iPanik for the contribution. +

 

[Jack]

+Rep iPanik.
Question : WRSA will be a paid product right? Has Webroot said what the final price will be ... 30$-40$?
And because you've manage to see it ......would you pay ..let's say 30$ for it?

 

[iPanik]

They seem to follow the same model as before. You get detection for free, real-time protection you have to pay for. Unless they start handing out keys to trial users, it won't change.
They have kept the price a little close to the chest, but i don't see them changing the price it has now which is $35. Webroot could step in and say that they will replace one of their own antivirus products with WRSA in which case it would jump to $40 - $50. But i don't think that will happen anytime soon.

They have really improved the offline protection, and with the inclusion of a firewall module i would have no problem using WRSA as the only protection on my system. In which case i would have no problem paying $40 for it.

 

[jamescv7]

Webroot/Prevx Antivirus Beta FAQs

Written by the Prevx Moderator

Hello all,
Here are some answers to questions we've received:

1. Will the existing Prevx/Webroot licenses work with this version or will there be a separate system?

We are planning to offer the ability to use both Prevx and Webroot license keys in the new product, this will enable users to migrate to the new product should they wish to.


2. Are the current Prevx products going to be continued under the brand name of Prevx or Webroot? If there are a separate line for future Prevx products is it possible to migrate the current licenses when a final product is released?

We are planning to move forward with Webroot as the brand name for the product(s) as we are now one company with one portfolio of products.


3. There were a lot discussions about issues that were supposed to be fixed in Prevx 4.0, i.e. support for FF 4. What is the current policy regarding the situation? Does the SecureAnywhere Beta have components like SafeOnline?

Yes, the SafeOnline technology used in Prevx 3.0 will be present in the SecureAnywhere version, we have greatly improved its interoperability and have extended its capabilities to not only protect the web browser, but to protect any specified software application.


4. Is it possible to use it alongside Prevx 3.0?

No, as the core technology and features offered are encompassed in the SecureAnywhere software, the Prevx 3.0 software will be upgraded to the Webroot SecureAnywhere beta software once installed.


5. There were a lot of times it was said Prevx 4.0 would have 1/10th size and would use much less resources than the current 3.0 product. Does the same apply to SecureAnywhere Beta?

SecureAnywhere has been streamlined in every way possible and uses 1/10th of the RAM usage (as stated in the original post), a fraction of the CPU/disk utilization, and the installer, which requires no further software downloads, is 1/4th as large (compared to Prevx 3.0 which was 920KB for 32bit + 1030KB for 64bit = 1950KB total vs 478KB for both 32 and 64bit support in SecureAnywhere).


6. Will there be a Mac/Linux version of this?

Yes, we are planning to release a Mac version in the near future. We do not currently have plans for a Linux version at this time.


7. Are there any known conflicts with any product?

Not at present, but we expect some conflicts may arise during the beta program testing as the product garners wider usage. We would greatly appreciate your feedback on items you encounter via our support system, as this will help us resolve any issues prior to official launch.


8. Does the "Send Feedback" button allows the user to directly contact support from the program, or it is opened via browser?

The send feedback button will take you directly to the support web page.


9. Does the firewall offers protections against different network attacks, e.g. port scan etc or is it just a allow/block thing? Does it have any effect on Windows Firewall?

The firewall works alongside, and in addition to, any firewall you currently have installed, including the Windows Firewall. You can limit applications from accessing the network or internet, block individual IP addresses, block specific URLs, individual connections, produce warnings in a granular manner depending on the status of the PC, and much more.


10. And if possible some more screenshots will help much, I would like to see especially the "System Tools" it offers.

We are going to hold off on posting more screenshots at this time. We’ll be providing download / install instructions to those people who have signed up for the beta shortly.

Link

 

[LoftedAphid86]

I put 'only on a virtual environment'.
I might not get the chance to test it, but I can't use it on my computer at any rate.
It seems rather pointless to change the name, in my opinion, because they will (most likely) have people casting views on one another due to what one of them can or cannot do.