PCLive.com offered as free Internet security suite
PCLive.com, a service offered by SecurityCoverage Inc., is attempting to upstage security giants Symantec and McAfee by offering a complete suite of security tools for your desktop--for free. Included within the basic PCLive Security package is a firewall, the open source ClamAV antivirus product, antispyware, a pop-up blocker, plus system cleaner (removes old temp files). PCLive will also check for the latest Microsoft Windows updates that haven't yet been applied to your PC. For a mere $4.95 a month, PCLive Premium Security includes all the basic PCLive Security along with Web content filtering, parental controls, disk maintenance and 24-7 live technical support. SecurityCoverage also offers users of their free PCLive service instant 24-7 technical support for a flat fee of $49.95 per session.
How does it work? OK. The ClamAV product is designed for UNIX and Linux systems. It hasn't been independently tested by Windows-based antivirus testing labs. Also we found that PCLive runs three active processes on your desktop. A couple of times, for no apparent reason, the PCLMonitorService process consumed up to 53 percent of our system resources, considerably slowing our test PC.
Our biggest complaint is a lack of detail on what's going on under the hood, such as a listing of what temp files, viruses, and spyware were removed. Upon installation, PCLive scanned and removed viruses and spyware from our test PC--without telling us what it removed. While there is an e-mail report of what the product has done on your PC, we'd like a little input on what's done on our computer. Same thing happened with an announcement that several hundred temp files had been removed. Not that we want to see every temp file, but we'd like to know in advance and approve any actions.
There are five tabs: Status, Security Scans, Settings, Forum support, and Upgrade. Opening the PCLive settings page is frustrating. There is no contextual Help, no Help file at all, meaning, it's hard to figure out what the setting options you have. Under firewall settings we checked "stealth mode." Other than getting a pop-up explaining that we might not be able to visit certain sites, there was no additional information on what "stealth mode" might or might not do. If you do tweak any of the PCLive settings, you can either save and you can close the app, but you can't intuitively get back to the main interface page.
Back on the Status tab, after choosing to update all the components, PCLive continued to show that we weren't fully updated. A second update proved successful, but that was a lucky guess on our part.
Should you decide to remove PCLive, there is an uninstall option on the All Programs menu. After a reboot, we found no traces of PCLive remaining on our test system.
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Security and spyware
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On a side note, perhaps Stealth Mode might be the feature some security suites have to mask your activities on your computer and on the internet, and shield you from the more evident security threats on the web, such as trojans that download by clicking on banner ads or just by visiting the dangerous website itself. just my 2 cents
On a side note, perhaps Stealth Mode might be the feature some security suites have to mask your activities on your computer and on the internet, and shield you from the more evident security threats on the web, such as trojans that download by clicking on banner ads or just by visiting the dangerous website itself. just my 2 cents
PCLive Security was purposely designed to avoid system prompts that require end user interaction. In our experience the average computer user isn?t interested in becoming a technology enthusiast/expert and instead simply wants to use the computer for enjoyment and productivity. Our point is to not hide anything that is happening with the computer, as a user can view a detailed online report that shows all the action taken or view the management console for quarantine items caught by the system scans. But instead our intent is to provide a safe computer experience while also removing the technology burden so often placed on users to understand what?s under the hood.
We are continuing to improve some of the self help items and will have the contextual help available on each page of the management console in the coming week. This update will occur automatically and will be available to all users who have registered prior. We will also post these help items on the website for users to view ? our apologies for not having this available in the current release.
Over the coming weeks and months we will continue to look for feedback such as yours and continue to improve the product and experience for computer users.
PCLive Security was purposely designed to avoid system prompts that require end user interaction. In our experience the average computer user isn?t interested in becoming a technology enthusiast/expert and instead simply wants to use the computer for enjoyment and productivity. Our point is to not hide anything that is happening with the computer, as a user can view a detailed online report that shows all the action taken or view the management console for quarantine items caught by the system scans. But instead our intent is to provide a safe computer experience while also removing the technology burden so often placed on users to understand what?s under the hood.
We are continuing to improve some of the self help items and will have the contextual help available on each page of the management console in the coming week. This update will occur automatically and will be available to all users who have registered prior. We will also post these help items on the website for users to view ? our apologies for not having this available in the current release.
Over the coming weeks and months we will continue to look for feedback such as yours and continue to improve the product and experience for computer users.