Webroot vs Other Options for Mac

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My main antivirus app I have running on both of my Macs is Webroot (currently billed through Best Buy, but if I renew it, I may move to direct billing to save money).

I also have Malwarebytes (free) where I can run additional malware scans.

Since upgrading to Catalina, I’ve had a few issues with Webroot (it seems to run OK on my High Sierra Mac). I’ve had to have Webroot reinstalled twice, it’s flagged false positives a couple of times, and I’ve had some issues where it says it’s not activated on one screen but it shows it is activated on another screen.

In the past, I’ve also used Intego and Thirtyseven4 (QuickHeal) before I went with Webroot (which I originally did when I was on a Windows PC since Thirtyseven4 had performance issues with it, and Intego was Mac only at the time).

I’m wondering if I need to re-evaluate one of those, evaluate other options, or just keep letting Webroot support know about the handful of issues I’m having so they are resolved.

Any thoughts from other AskWoody members?

Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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[OscarCP]

Nathan: “I’m wondering if I need to re-evaluate one of those, evaluate other options, or just keep letting Webroot support know about the handful of issues I’m having so they are resolved.” That is exactly what I would do myself.

Because I believe that all antivirus software is going to behave strangely and even inconveniently now and then. And that usually, when all is said and done, nobody really knows why. I have not had the need to get in touch with the developers because of some technical problem. But, if doing so solves the occasional problem with “SecurityAnywhere”, and they are nice to talk to and don’t start with a robot answering and offering you a number of irrelevant options so, at the end, you just press “0” and keep at it until you are told that “all our representatives are busy” etc. and you are put on hold for forty minutes, constantly being informed that “your call is important to us” during pauses from playing some very annoying music, until some real human answers and then, mysteriously, the connection gets cut off or you are put you on hold for another forty minutes, if it is better than that, then I would definitely say: stay with Webroot.

My seven-years experience with it has been rarely exciting, which is good. I also have the free version of Malwarebytes, that I run after every scan with Webroot, as I think you do as well.

I have a question myself: do you communicate with them by phone or in some other way? It’s been a very long time since I had to get in touch with someone there (about my account and payments) and I did it by phone. Perhaps now there is a more convenient way? And if you do it by phone, what is their number now?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by OscarCP.

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Nathan Parker

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Hi Oscar,

I usually communicate with them over their support ticketing system first so they can email me back. Emails are usually quick, although lately due to COVID, I’ve had delays over a week in some responses, or I’ve needed to re-file the ticket to ensure I get a response. Before COVID, I saw responses within 24-48 hours. The link to their support portal that works for me is: https://detail.webrootanywhere.com/servicetalk.asp?source=.

If the issue is too involved, they’ll ask me to call in. The phone number I have been using is: 1-866-612-4227. Wait times have been a little lengthy (about 40 minutes) lately due to COVID. They’d probably settle down eventually.

I also have support with Best Buy/Geek Squad while it’s billed through them, but I’d rather go directly through Webroot Support so I’m directly communicating with the developer, plus I may move to direct billing since I could save a little per year.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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FWIW, I’ve used the free version of Avira on a High Sierra iMAC for not quite 3 years and also on a Mojave macBook Air for about 2 years.

You can schedule scans or run them manually with a choice of a ‘quick scan’ or full scan. Real-time protection can be toggled on/off. It updates itself a handful of times over the course of a 24 hour period and the updates are unobtrusive.

It seems fairly fast to me: a full scan on the macBook Air takes about 30 minutes (about 550,000 files) and on the iMAC, about 2 to 2.5 hours (about 1.4 million files with lots of 5 to 10 MB photos, jpeg and raw).

There’s also a Pro version (not free but I don’t remember how much it costs), the main difference as I recall is that it will scan external drives. But I’ve been able to scan flash drives on both the macs, so I’m not sure what to make of the claim.

I have had zero issues on the macBook Air (Mojave). For the last 2 years I’ve had no issues on the iMAC (High Sierra), although before that I had to uninstall it and reinstall it twice. Once, it quit doing real-time protection and I couldn’t get that feature restarted, the other time it just froze and I had to force quit from the task monitor (not sure I’ve got the right name, but whatever the macOS analog of the Windows Task Manager is), after which it wouldn’t restart. The un-installation and installation is easy and quick, so no big deal, and as I say, it’s worked fine for the last 2 years.

I haven’t checked the reviews of it lately but as of a couple years ago, the reviews were very good.

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP

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DrBonzo: Did you tried using “Force Quit” in the little black apple menu? It is always ready available, unless the whole GUI freezes.

From what your experience has been using Avira in your Macs, it looks like it uses signatures of viruses and other malware stored in your computers, rather than send hashes of your files to the AV maker’s servers to be checked there. This latter approach makes Webroot’s “SecureAnywhere” scans pretty fast (and also as up to date as the data base in Webroot itself): between 1.5 and 20 minutes, depending on the time of day that, in turn, determines how busy is the Webroot server you happen to get connected to.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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DrBonzo, Nathan Parker

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Yes, I tried the Force Quit from the pull-down Apple menu, but it didn’t work I think – as I recall – because I couldn’t even get an Avira window open. (I used the word ‘froze’ above, but perhaps a better word would have been ‘unresponsive’.) Nathan turned me on to killing it in the task monitor. As an aside, I remember that as being a bit tricky, also. The number of processes appearing in the task monitor window fluctuated quite rapidly so that by the time I found it and placed the mouse cursor over it, I was too late and I actually selected a process I didn’t want. It took a handful of tries to get it. I suspect I overlooked a View option.

Avira Free seems very similar to Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 7 and Defender in Win 8.1, and as with those, I’m sure Avira is using signature based detection. Scan speed is not terribly important to me. On each of the 2 Macs referred to above, a ‘Quick Scan’ takes about 2 minutes for about 6500 files. Even the 2.5 hour full scan on the High Sierra iMAC is easily done late evening or overnight a few time a month (quick scan is daily). I suppose web-based detection is more advanced, but for what the 2 Macs are used for, I’m quite comfortable with signature based methods.

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Nathan Parker

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Good to know on Avira. What are their privacy policies on the free edition?

One reason I still pay for my primary AV protection is I’ve heard some free AV products share data with advertisers for revenue purposes.

Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo

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Thanks for asking about the privacy policies as it’s been a couple years since I looked at them, and I should do it again. At the time, as I recall, the privacy policy seemed pretty good to me. I don’t remember any mention of selling data, and in fact, the most personal info they might have obtained was my email address and I’m not even sure they asked for that. There was no account required, unlike almost all the other free products I came across. Then again, the support is primarily from the support pages and forums, although you can email them if you want to alert them to a problem. Also, they have plenty of for-pay products and I think the main function of the free version is to entice you to buy one of their other products. That said, though, they have never asked me to buy anything from them. The only way I would know they have any other products is to go to their website (I’ve never been redirected to it or asked out of the blue if I wanted to go there) or if I clicked on a small unobtrusive ‘Get Pro’ button on the Avira window.

They seem like pretty up-front, straightforward folks to me, but I’ll be interested to know what you think should you decide to investigate further.

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Nathan Parker

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Sounds good. Thanks for the info. I know one AV app (I think it was Avast) was selling data from system scans to advertisers for those using the free app but not for those using the paid app.

On killing processes, you can also use Comand+Option+Escape (same as Control+ALT+DEL on Windows). It’s a little less fluffy than Activity Monitor and also works great.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP, DrBonzo

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Yeah, Avast was caught selling info about a year ago. Everything I remember about it pertained to Windows but I wouldn’t be surprised if it applied to macOS, too.

Also, I talked briefly with someone today who’s used Sophos for Mac 10 to 15 years and likes it a lot. I think they have a free version and I think they require an account.

Thanks for the keyboard command tip.

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Nathan Parker

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I believe it was on the Mac side as well. From what I’ve read about Avira, it seems to be OK on this front and identical with the paid version except for fewer features. I read the features in the Pro version aren’t really worth paying for, so the free version is good enough.

I have also heard good about Sophos free as well.

I’ll reach out to Webroot support and see what happens on these issues. I’ll keep the AskWoody community informed on how things go.

Glad to assist on the keyboard command. It really comes in handy if you have a super-intense frozen app you need to force quit.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP, DrBonzo

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Update on this. After doing more research, I’m likely going to stick with Webroot (plus run Malwarebytes on the side and use Little Snitch and the few apps I’m using from Objective See).

Reading up on the comparisons, Webroot seems to offer the best performance of Mac antivirus apps, plus solid protection from both Mac and Windows viruses, malware, etc. Some of the other apps I’ve used in the past are either showing lower scores on protection or performace or overall reviews below Webroot.

Kaspersky also came in high on the list of Mac antivirus apps alongside Webroot, but since I have to occasionally do product training for government agencies (even though I work for a private organization), and since there’s a ban on Kaspersky for government agency use, I’m better off sticking with Webroot just to know that I won’t run into any potential issues with my work.

I found out I can get the business version of Webroot for about $10 less if I move my subscription to Provantage than what I’m paying for the consumer version at Best Buy. When it comes up for renewal, I will likely do it to save money and likely get extra support since I’d be considered a business customer. For others on here who use Webroot, you’re welcome to PM me and I can provide the contact info to my rep at Provantage, and they can run your license to see if you’d save any money going with them. I gave them my license code, and that’s when I received the quote back with the lower price over Best Buy. I purchase other apps and services through Provantage, and I’ve been pleased with their sales team and pricing.

Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo

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Nathan: Glad  to have your reassurance that I’m doing the right thing by scanning for nasty bugs first with Webroot and then with the free version of Malwarebytes, as recommended by PK.

I bought Webroot SecureAnywhere directly from Webroot. Didn’t know one could buy it  somewhere else. Is doing it that way better?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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I originally received a free trial to Webroot through Best Buy, so I kept my renewal with them with it came up to pay for it. I buy a lot of my tech from Provantage now since they give me pretty good deals, and since they can provide me the business version of Webroot $10/year cheaper than Best Buy, I might as well go for it.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Nathan, I did not know anything about the Business version of Webroot SecureAnywhere, so I looked it up and found this review article:

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/webroot-secureanywhere-business-endpoint-protection

As it is usual in PC Mag reviews, this one sums up the reviewer’s opinion as a list of Pros and Cons:

“Pros

Excellent detection of browser-based exploits.
Ability to roll back ransomware changes.
Good detection of malicious binary files.
Quickly shuts down common document based exploits.

Cons

Lacks defensive measures for script-based attacks.
Phishing attacks with properly encoded payloads can still succeed.
Fails to detect some threats at rest.
Once attacking script or app has gained admin access, this product fails.”

I find intriguing that it says there that it can “roll back  ransomware changes”; does this mean it can figure out which files have been encrypted and de-encrypt them, as well as get rid of the nasty banner pop ups? If it can do that, I imagine that it should sell like hot cakes to business with security-aware people. It also says that it costs $150 per year for five end points (would one pay less for fewer?), but this article is from 2017, so some things might be different now.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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I believe it can do some form of ransomware rollback. What specifically it does I’m not 100% sure, but it sounds like it can undo some damage from ransomware. I have the Objective See Ransomware protection app installed on my Mac as well, so it’ll alert me and allow me to block anything that attempts to encrypt files, even legitimate apps. Between that and Webroot, I should have solid ransomware protection.

To my knowledge the consumer version of Webroot offers the same ransomware rollback functionality as the business version. I believe both are pretty similar except the business version may have a fancier management console.

The $150 is for five licenses. I was paying $50 for three licenses from Best Buy, but I’m only using two of my licenses. I can get two licenses for $40 from Provantage, so I’m coming out $10 cheaper by moving to them. Might as well go for it when it comes up for renewal so I can try the business version and have some of my services consolidated under one company (I also have test Microsoft 365 and G Suite licenses with them, plus Retrospect backup licenses and Cisco service contracts).

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Having been primarily a Mac user for the past 10 or more years, I have never had a single problem with viruses or malware, which was one of the reasons that help convince me to switch from Windows.

Have I just been lucky, or have you ever had any virus try to infect your Macs?

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Nathan Parker

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I haven’t had any major infections. I occasionally have had primarily Windows malware pass through which wouldn’t infect my Mac but would infect other Windows machines, and my security tools usually caught them.

Nathan Parker

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While using my Mac for the last three years and change, I have had the Webroot SecureAnywhere GUI pop up twice during a scan (which I do twice a day unless I am feeling suspicious about, for example, a Web site I just visited during a Web search and then do an extra one) looking a glaring red to let me know that it had caught some nasty bug and wanted me to decide what to do about it. Also it has now and then picked up some suspicion activity and asked me what to do; often something related to Chrome. Sometimes it is about some other software updating automatically. As I am not an expert on these things and am usually deep into something I need to do when Webroot suddenly pops the inconvenient question, I make a quick decision that looks to me as a likely one and hope for the best. So far, nothing fatal, or even mildly dramatic, has happened. Whether Vlad is reading my emails in his big office at the Kremlin, I prefer not to know.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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If Vlad is reading my messages, he knows I’m the Campaign Manager for the Daffy Duck 2020 Presidential Campaign. Future President Duck would also like him to know that if he is elected President, he would be willing to extend a trade agreement to Vlad for Russian salad dressing. 🙂

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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So far I’m still leaning toward remaining with Webroot since I’ve heard horror stories with some antivirus software, including some I’ve used in the past.

The only other two I’m currently comparing with Webroot now that I’m getting into the business endpoint security version is Cisco’s Business Endpoint Security and Microsoft Defender ATP. I can grab licenses to those through Provantage if I wanted something besides Webroot.

Has anyone used either of these, and how do they compare with Webroot? I’m still leaning toward Webroot, but before I renew next year, it would be interesting to get a comparison to these.

Since I also use a Cisco router now, I also qualify for a Cisco Umbrella Branch License which can also provide me additional cloud security at the router level. Has anyone used Umbrella with Cisco routers, and if so, how is it? It would come out to being about $10/month if I went for it, and I’m curious if it’s worth it for extra protection.

Nathan Parker

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Nathan,

You are using SecureAnywhere from Webroot together with Malwarebytes, same as I am.

This last year’s review of Malwarebytes at PC Magazine has some recommendations that might be at least a partial answer to your question:

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/malwarebytes-free

I am not sure if you are still using the free version of Malwarebytes or have switched to the paid one, but here is an excerpt from the linked article I find reassuring on the choice of using both Webroot’s SecureAnywhere and Malwarebytes to defend one’s Mac against Internet-roaming nastiness trying to get in:

“Malwarebytes Free remains a very useful tool, despite some issues I encountered in testing. If you carry a thumb drive full of security tools, do include Malwarebytes. But remember, it offers no real-time protection. In particular, it can’t help you with ransomware. Use it along with Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus($18.99 at Webroot), or another antivirus that provides real-time protection. Bring out Malwarebytes when your regular antivirus slips up, or consider upgrading to Malwarebytes Premium.

With ransomware on the rise, a cleanup-only antivirus tool like Malwarebytes Free can’t possibly be your first line of malware defense. You need multiple layers of real-time protection. We no longer declare an Editors’ Choice in the cleanup-only category, but Malwarebytes remains a top choice.”

PS: Free version of Malwarebytes only does “on demand” scans for malware infestations, while the paid version also does “real time” scans and provides additional security protections, such as its own firewall.

I was not clear as to the meaning of those two expressions in quotes, and in case others have the same difficulty, here is what I’ve found after doing some searching:

“On demand” = User clicks on icon in the Desktop window, AV window opens and user clicks on the “scan” button there. AV starts a new scan.

“real time” = User (or something else…) creates any new file, opens any and old file, modifies any existing file: the AV starts to scan this file automatically and (I believe) silently, without the user first telling it to do so. If it finds something bad, it may block it and ask the user in a popup what else to do about it.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker, Fred

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[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

“real time” = User (or something else…) creates any new file, opens any and old file, modifies any existing file: the AV starts to scan this file automatically and (I believe) silently, without the user first telling it to do so. If it finds something bad, it may block it and ask the user in a popup what else to do about it.

on the risk of being deleted again, as usual, some experience here

This is correct!. And when using the paid-version of MalwarebytesAntimalware with the integration in the Windows Security Center than MBAM takes over the Windows Defender AV&AMalware, so only MBAM is active

When you do NOT use this integration than the WindowDefender is active too.
In my experience using only the MBAM (with the integration) is sufficient; especially when using Malwarebytes BrowserGuard as a addin in the browser.

see the added 2 printscreens

regards Fred

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Fred.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Fred.

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Nathan Parker

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Thanks. Seems they still like Webroot alongside Malwarebytes (I’ve had issues with BitDefender in the past, and Kaspersky has good ratings, but since it’s banned by federal agencies, I’m likely better off with Webroot since my work has federal partnerships).

I have both free and Premium on Webroot (one Mac is running Premium and the other is running free. I managed to swing a four-year student license cheap from their school promo).

Nathan Parker

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Fred

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I am also not using Kapersky, because I work with NASA and that is a government agency.

In the past, I have used first McAffee and then Norton in the Windows 7 PC, but eventually had to get rid of them, because one caused conflicts with other software (not AV) and the other became too bloated and slow to scan. That is why, several years ago, I started to use Webroot AV, and still I am doing it, with no complaints.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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Nathan Parker wrote:

Thanks. Seems they still like Webroot alongside Malwarebytes (I’ve had issues with BitDefender in the past, and Kaspersky has good ratings, but since it’s banned by federal agencies, I’m likely better off with Webroot since my work has federal partnerships).

I have both free and Premium on Webroot (one Mac is running Premium and the other is running free. I managed to swing a four-year student license cheap from their school promo).

some AntiVirus & AntiMalware product do NOT go with Malwarebytes full version because the interfear the users actions the same way (more or less) ; please read the manual and the online help and helpdesk for that.
Kaspersky is still one of the best in intercepting unwanted datastreams, and that is very ugly for programs that are telemetering or phonening-home (in spite of what governments want)

* _ ... _ *

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP

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Thanks everyone for the discussion so far.

Re Fred: Do you have any comparisons of Kaspersky vs Webroot? To prevent apps phoning home, I also use Little Snitch on my Mac.

On my Mac running Malwarebytes Premium, so far Webroot and Malwarebytes seem to be playing well together without issues.

On Macs, I have in the past used Intego (loved the interface, but it lacks catching Windows malware I’d pass on) and Thirtyseven4 (based on QuickHeal, I liked it but it was a little slow at times). On my old PowerBook, I still run ClamXAV (old version) since it’s all that runs. Plus Webroot and Malwarebytes. I also tested Avast free on a Mac, but I wouldn’t use it full-time due to their privacy practices.

On Windows, I’ve used Webroot, Malwarebytes, Thirtyseven4, Panda, McAfee, AVG, Defender (and before that OneCare), and Bitdefender.

Nathan Parker

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Nathan:

“On my Mac running Malwarebytes Premium, so far Webroot and Malwarebytes seem to be playing well together without issues.”

Once one has installed the Premium version of Malwarebytes, if there are conflicts with Webroot later on, is it easy to go back to the free version and stop subscribing to the Premium one? (I am asking, because I share Fred’s concern about conflicts between having fully-fledged AVs running side by side; see his comment further up.)

Some companies that lease their products “as a service” can be hard to convince that you no longer want to use them and, consequently, still pay for them year after year, so they continue to charge you anyways (I remember that one of those two selling the other AV I have used, either McAffee or Norton, had a reputation for being like that.) One can protest the charges if the recurring payments are made with a credit card, but that is a hassle. So I think this is a point worth investigating as far as possible before subscribing… to anything.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker, Fred

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You can pull the license code from Premium, and it will revert back to the free edition. I’ve also done this with Trial keys on my old iMac and let them expire, and it successfully went from Premium to free.

I had a year of Premium before I went for the student deal. I had Malwarebytes Support disable auto-renew on that license, and it did expire without charging my card, then I was able to purchase the student deal and get a new key.

So I don’t know about some, but with Malwarebytes, it is super easy to both deactivate Premium on the device and to totally cancel billing to it.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Thanks, all correct, and fir uninstall problems they have a special (total) uninstaller.

A long time agoo I did have a Webroot licence; and was very satisfied with the product , for what it’s worth. After that I worked for years with the McAfee Enterprise Antivirus for my employer as a consultant (and a second controller of the system-administrators; and yes it was very necessary), checking the network sideways and added with the SIEM solution. Privately then I started to test MalwBytesAM and was very impressed in their early days of the second-opinion value for malware. The last years there have been developed very good products to fight malware. To be able to compare many of them is very time consuming, and not really possible for me. The factor of “backdoor” and “zeroDay” is becoming more important nowadays, so controling datastream what is going in and out the network is quite difficult for a common user. Many companies and governments have their own reasons for what is good for the common people. It’s weird one hears so little about that. So firewalls are (very) difficult for the private people , for instance try to follow the discussions about telemetry. It is/was astonishing that gouvernments banned the use of Kaspersky. They never ever gave any proof of the why and how. But working for a boss that forbids the use of Kaspersky, well one doesn’t have a choice …. This IT protecting world is getting more complicated by the day. Data breaches, back_doors, break-ins, ransomware, not willing to invest in protection, and not knowing who is the real “enemy” … you name it. Only talking about this is forbidden by the “Good-People”: so much for a free world.

regards Fred

* _ ... _ *

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OscarCP, Nathan Parker

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I found out Provantage does sell many Kaspersky (Business) licenses as well and has good experience with it, so I’m chatting with my Provantage rep to tell me the differences between Webroot Business vs Kaspersky Business. It seems Kaspersky Business also offers Microsoft 365 protection for the cloud-hosted stuff which I might be interested in learning more about. I was interested in Barracuda for spam filtering, but I can’t easily get a single license for testing purposes.

Nathan Parker

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Fred

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Nathan

Webroot SecureAnywhere does a good job of checking things in real time, including the detection of suspicious activity in my Mac and giving me warnings that it has spotted some. Problem is, I have no idea of what to make of the warnings. Webroot advises me either to “Ignore” or to “OK”, meaning to tell it to do nothing or, “OK, go ahead and  prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again” (If I understand correctly what these choices really are.)

I would say about 99% of all warning are about something going on either in some Chrome files or in some Apple files, as in the case shown in the attached screenshot of one of these warnings that I got just before writing this comment and is what has moved me to explain this issue and to ask the question I put forward at the end of this comment.

Knowing nothing better, I deal with this on a binary random-number generator fashion, also known as a sequence of fair-coin tosses: sometimes I press one button, sometimes the other, trying to do it in an unbiased and statistically uncorrelated way, so the chances of my actions being right are as close as possible to 50%.

But I am thinking that there may be other ways, perhaps even better than mine, of making these choices and I am also hoping that, perhaps, you could provide a rule or two one who is thoroughly ignorant in this matters could follow to the successful and final stopping of Chrome and Apple evildoing. So, if there is a better way, what is it?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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Webroot watches to see if there are any changes to critical files in macOS, and it alerts you of any changes.

These alerts usually occur when there’s a change to your startup items (which is why LaunchAgents is in the path of your folder above, LaunchDaemons is the other major place where startup items are located).

The majority of these are safe, as it’s usually an app update that makes a change to these folders, or if you install a new app that makes the change, you can approve it.

However, occasionally malware can add stuff to one of these folders so the malware would launch at startup.

If you’re not sure of the app, google the name of the app after “LaunchAgents” (in this case “com.apple.AOSHeartbeat.plist”), and you’ll generally see if the app is safe or not (in this case, it is a system app, so this is safe to approve.

Another app that offers a similar feature to this and extra protection is BlockBlock from Objective See. I actually keep it running alongside Webroot so I get both prompts to ensure I’m only approving legit apps.

In Catalina, you won’t see these prompts on the System folder anymore, as the System folder is now read-only and can’t be changed (it’s totally locked down). Future macOS updates will also lock down portions of the master Library folder.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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Bad news on Webroot. It is the source of the kernel panics I’ve been having on my Catalina iMac Pro (I thought it was CrossOver, but Apple ran some tests on my machine and isolated it to Webroot).

So I’m going to have to see if there’s another solution that plays better with Catalina.

Nathan Parker

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[OscarCP]

Nathan, Does, in your experience, this problem happen when either oneself, or macOS, tries to update the kernel, or to perform some other equally infrequent action?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by OscarCP.

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Nathan Parker

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Looking around for an explanation on “Kernel panic”, something I have never had to deal with and, therefore, learn about, I have found the following about Mac’s kernel panics:

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/11/27/did-that-mac-just-restart-itself-about-kernel-panics/

Excerpt:

“Apple’s account of these issues is now quite different. They’re not kernel panics any more, but unexpected restarts, which makes them seem as innocuous as unexpected quits, perhaps; they’re not – no Mac should ever experience a single panic.

From El Capitan to Catalina, you’re unlikely to see any of the informative dialogs which Apple shows in that article. Chances are that your Mac will freeze for a while, restart, then hopefully re-open all the apps and windows just as they were when the panic occurred, and you might be none the wiser of the event.“

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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I also wrote an article on Kernel Panics for the AskWoody Newsletter. Check it out in the archives. I thought it had to do with CrossOver which is what I mentioned in the article.

My Kernel Panic issues happen at random times. I can be doing anything on my Mac and have it throw the Kernel Panic. It seems to happen if I am doing something more memory intensive. At first I thought it had to do with an app I was running on CrossOver, but I completely removed the app, and the issue persisted. Then I thought it might have been related to a macOS update, so I called Apple and had them run a sysdiagnose to send to the engineers.

I received a callback from Apple today, and they said the issue is related to Webroot. Webroot is using more processes than it should, causing the Mac to have the issues. I have had a few issues with Webroot since Catalina, and I’ve already had support remove and reinstall it twice. I have it shut off at the moment, and I’m having support remove it again this week when I have a chance to call in (it can’t remove using the regular uninstall method and has to be uninstalled through various Terminal commands).

I’ve noticed Webroot has been “stuck” at scanning one or a handful of files, plus it has also had a licensing issue, so those could be contributing to the issues.

With Webroot being this messy with Catalina, I will likely look for another option moving forward. Here are the ones I’ve been looking at so far and what people have told me about them:

• Intego: This is what I originally used on a Mac back even when I first used a PowerBook G4. Performance is the best I’ve ever had, and I never had any issues with it. Renewals were cost-effective as well. I need to see how good of Windows antivirus (so I don’t spread Windows viruses) and Ransomware protection it has. I have a message into their sales team.
• Thirtyseven4: Based on QuickHeal. I used this for a while when I had a discount with it through an IT company. I moved to Webroot when I had performance issues with Thirtyseven4 on Windows, plus on the Mac side, they were the last to go 64 Bit. Due to the performance issues I had on Windows and how long it took to go 64 Bit on Mac, I am reluctant to switch back.
• Sophos: A local IT repair shop here uses Sophos free and says it works flawlessly. I may try this one out as well. I can get access to the business version of it through Provantage as well if I wanted premium protection.
• Kaspersky: Provantage sells a lot of Kaspersky as well, but I’ve been told in my case, it’s still likely better I stay away from it due to the work I do.
• Cisco AMP: I could get this through Provantage as well, but I’ve been told it’s not worth it compared to other offerings.
• Microsoft ATP: Since I have a test Microsoft 365 account, I can add on Microsoft ATP under my “organization”, but I’ve also been told it’s not worth it compared to other offerings.
• Cisco Umbrella: Another level of protection I could add is Cisco Umbrella directly to my Cisco RV345 router which would also give me network-level protection in addition to endpoint protection. It’s about $10/month billed annually, so not sure if it’s worth that investment. It hooks into OpenDNS and would provide me with more granular control over network-level protection, and it also offers roaming clients I could use on the go.

Nathan Parker

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Myst, OscarCP

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Nathan, Thanks for your comment.

All this encourages me, or rather pushes me hard, to skip Catalina altogether and wait and see how it goes with “Big Sur.” By then, after several months of it being available for installing, either Webroot might have cleaned up its act, or Big Sur (even through “Rosetta”) might be able to run it without incidents.

Or neither of the above, so I will have to start thinking what else to use instead of Webroot — that does not have similar or different issues as well…

Perhaps you would consider running, much later on, Webroot under “Big Sur” as an experiment, and letting us know what that is like then?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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However it all ends up, I’ll definitely keep everyone posted here!

Nathan Parker

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Myst, OscarCP

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We don’t have Mac’s but used webroot for Windows for two years or so but no longer do.  This is a year or so out of date, maybe the product has changed.

All mainstream AV’s work, slight differences in detection test data really doesn’t matter much, so I tend to make selections based on speed hits, interface usability/completeness and trust in the parent company.

Webroot seemed OK for a time then became unstable, had to be reinstalled, happened on all five devices that used it.  Some of the logging functions never worked, there was never any indication of blocked infections and it periodically froze after blocking software installs.

The interface is disorganized with no consistent theme beyond green.  On the positive side, it had little noticeable hit on performance and is inexpensive.  Shop around, then expect to spend some time ferreting out where to enter the key; it’s hidden unless you purchase directly.

Lastly, Carbonite now owns webroot; part of their business is data brokering.  Summarizing, does webroot do anything?  Is my data secure?  Do I want to endure the patched together interface?

We’re now using eset Node32AV.  No perceptible speed loss, very complete interface, can be found for a good price, shows blocked nasties as expected, vastly configurable.

Others we have used, all are AV’s, not Security Suites, which tend to contain settings redundant to other programs such as browsers, firewall, ad blockers:

Avast.  Now a data brokering company, look at their corporate site, at least they’re honest.  No trust there.  The only AV ever to let an infection in, a rootkit Kaspersky had a utility to remove.  Noticeable performance hit, interface is well organized but has many ad server settings to turn off.  Avast thoroughly infiltrates your machine, even Kaspersky’s uninstaller can’t remove all of it; expect to spend time in the registry deleting entries.  Avast is malware, run away!  BTW, Avira uses Avast’s engine in a different wrapper.

Bitdefender.  Functioned fine, just began tripping over its own feet with complication,  VPN bundling and spam, lots of spam.  Performance hit was minimal, although it seemed to increase as the product became bloated.

Kaspersky.  Good product, noticeable performance hit, extensive well organized but somewhat inscrutible interface.  Interface is similar to eset’s and worth learning what all the settings do but eset shows less performance hit so we’re sticking with it these days.

Windows Defender (or whatever the “experience” is called today.)  Won’t use, why give all your data to MS?  Regardless of whether it tested highest for a while (like MS doesn’t know how to jack test results?), in real world use, it’s slow.  Really slow.  Annoyingly slow.  No? Try something else and see.  Worth paying for a third party to disable it.

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Nathan Parker

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Webroot has worked consistently well for me, for several years since I first got it, in both my newish Mac and in my old Win 7 PC; this is the first time I hear from a user currently having a problem with Webroot in his Mac: Nathan Parker, that was experiencing one apparently caused by Webroot and who is now running “Catalina”, the current version of macOS (as he explains in this thread, further up.) But I am running Mojave, the previous version, and things are fine so far, as have ever been. I’m skipping Catalina and see what happens with its successor soon to be released, “Big Sur.” Given my trouble-free experience with it (and my previous not so great ones with McAfee and Norton) I am very reluctant to switch from Webroot to another AV. Time with tell which is going to be the best course of action here, as it always does.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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Been trying out Intego now for a couple of weeks. So far very good. Very Mac-native, scans are fast on my iMac Pro (a little slower on the older iMac but still not bad at all). Updates itself automatically.

I’m trying the other apps. NetBarrier seems simpler than Little Snitch, but I may completely move to it over Little Snitch. Washing Machine looks useful for system optimization. I’ll be testing Personal Backup next. I’ve had a few performance issues with Retrospect, so I may use it to replace Retrospect and possibly other backup apps. I may even take ContentBarrier for a spin just to see how it works.

So far, I really like what I see and am heavily leaning toward it. Will post a more extensive review and comparison to other apps as I can.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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I’ve spent quality time with the Intego trial. I finally settled on Intego Internet Security X9 as my primary antivirus app for my Macs, plus I did also purchase Intego Washing Machine as a separate, standalone license. I love how Intego’s website also has a Mac blog with useful articles for Mac owners.

I plan to write future AskWoody articles on here with a full review of all of Intego’s apps, plus how they compare with other security apps. Here’s a quick mini review at the moment:

VirusBarrier: Solid virus scanner for Mac. Performance is far superior to Webroot under Catalina, and performance is also great on my High Sierra Mac. The UI is extremely Mac friendly, and of all of the antivirus products I’ve tested, I’ve found none as optimized for the Mac as VirusBarrier. Scans are fast (especially on Catalina), plus I have it set to automatic updates and to scan after updates (I also tried a manual update which was fast and simple). It reminds me of how good it was when I used it in the past.

NetBarrier: One has to install NetBarrier (Intego’s outbound firewall) when installing VirusBarrier, which basically duplicates what I had with Little Snitch. Overall, Little Snitch has a little fancier interface, granular controls, and a few premium features, but since I’ve moved to Intego for VirusBarrier, I went ahead and moved to NetBarrier for my outbound firewall. Performance seems a little better over Little Snitch, and it still does everything I needed Little Snitch to do. I’ll keep my Little Snitch license key in case I need it, but NetBarrier works very well alongside VirusBarrier for outbound firewall protection.

Washing Machine: I went ahead and purchased a standalone license to Washing Machine to save on my yearly fee with Intego (since it’s more cost-effective in the long run to purchase Internet Security X9 and Washing Machine separately). I’ve run it on both Macs. So far so good. I saved a could GB of files per Mac using the “Reclaim” feature, plus it is handy for finding duplicate files and keeping Macs organized. It should be a useful tool for doing periodic maintenance.

Personal Backup: The main reason I didn’t do the Premium Bundle is I don’t need Personal Backup. I took a trial of it, but my current backup strategy works better. I tried using it to backup to my Drobo, but I’ve found Retrospect to be faster. I use Time Machine already to backup to an external drive, and I found SuperDuper to be much faster at creating bootable backups than Personal Backup. I found Arq still the best to backup to the cloud If your backup needs are simple, Personal Backup may be decent. For my needs, my collection of apps works better.

ContentBarrier: ContentBarrier is useful for those with children who need additional parental controls over what’s included in macOS. For me though, ContentBarrier would cause more issues (since it blocked remote access between my Macs) than it’d be worth.

Since I have a Cisco RV345, I am also purchasing a one year license to Cisco Umbrella to provide me with business-grade network security. I can also post a review on it once I’ve had a chance to take it for a test drive.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP

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[OscarCP]

Nathan, I am looking forward to see what your experience is going to be with those AVs in soon to be released Big Sur, after you have been running them in Big Sur for a while and before I jump from Mojave to Big Sur, as I eventually will have to.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by OscarCP.

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Nathan Parker

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Will definitely test and report back. From what I’m hearing Intego will play very well with Big Sur, likely better than other AV apps. It also runs on versions of macOS dating back to OS X 10.8, so it works on a broad range of Macs.

Nathan Parker

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