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Howdy! New Webroot user here!

G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hi!
 
I am a brand new Webroot member who just left her Norton antivirus behind.  Being probably the LEAST tech savvy person on the planet didn't help me much, but when they couldn't help get the product to work right I was done. 
 
I had gotten some advice from people I trust that Webroot was the way to go so I made th switch but I see alot of differences in the way Webroot scans and how much it scans vs. the way Norton would do a full system scan.
 
I guess you could say that while I'm unsavvy in the tech world, I do have alot of questions because I just need to make sense of things in the way they run for my own peace of mind.
 
Since the support crew isn't available over the weekends I thought I'd get my feet wet by posting here to see how others like Webroot and if they had used Norton before if they had also noticed the differences that I do.
 
Anyway, hello again and thanks for perusing my note!
 
 
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Best answer by RetiredTripleHelix 17 June 2014, 05:05

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73 replies

Baldrick
Rank
Userlevel 7
Hi gr8aunttefie
 
There is no such thing as a pointless question in my book.  If in doubt then ask.  That is what I do and that is how I learn (and one is never too old to do that...even me). ;)
 
As for you being a rube...rubbish.  Don't do yourself down.  And as for technology...it is no different to anything else that has to be learnt...and for that patience is required.
 
Ask away all the questions you want...we will be pleased to try and answer them for you...that is what makes this Community so great...and a great place to learn. :D
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete Beta Tester v9.0.24.49, imaged by Macrium Reflect v7.2
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
@ wrote:
I agree with @ - if you're savvy enough to post on here asking for help and learning, then you are already head and shoulders above most!
Thanks, Nic! :D
 
I feel pretty smug right now because I just figured out how to do that quote thingy you all have been doing in here! :D
 
Makes it feel alot more like a true conversation when you have the comment and the reply all in once place!
 
I like to chat with folks because I am a night owl and my friends are usually sound asleep when I'm wide awake and in 'Chatty Cathy' mode.
 
This has been great for 2 reasons, so thank you all!
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
@ wrote:
Hello gr8auntteffie,
 
I just want to Clarify what David said. You can't install WSA without an Internet connection as it has to connect to the Cloud to check to see if your Keycode is valid and it downloads extra files at the same time like for the Password Manager & Back Up & Sync and a few database files so the CD would not be any help even if you had the Downloaded file on the PC yes you should get the CD as you asked for it but on a Clean reinstall I would always suggest to download the latest build as it's only a 745kb file and when installing from the CD it will always look for the most recent Build before installing again it needs an Internet Connection and as I said it's only a 745kb file and when it self updates to the next version it's done in a flash of an eye so I hope that Clarifies Things for you?
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel ;)
I figured that the most effective way to install the program was downloading it since it was such a compact program at the beginning, but since the purchase also had a disk for $9.99, I figured that was in case of emergencies or something. 
 
I just wanted to make sure that the disk was on its way so that when it arrived I could tuck it away with my back up disks for my computer and the other program disks that i have loaded onto my laptop.
 
Thanks to both of you for being so thorough in your explanations.  It helps a remedial techie like me to understand this 'stuff'!
 
Stephanie:D
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Thanks, David!
 
I guess that perhaps I am spooked and a little gun shy based upon the information that i have gotten from the Norton techs along the way.
 
I must assume that a massive download is a must to insure security and that i am required to instigate a manual life update to make sure that the most current antivirus and malware information is on my system to recognize anything untoward.
 
Thanks for clarifying for me.
 
I am so excited to have a forum where I can post my remedial questions and get common sense and simple to understand answers!
 
Thanks!!!
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
@DavidP1970 wrote:
None of us was 'born knowing it', we have just been able to take more time in trying to learn it.
 
I agree 100% with Baldrick and Nic: The Commumity exists just because a majority of computer users DON'T know how to do many things 'technical', but those of us who do very much enjoy helping out. 
 
Feel free to ask away :)
Hi, David! :D
 
While you're quite right, I do think that some people have a facility for tech things right off the bat and are able to absorb and process tech information faster and better than others, and I would definitely put myself in the latter category. :womanembarrassed:
 
Once I have learned something, my mind is a bit like a steel trap, I keep it in there and then changing it up when something new comes along becomes the next challenge, but if the change makes sense to me it's easier for me to absorb and adapt to it rather than something out of left field that doesn't make seem to make sense.
 
I hope you gents don't come to regret your carte blanch invitation to drop questions....  I will definintly abuse... :S er, I mean use the invitation! 😃
RetiredTripleHelix
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Well you don't really need the Back Up Disc as you can use this link to Download the lastest version anytime: http://anywhere.webrootcloudav.com/zerol/wsainstall.exe and if you have setup your online console the link is in there also!
 
HTH,
 
Daniel 😉
RetiredTripleHelix
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Hello gr8auntteffie,
 
I just want to Clarify what David said. You can't install WSA without an Internet connection as it has to connect to the Cloud to check to see if your Keycode is valid and it downloads extra files at the same time like for the Password Manager & Back Up & Sync and a few database files so the CD would not be any help even if you had the Downloaded file on the PC yes you should get the CD as you asked for it but on a Clean reinstall I would always suggest to download the latest build as it's only a 745kb file and when installing from the CD it will always look for the most recent Build before installing again it needs an Internet Connection and as I said it's only a 745kb file and when it self updates to the next version it's done in a flash of an eye so I hope that Clarifies Things for you?
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel 😉
shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
Hello there and welcome to the Webroot Community!
 
Yes.. you WILL see a lot of differences.  Webroot does work a bit differently, and it is incredibly efficient at it.
 
I myself have not used Norton for quite a while... however I DO some computer work for others, and this last week was a perfect example.
 
They have Norton... and the computer was slowed down to a crawl.  There was but one real virus on it, but there was also a pile of what we call PUA's on the computer.  A PUA is a Potentiall Unwanted Application.  It is not really a virus or malware: it does not damage your information, it does not use your computer as a 'host' to spread itself, it does not steal your information, etc etc.
 
What a PUA DOES do is simply track (With no personal information of yours) what sites you surf to.  It causes a LOT of advertising pop-ups, it may 'hijack' your browser to use it's own web page as your "home page".  In other words... they are annoyware, adware types of things.
 
Some AVs catch these PUA's, some don't.  To be honest, Webroot did not used to catch these very well but they are working HARD to catch more and more.
 
A typical PUA may be the Browser Toolbar that is included 'free' with many legit downloads.
 
Anyway.. back to my story.
 
That computer that is protected by Norton.  It DID miss a virus, but it also missed so many of these PUA's that the computer was slowed down to a crawl.
 
I installed Webroot onto the computer, and it detected and quarantined quite a remarkable number of them.  Over 15 different PUA's equaling well over 100 items in the Quarantine.  (Webroot does NOT pad it's scan results.  Some AV's do.  If ONE program has 15 files that need removed Webroot will count that as 1 item deteced: many others will count that as 15 items detected to 'pad the results' and make it look more impressive at detection than it really is.)
 
Norton is VERY heavy on system resources..  it uses a huge amount of RAM and CPU.  Webroot is VERY small.  Instead of the 100 MB install file, which then requires 100 MB additional definitions downloads that a typical AV such as Norton may require, Webroot is less than 1 MB download.  That is it.  There are NO further definitions files required as it scans in the Cloud.
 
That makes for a 10 minute total download, install, initial scan time on average vs a one hour minimum installation time for Norton.
 
Glad that you are here, and if you have any questions just let us know!  We are happy to help and have a lot of good experienced people here 🙂
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
Ssherjj
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Welcome gr8auntteffie! I'm pleased to have you join our WSA Community! A lot of informative members here! 🙂
Yes I used to use Norton in my early days of the 90s and Up to 2003 but found out I had enough of struggling by looking on their website to solve all the hiccups that I was presented with and I had my final straw with them concerning their Support! I'm definelty not a fan and understand completely about Norton...I knew Norton by the back of my hand then and printed endless support pages to help others with Norton Problems.
I would like to say as a user of many AV Webroot is the best one on the market today. I believe this company will take over at least 90% if not more of the consumers. Because you Cannot beat WSA Support Team! Free support and they genuinely care about their product. I could rant on and on but I'll let my fellow WSA members tell you why WSA is the best of all the rest. I'm not a salesman or promoter..I'm a simple user of a product that I'm extremely proud of and as you'll see so is the rest of this Forum.

Please look around..And Post away...we are volunteers here and will try our best to assist you in your questions.

Regards, 🙂
Windows Insider MVP 2023, iMac 2021 27 in i5 Retina 5, OS Monterey, Security: Malwarebytes. iPads, W 10 & (VM:15), ALIENWARE 17R4, W10 Workstation, ALIENWARE 15 R6, W11, Webroot® SecureAnywhere™ Internet Security Complete (Android Samsung Galaxy 8 Note) , Webroot Beta Tester. Security
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hi, David!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome and the information. :D
 
The problem that I had been having is very much like you described. I had been given the latest upgrade to their product and then I found that the LiveUpdate was not doing the auto updates and when I wound instigate a manual live update, it would say that I needed to upload 200+MB of files!  And this was every other day!
 
I use a hotspot for my wifi connection because it is more cost effective for me, but it also means that I have a finite amount of 4G speed.  These daily uploads at this size ate up my high speed like a ravenous 2 year old let loose on their birthday cake.
 
I had 7 Norton techs in my system to fix it and not one of them could get it to stop doing this.  Plus, they didn't listen to me when I told them what was happening.
 
I get frustrated when people don't take my observations about my system into consideration.  I know I dont know tech stuff, but I do know what happens on my own system as I limp along on it!
 
Plus, when the techs were in my system, they changed things around that turned things off in my keyboard and touchpad and then denied that they did it. 
 
I don't know enough to do it myself and I know at least one of them clicked on the keyboard, but they told me bluntly that they had nothing to do with it.
 
that was when I decided my 14 year association with Norton was over.
 
I do have one question for anyone who can answer it:
 
Does Webroot constantly update itself in the background?  I don't have to do any sort of manual scans or anything to update what they are looking for?
 
And, I guess I have another question:
 
The Webroot Anywhere protects emails and blocks intrusions, right?
 
I purchased the Anywhere product because I may need to get a tablet or smart phone for work ( I have a small home business ) and that might allow me to keep up with emails and product searches using a smaller, more compact tool rather than my laptop and I wanted to make sure that it / they would be protected.
 
I just want to make sure that everything is secure.   I don't do alot of browsing on line and visit a handful of websites, but I want to make sure that nothing weird gets ino my system because I do pay bills on my computer and I don't want that sensitive information getting corrupted or stolen.
 
Thanks again, David, for the warm welcome and the info!  I have a feeling that I am going to be visiting in here alot!
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hi, SSherjj!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome!  :D
 
I am such a remedial techy that I wil probably live in here for a good long while, but it's nice to know that the community is patient and knowledgable!
 
As I noted in my reply to David, I had been a Norton user for 14+ years and i had just had enough of their garbage excuses and blaming my high speed connection for the performance of their product.
 
I am not tech savvy, but I do have a pretty good grasp of common sense and if their explanations don't make sense, then it's just something they are told to say off a menu when someone is having trouble and that isn't customer service in my opinion.
 
I was thoroughly blown away by the swift installation of Webroot and the short scan time as well as the few files that it scans.
 
With Norton, a full system scan would go through at least 600K files and with Webroot its just a fraction of that.
 
It amazes me that I can be completely protected and the scans are so minimal.
 
I think that i have been mislead about what it takes to make my computer secure.
 
Again, thanks for the warm welcome!
jpasternak
Rank
Userlevel 7
Good evening @ and welcome to the Community!
@ wrote:
The problem that I had been having is very much like you described. I had been given the latest upgrade to their product and then I found that the LiveUpdate was not doing the auto updates and when I wound instigate a manual live update, it would say that I needed to upload 200+MB of files! And this was every other day!

I had to pull Norton off several PCs and servers at work for a similar reason. Users were seeing a nice, pretty green checkmark indicating that they were protected / safe; unfortunately, the virus definition files were just a tad outdated. :S
@ wrote:
I do have one question for anyone who can answer it:
Does Webroot constantly update itself in the background? ANSWER: YES! 
I don't have to do any sort of manual scans or anything to update what they are looking for? ANSWER: NO!
 
And, I guess I have another question:
The Webroot Anywhere protects emails and blocks intrusions, right?
WSA Identity Shield alerts you if your browser attempts to access a malicious web site; so, if you clicked on a link in an email, it will determine if the site is malicious or not and alert you / block the site:

— Jeff
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hi, jpasternak!
 
Thanks for the welcome and the input!
 
Since i have had Webroot for about 24 hours this is all great information  and insights into what i can expect from my protection product.
 
I apologize in advance if i ask really dumb questions and repeat myself, because i have a habit of needing to ask alot of questions before things make sense adn then i'm good...
 
So again, thanks for the warm welcome and the input!
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hey, jpasternak!
 
I guess maybe I am trying to redeem my remedial techness by asking a deluge of questions that help me to understand things from the common sense angle!
 
Thanks for the support and welcome!
G
Rank
Userlevel 6
Hi, David!
 
You can't see me, but right now I am doing a major happy dance in my seat at your post!
 
I am so happy that I have found a way to protect my computer and information without having a resource hog glutting on my high speed wifi to make it happen.
 
So thrilled!
 
Thanks!:D
RetiredTripleHelix
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Hello gr8auntteffie and Welcome to the Webroot Community Forums!


 
There are no dumb questions as you can see everyone on the forum are willing to help so just fire away on the questions! I like to show new members this short Video to show a big part of what WSA really does: https://community.webroot.com/t5/Webroot-Education/What-Happens-if-Webroot-quot-Misses-quot-a-Virus/ta-p/10202
 
Cheers,
 
Daniel ;)
 


 

shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
Thanks, Antus67! :D
 
I am really excited to have so much access to information from users who know the product and why it does what it does.
 
I had a threat detected today when I logged on and ran a scan and it removed it in a blink and gave me a simple checklist of things to do before continuing the threat removal process. 
 
No muss, no fuss, no stress...  Whodathunkit?!!!  :womanlol:
Yeah.. pretty cool isnt it??  I came to the Community 18 months ago to ask a question... I stayed, I learned, and you see what happened LOL.  I am a junkie helping other now  🙂
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
Ssherjj
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hello   gr8auntteffie, Well I 'll ask @  if he knows why this is happening...This is new to me so let me check ok? Looks like @ is off line....
_________________________________
Question from gr8auntteffie:
 
 
I do have a question for you that I have noticed in my Outlook.
 
When I get messages from Webroot Forum that there is a new message posted, my Outlook shows a red bar and says that the email didn't pass their security filter.
 
Why would it flag an email notification from Webroot when it is a computer security system site?  I know that I read where Webroot works with the Windows program in place with my operating system so I was wondering if there is something I need to do in my Outlook so that it will stop tagging emails from the forum as suspicious?
______________________________________________ 
@ can you help out here? Or  Open a Support Ticket  ?
Windows Insider MVP 2023, iMac 2021 27 in i5 Retina 5, OS Monterey, Security: Malwarebytes. iPads, W 10 & (VM:15), ALIENWARE 17R4, W10 Workstation, ALIENWARE 15 R6, W11, Webroot® SecureAnywhere™ Internet Security Complete (Android Samsung Galaxy 8 Note) , Webroot Beta Tester. Security
shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
You are covered to the teeth :)  You have ALL features available
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
ams963
Rank
Userlevel 7
Just to remind, WSA will protect against any malware in realtime.:) A default weekly scan is enough.;)
shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
I am going to make a small correction here... the System Optimizer DOES clear cookies from IE, but I do not believe it will for  Chrome and Firefox.  If you are using IE, just run the Optimizer and you should be clean and ready to go 🙂
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
nic
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I agree with @ - if you're savvy enough to post on here asking for help and learning, then you are already head and shoulders above most!
shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
None of us was 'born knowing it', we have just been able to take more time in trying to learn it.
 
I agree 100% with Baldrick and Nic: The Commumity exists just because a majority of computer users DON'T know how to do many things 'technical', but those of us who do very much enjoy helping out. 
 
Feel free to ask away 🙂
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
shorTcircuiT
Userlevel 7
We mean, in full, and no worries.  The good thing is that if I am not available one day, Baldrick might be, or Nic, or Daniel, etc.  We will help as much as we can. 
 
If it was ONE person trying to answer each and every question that would just not work.  But that isn't the case, we have great TEAMWORK here and enjoy 'working' with each other.
New to the Community? Register now and start posting! "If you don't learn something new every day, you need to pay more attention. I often get my daily learning here so grab a chair and stay a while!" WSA-Complete (Beta PC), WSA Mobile (Android), WSA Business Mobile (Android) WSA-Endpoint (PC- Some of the time.....)
nic
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Yep, we have a great team here.  And if there is anything we can't answer then I can ping the folks here at Webroot for extra help.  You'll also see some of our threat researchers and support folks posting in here as well.

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