New Web Filter Extension released v1.0.2.42 for all Supported Browsers

  • 21 October 2014
  • 40 replies
  • 451 views

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Just to let WSA users know there is a new Web Filter for Chrome and to get it go into Extensions and Delete the old Extension and go here and install the new one https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...ensi/kjeghcllfecehndceplomkocgfbklffd/details as it solves the continued spinning circles during searches on Google! Also some users might have the new Web Shield installed automatically so disregard the Delete and Reinstall part. 
 
Thanks,
Also some users might have the new Web Shield installed automatically so disregard the Delete and reinstall part.Also some users might have the new Web Shield installed automatically so disregard the Delete and reinstall part.
Daniel 🙂

40 replies

UPDATE: Webroot Support have managed to reproduce the blockages I was getting.
 
The FPs are apparently due to a bug in the Firefox web filter extension. The Webroot development team are currently working to resolve the problem.
 
Thanks, TripleHelix, for passing on the information to Support and putting them and me in touch with each other.
Userlevel 7
Thank you for the post Daniel!
 
I have the new extension installed, and it does indeed fix the problem of Search Results that we have seen the last couple of weeks.  Good Job Webroot Devs!
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Looking more into things all Extensions for all support Browsers have been updated! Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome!
 
Daniel ;)
 


 


 

Thanks Daniel. I'll wait and see if  it updates.
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Thanks TH, and a big thanks to the Dev team for fixing this! 😃
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Thank you Webroot for fixing this most asked complaint about Google circles.;)
 
 
And thanks TH for the know how to obtain the fix!!
 
😃
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Good, that makes sense.  It keeps things nice and tidy instead of having 'ad hoc' version numbers on the different browsers.
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@ wrote:
How do I update my Firefox Webroot Filtering Extension?
It should update automatically? If not try a clean reinstall of WSA with a reboot in Between!
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel 😉
If I was to report them, I would sometimes be making 3 or 4 reports a day and I just haven't time for that. Maybe Webpage-blocking FPs has been coming down but it certainly has not been my experience. Quite the contrary! So I just disabled the filter. Anyway I've now reenabled and will wait for update. If it doesn't come in 48 hours, I'll perhaps try a reinstall. Thanks!
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@ be sure that Webroot BrightCloud higher ups are looking into the FP's being mentioned here and Wilders and I'm hoping to get some feedback from them on this issue very soon.
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel
@ wrote:
@ be sure that Webroot BrightCloud higher ups are looking into the FP's being mentioned here and Wilders and I'm hoping to get some feedback from them on this issue very soon.
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel
That's great! Good news.
 
Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your update on this issue.
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Posted on Behalf of @ as it keeps disappearing?? Anyone?
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Here are some examples of the Webroot Web Filtering Extension blocking my access to perfectly legitimate sites just from today:

http://hoganas.be/
Blocked by the Webroot Filtering Extension.
BrightCloud Website Lookup page cites no infections, low popularity and age not established.
Reason given for blocking: “This is a suspicious site. There is a higher than average probability that you will be exposed to malicious links or payloads.”
Remark re this website: this is the Belgian website of one of the four or five major metal powder producers in the world. It should also be added that this page simply redirects (or rather, would redirect if it were allowed to by Webroot!) to the parent site http://www.hoganas.com.

http://utlm.org/onlineresources/mmm_familysecrets.htm
Blocked by the Webroot Filtering Extension
Yet the BrightCloud Website Lookup page declares it trustworthy and gives it a 100% reputation index.
Reason given for blocking: “This site might try to trick you into disclosing your login, password or other sensitive information by disguising itself as another website you may trust.”
Remark re webpage access: this page appears only be blocked when accessed from Google and, in my case, from this page.


http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14205/1/Condensation-and-Mould--Causes-and-Solutions.html
Blocked by the Webroot Filtering Extension.
Yet the BrightCloud Website Lookup page declares it trustworthy and gives it a 100% reputation index.
Reason given for blocking: “This site might try to trick you into disclosing your login, password or other sensitive information by disguising itself as another website you may trust.”
Remark re webpage access: this page appears only be blocked when accessed from Google and, in my case, from this page.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/secureaplus-freemium.350914/
Blocked by the Webroot Filtering Extension.
Yet the BrightCloud Website Lookup page declares it trustworthy and gives it a 96% reputation index.
Reason given for blocking: “This site might try to trick you into disclosing your login, password or other sensitive information by disguising itself as another website you may trust.”
Remark re this website: this is a Wilders Security webpage lol!!!!
Remark re webpage access: this page appears only be blocked when accessed from Google and, in my case, from. this page.


So here is my take on this:

Any site that has low or unable-to-be-established* age and/or low popularity appears by default to be simply blocked and declared unsafe. Highly unsatisfactory for ordinary users like me! In addition, many sites to which BrightCloud (owned by Webroot) has given a 100% reputation index (and on whom Webroot apparently bases its web filter) are inexplicably blocked by Webroot when accessed from Google. Incredible!!

*Apparently, from what I have read somewhere (I can’t remember where ), BrightCloud has a problem with establishing the age of many, many websites with the net result that a host of websites are unwarrantably blocked!

What I find so frustrating is that, on the one hand, Webroot has an excellent anti-virus engine (imho the best ) inherited from Prevx which it acquired in 2010 and, on the other hand, a web filter based on BrightCloud (also acquired by Webroot) that, from the point of view of a lay user like myself, seems absolutely awful and actually has the result of doing the direct opposite of what it is intended to do as I am so driven round the bend by the abundance of these false positives (and the time I waste checking that they are false positives) that I end up disabling the filter and so leaving myself that little bit less protected.

And incidentally, as I have said before on Wilders, what’s the point of reporting the individual pages that are blocked when, as you can see from my comments two paragraphs above, my take on this is that it is not the blocking of the individual sites that is the problem but rather the blocking algorithms?

I see several Webroot fanboys (sorry to use such a derogatory term but that's what it feels like) both at Wilders and over here at the Community defending the web filter and I can’t for the life of me understand why!! But I admit my ignorance of all things technical regarding IT and cyber-security and am quite prepared to listen to anyone who can explain why I may be wrong on this.
Thanks TH 😃. I'm posting this post to see if my posts are getting through...
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@ wrote:
@ wrote:
Thanks TH 😃. I'm posting this post to see if my posts are getting through...
 you talk about "downloading" Webroot add-ons. How do you do this with the Firefox Webroot add-ons?
It's best to do a clean reinstall to get them installed again!
 
Can you please do a clean reinstall of WSA and Please follow the steps closely!
 
  • Make sure you have a copy of your Keycode
  • KEEP the computer online for Uninstall and Reinstall to make sure it works correctly
  • Download a Copy Here (Best Buy Subscription PC users click HERE)
  • Uninstall WSA and Reboot
  • Install with the new installer, enter your Keycode and don't import any settings as you can set it up as you like once it's done
  • Let it finish it's install scan
  • Reboot once again
Try that and let us know!
 
Daniel 😉
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@ wrote:
No TH it was an academic question. If you go back a few posts, you will see that my filter addon updated yesterday. Thanks!
It is a just in case for some if it doesn't update or missing in the Browser! Clean reinstall will correct that part!
 
Daniel 😉
@ wrote:
I can see you still :)
Glad to hear ;)
 
It was very kind of TH to post my post for me. Unfortunately by reposting, some of the links got broken. I'm trying to repost the original but without success unfortunately :8
@ wrote:
I would be interested in the data you collect on your logging of each FP you receive, and I am sure Webroot Dev's would be as well.
Don't worry! TH has passed on my reports of web filter FPs to those higher up. Meanwhile, I'm sending you a PM with my updated log.
Userlevel 7
Hello Muddy, 
 
Have you checked to see if it has already updated?  Mine updated automatically in all 3 major browsers, IE, Chrome and FireFox,  You should have version 1.0.2.42 in FireFox if it has updated
Userlevel 7
The False Positives have been reduced quite a bit over the last couple months or so... at least I am getting far fewer.  To be perfectly honest, however, there has been a small occasional blip the last week or so.  Randomly, it seems, a page that is normally not blocked at all gets blocked just once or twice.  We have seen a couple of users post about it the last couple of weeks.
 
Two different posts stated that facebook.com was blocked... I am on Facebook just about every day and have not had a problem.  Just two posts over the last 2 weeks... 
 
My own has blocked the internet URL of my WiFi Range Extender.  When the current Web Threat Shield first came out it gave a FP on that, and so I reported it.  It has not had a problem for the last year.  Last week, it gave a FP.  I closed the browser, reopened, went back to the page, and it did not block it that time.
 
If you do see any such 'transient" FP's, please report them.  Webroot and Brightcloud are aware of it, and looking into it, but any additional info on such strange here and there blips might be useful.
@ wrote:
In reply to Muddy's post, thank you Daniel for reposting it.
 
Fanboy.  Ok, maybe not a nice term Muddy, but I will plead guilty to being one.  Simply put, I am NOT having the issues you are having.  If I was getting multiple FP's on a daily basis I would not be so very happy about it either.  I would, in fact, probably be a bit grumpy about it.
 
Simply put I am a "FanBo"y as I really do not have issues, or at least really very rarely: maybe one or two a week on average.  I do not know if I am simply a boring web user, or just what the explanation is.
 
 
I do hope that in the end the Web Filter, whatever is causing you so many FP's, is fixed.
 
 
I couldn't find a way to word it naturally to include the fact that, when it comes to the Webroot AV engine, I can't imagine anyone being a more incorrigible fanboy then myself lol!!!! But I do remember a recent exchange in Wilders where someone was shouted down for daring to say that the web filter was horrendous in the number of FPs it throws up. I thought that was going over the top. I was thinking of that though honestly I can't remember if you were part of that exchange or not (haven't had time to go over there and check).
 
Sorry for my rather unflattering choice of words. I repent in sackcloth and ashes! Grovel...
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
@ wrote:
In reply to Muddy's post, thank you Daniel for reposting it.
 
Fanboy.  Ok, maybe not a nice term Muddy, but I will plead guilty to being one.  Simply put, I am NOT having the issues you are having.  If I was getting multiple FP's on a daily basis I would not be so very happy about it either.  I would, in fact, probably be a bit grumpy about it.
 
Simply put I am a "FanBo"y as I really do not have issues, or at least really very rarely: maybe one or two a week on average.  I do not know if I am simply a boring web user, or just what the explanation is.
 
 
I do hope that in the end the Web Filter, whatever is causing you so many FP's, is fixed.
 
 
I couldn't find a way to word it naturally to include the fact that, when it comes to the Webroot AV engine, I can't imagine anyone being a more incorrigible fanboy then myself lol!!!! But I do remember a recent exchange in Wilders where someone was shouted down for daring to say that the web filter was horrendous in the number of FPs it throws up. I thought that was going over the top. I was thinking of that though honestly I can't remember if you were part of that exchange or not (haven't had time to go over there and check).
 
Sorry for my rather unflattering choice of words. I repent in sackcloth and ashes! Grovel...
LOL!  No need to grovel... when you posted that, I though about my reply before doing so.  And I recognized that I AM a "FanBoy", and my posts here reflect it.
 
I DO post and complain when something is broken, sometimes in public view sometimes out of public view, and sometimes via email.  Thus.. .you don't often see when I am complaining, just the FanBoy side LOL.
 
I am pretty sure I was not on that Wilders discussion.  I am registered there, but sadly I tend to neglect it.  I really do need to spend more time on there as well!
 
 
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I can see you still 🙂
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@ look for a PM!!
 
Daniel
For anyone interested, they will find my original post here. In it, I explain why I find the web filter extension all but unworkable due to the crazy number of (what appear to me to be) FPs it throws up. I am temporarily keeping the filter enabled and continuing to log each apparent FP I receive.
 
Unfortunately this post was blocked by the Webroot spam filter during the weekend.Thank you Nic (I assume it was you) for retrieving it from the spam folder 😃.
 
EDIT: I should add that a few posts later on, I apologise for the perhaps inelegantly chosen and somewhat cavalier use of the word "fanboy" to describe a couple of incidents where I feel some posters on Wilders and perhaps also here (I can't remember) went over the top in snapping back at others who complained of this problem. I grovel ... 😳
Userlevel 7
@   I think we dealt with the use of "Fanboy" over the weekend as Daniel 'reprinted' your posts when the Spam Filter caught them....
 
Again, I say no worries, and in general I am guilty as charged of that due to the fact I just have not had the same intensity of FP's that you have.  I DO get then, but it generally is maybe once a week, two at the most.  I must be a boring web user LOL!
 
I would be interested in the data you collect on your logging of each FP you receive, and I am sure Webroot Dev's would be as well.

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