McAfee SiteAdvisor Alternative?

[seeker]

I got in the mood to look around for a new screensaver to download last night, but thinking about the fact that malware can be placed within images, I decided to check what was being said about it. That brought me to this:

http://www.benedelman.org/news/012606-1.html

Which discusses using the program in the title for checking webpages prior to going to them.
I installed the program, and it seems good, but only integrates with IE, which I only use if I'm forced to. I browsed it's directory looking for a plugin that I could export, but found nothing that seemed to work.

That brings me to the last word in my title "Alternative"...is there another program like it that would be compatable with Opera and Firefox?

[crainger]

AVG Free 8. It has a site checker.

[seeker]

Thanks, but since I can't run two AVs, and I prefer Nod32, I was hoping for a standalone program.

[crainger]

NOD32 should scan all traffic your PC accesses online, so it should find any bad code and block it, even in images. Avast does this as well.

It wont check the actual site, but it will check all the traffic from that site. Other than that you'll have to use good old fashioned safe browsing and only download from reputable sites.

[seeker]

That is not what I'm looking for. My browser, firewall and AV also scan for problems, but SiteAdvisor does things a bit differently. For instance, when you run a search on Google, it marks each and every return as either good, bad or unknown. All of the other scanners only scan a link or website chosen and this means that you must hope that the database being used includes the actual website that you are visiting, because they don't tell you that it is either good or unknown. I like the idea of being able to make my own decisions based on all known information.

[crainger]

Well you'll have to compromise and use either IE or run 2 AVs and disable everything but the site advisor on the 2nd AV.

[seeker]

No, there is a third choice without compromise, and that is to continue looking for what I started out to find. If one program exists, then the odds are fair that another does also.

Whatever the case may be, neither of your options are acceptable.

[crainger]

::rofl:

[seeker]

I should add that I did find a version of SiteAdvisor for Firefox, but it had absolutely no instructions on how to install it. The only way that I have found to install FF addons is via their online installer and they don't offer this one. I don't care much for FF, but it is far better than IE. If anyone know how to manually install an addon, it would help.

[crainger]

You mean this? http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ff.html

Was was able to install just following the on screen instructions. It basically just downloads and installs an .xpi

[seeker]

Yes, that is it. I guess that I found a different page, because the one that I used only downloaded the program, without installing it. However, though the installation seemed to go okay, when I tried the same Google search using the keyword screensaver, it did not display any of the notations that it did in IE, so I'm not sure if it is different somehow, or I did something wrong.

[Deborah]

Might I suggest Web of Trust (WOT) as an alternative to SA. WOT is a Mozilla recommended add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456) that also works with IE and has a bookmarklet (http://www.mywot.com/en/blog/wot-bookmarklet-for-safari-and-opera) for Opera and Safari.

With nearly 20.7 millions sites rated and 1.6 million downloads, the user community is growing and active. Website rating information is updated continuously by the user community and trusted sources, such as listings of malware and phishing sites.

Please give it a try, and let us know what you think.

Safe surfing,
Deborah
Web of Trust (http://www.mywot.com)

[seeker]

Somehow, I get the impression that you are with either Mozilla or WOT. but if so, perhaps you can answer a question for me. When I installed WOT, just like with SiteAdviser, the browser went through the steps of installing without any complaint, but after restarting the browser and searching Google, there is no notation of the search page. However, I'm using Minefield, instead of 32 bit FF, because I'm using XP x64. Is this compatable with the 64 bit flavor?

[Deborah]

The Firefox add-on works on all platforms. Sami, our developer, suggests that you create a new Firefox profile (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles) and install only WOT there to see if it works. If that doesn't help, please send a support request (http://www.mywot.com/en/support/feedback/problem) and he can assist you in more detail.

Best regards,
Deborah

[npras42]

:wtf:
How strange? Instead of you having to go search for support, support is now finding you!