Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2005 review

[Statica]

I have been a fan of TrendMicro's internet security packages both for the desktop and for servers for over 5 years now, and that is the only antivirus suite I have ever used and recommended since that time; I've been running the new version of the same for about a week now, and thought I'd give you a heads-up on the changes and its offerings.

PC-Cillin 2005 is flat out the most featured suite I have seen dedicated to complete internet security. I have included little blurbs about all the features of the suite, some of them are new to this version, but are included anyway for those new to the program.
It runs at a pretty low footprint, and features the following:
1) <u>Complete antivirus protection</u>, including realtime and scheduled scanning. You can create your own tasks and these are highly customizable in what files you want to search, and the action you want to take when it encounters a virus.
2) <u>Spyware scanning</u> is now included with the suite; not only does it perform a spyware scan on demand, but you can now include a realtime spyware scan to your arsenal. It is set to detect a number of types of spyware including - Adware, Dialers, Hacktools, remote access programs, Joke programs etc
3) The <u>mail scan</u> includes POP3 and SMTP mail scanning, can be included to scan for a customizable size of mail attachments as well as the option of layers of compression. The mail scan also features the ability to scan mails on webmails like Hotmail, Yahoo mail etc. <b>Interesting to note here that Hotmail now scans its attachments using TrendMicro's offerings</b> - I believe it used to be MacAfee before that they've thankfully got rid of.
4) MailScan also features <u>Antispam</u> filters that give you quite a bit of control over what comes into your Inbox.
5) <u>URL filtering</u> is included that allows you to block categories of URLs from being loaded on your computer
6) Network Controls also features <u>Private data protection</u>, this goes a long way in thwarting phishing attempts. It allows you to allow sensitive information to be passed on ONLY through approved (that you approve) means. It also logs what has been used to access the private data.
7) <u>Home network control</u>, allows you to control the Trend Antivirus on other computers in your home network and check settings and logs. It's quite useful when you are using the suite on more than one computer
8) Network Security provides a <u>Personal Firewall</u>, that comes "approved by Microsoft", meaning if you turn off your SP2 firewall, and turn on PC-Cillin 2005's firewall, SP2 will not report your computer as vulnerable.
You can specify firewall profiles for the sort of network you have, and you can change profiles with the click of a button. The advancement features <u>automatic profile switching</u>.
9) <u>Network virus emergency center</u> allows you to have PCC automatically shut down your network traffic when a network virus is detected.
10) <u>Wifi intrustion alerts</u> are simply amazing for those of you on WiFi, it allows you notifications when another computer is "nearby". If you are on a network, it will allow you to identify your "neighboring" computers and approve them.
11) A <u>security check center</u> will allow you to check your system to make sure that your Windows is running with all the patches provided by Microsoft and that you are not running a system with serious vulnerabilities
12) The <u>automatic updates</u> allow you to select what and when you want your PCC to automatic updates. For example, you could just choose to update your antivirus pattern files or you could choose to update your antivirus, anti-spam, network virus patterns etc automatically. Gone are the nag screens when automatically updating, it can perform a <u>truly silent update</u> (other than that unobtrusive change in the systray icon)
13) You can also configure if you want <u>Outbreak alerts</u> (these are high risk virus notifications that have recently come up)

The interface is much of the last version, except there are some useful shortcuts that get you to the sections you are most likely to use. You can also get to most places by right clicking on the systray icon as before. The entire suite is EXTREMELY configurable.
Uninstallation is very efficient, I've performed a test install and uninstall on 2 systems, and there are none of the nightmarish scenarios that we come to hear from uninstalling some other security programs.

Company site: http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/pc-cillin/evaluate/overview.htm

I would highly recommend giving this a try if you are in the market for a complete solution. There is a 30day trial to the program as well.

Hope this has been useful.

[antgross@pacbell.net]

I have been a fan of TrendMicro's internet security packages both for the desktop and for servers for over 5 years now, and that is the only antivirus suite I have ever used and recommended since that time; I've been running the new version of the same for about a week now, and thought I'd give you a heads-up on the changes and its offerings.

PC-Cillin 2005 is flat out the most featured suite I have seen dedicated to complete internet security. I have included little blurbs about all the features of the suite, some of them are new to this version, but are included anyway for those new to the program.
It runs at a pretty low footprint, and features the following:
1) <u>Complete antivirus protection</u>, including realtime and scheduled scanning. You can create your own tasks and these are highly customizable in what files you want to search, and the action you want to take when it encounters a virus.
2) <u>Spyware scanning</u> is now included with the suite; not only does it perform a spyware scan on demand, but you can now include a realtime spyware scan to your arsenal. It is set to detect a number of types of spyware including - Adware, Dialers, Hacktools, remote access programs, Joke programs etc
3) The <u>mail scan</u> includes POP3 and SMTP mail scanning, can be included to scan for a customizable size of mail attachments as well as the option of layers of compression. The mail scan also features the ability to scan mails on webmails like Hotmail, Yahoo mail etc. <b>Interesting to note here that Hotmail now scans its attachments using TrendMicro's offerings</b> - I believe it used to be MacAfee before that they've thankfully got rid of.
4) MailScan also features <u>Antispam</u> filters that give you quite a bit of control over what comes into your Inbox.
5) <u>URL filtering</u> is included that allows you to block categories of URLs from being loaded on your computer
6) Network Controls also features <u>Private data protection</u>, this goes a long way in thwarting phishing attempts. It allows you to allow sensitive information to be passed on ONLY through approved (that you approve) means. It also logs what has been used to access the private data.
7) <u>Home network control</u>, allows you to control the Trend Antivirus on other computers in your home network and check settings and logs. It's quite useful when you are using the suite on more than one computer
8) Network Security provides a <u>Personal Firewall</u>, that comes "approved by Microsoft", meaning if you turn off your SP2 firewall, and turn on PC-Cillin 2005's firewall, SP2 will not report your computer as vulnerable.
You can specify firewall profiles for the sort of network you have, and you can change profiles with the click of a button. The advancement features <u>automatic profile switching</u>.
9) <u>Network virus emergency center</u> allows you to have PCC automatically shut down your network traffic when a network virus is detected.
10) <u>Wifi intrustion alerts</u> are simply amazing for those of you on WiFi, it allows you notifications when another computer is "nearby". If you are on a network, it will allow you to identify your "neighboring" computers and approve them.
11) A <u>security check center</u> will allow you to check your system to make sure that your Windows is running with all the patches provided by Microsoft and that you are not running a system with serious vulnerabilities
12) The <u>automatic updates</u> allow you to select what and when you want your PCC to automatic updates. For example, you could just choose to update your antivirus pattern files or you could choose to update your antivirus, anti-spam, network virus patterns etc automatically. Gone are the nag screens when automatically updating, it can perform a <u>truly silent update</u> (other than that unobtrusive change in the systray icon)
13) You can also configure if you want <u>Outbreak alerts</u> (these are high risk virus notifications that have recently come up)

The interface is much of the last version, except there are some useful shortcuts that get you to the sections you are most likely to use. You can also get to most places by right clicking on the systray icon as before. The entire suite is EXTREMELY configurable.
Uninstallation is very efficient, I've performed a test install and uninstall on 2 systems, and there are none of the nightmarish scenarios that we come to hear from uninstalling some other security programs.

Company site: http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/pc-cillin/evaluate/overview.htm

I would highly recommend giving this a try if you are in the market for a complete solution. There is a 30day trial to the program as well.

Hope this has been useful.

I couldn't get the upgrade to work for me. I have 2004 version. It kept giving me an 'initializing...' error message whenever I tried to do anything. I tried several things with their tech support for a week but no luck. I ended up uninstalling 2005 version and getting refund.

[Statica]

As with every software, I practice and recommend uninstalling the old version before installing; for every major version jump - be it an OS or a software.

[CaptTuna]

I have been using PC-cillin since 2000 and I must say that it has been very Windows friendly. I switched from McAfee when PC-cillin came bundled with an ECS motherboard I bought in 2000 and have been using Trendmicro products since.
Also my upgrade from Internet Security 2004 to 2005 went flawlessly and I have never been infected with any virus while using PC-cillin and it has caught a few while monitoring e-mails.
If you are going to buy an internet security suite I recommend TrendMicro's.

[shazam]

statica I have this software. What can I say ( the best) nothing gets by this software.

[Statica]

To be very truthful, I must caution readers of this thread - don't assume that nothing gets by ANY antivirus/spyware solution .. there really is nothing that's invincible when it comes to security :)
Granted, in all these years, I've never had another antivirus search pick up a bug was running PC-cillin, and granted that I've had tons of first hand and related experiences of bugs being picked up by housecall when another product was running...
yet I would suggest to you, and anyone else that an antivirus is only as good as the first virus that pops into your system inspite of it.
Any antivirus suite must be used with a healthy (and I do mean HEALTHY) dose of common sense.

[shazam]

Sorry statica. It was a figure of speech. Not meant to be taken literally.

[IronMentality]

I absolutely love my Trend Micro PC-cillin IS 2005, updates constantly 5-7 times a day :)

[Statica]

Yep the updates are much more frequent because it updates most components rather than just the scan engine and antivirus pattern files.

[bruder]

Hello. I am new here and found your discussion when searching for help on PC-cillin.

I recently switched from Norton->TrendMicro, and so far, I'm am dissapointed.

1. The program updates are buggy.
I set the program to update every 12 hours and it updates much more frequently that that. In fact, it updates when it doesn't need to! I just completed an update which required a restart, after the restart, I clicked 'Manually Check for Updates'. The program said it was out of date and needed an update. I let it update again, which required another restart.. uh?

2. The real-time scan detected a worm (AGOBOT.AZQ) and said it was automatically 'cleaned'. The next day, it happened again, then again, always indicating that it was 'cleaned'. Repeated scans indicated no viruses. I thought something might be wrong so I sent for help from TMs customer support. Maybe the program was detecting the worm on the network? Their response -- disable real-time scanning for trojans, not very helpful.

I think another machine may be the cause, but in this case PC-cillin should indicate this, not that it was 'cleaned'. TMs support was lame on this issue.

3. The program fails to run in safe-mode. A few times I've run into viruses that disable anti-virus programs. RUnning norton in safe mode has helped fix these issues, since the virus isn't included in the start-up. If I run PC-cillin in safe mode (with networking) I get a message that says:

'No networking device or a conflict with existing antivirus or security software'

Then, 'Unable to read configuration', hr=0x8007048c, line=7413, num=234.

4. Scan for Spyware returns immediatly indicating No SPyware FOund. I'm not confident that it's scanning properly.


I wasn't satisfied with Norton either, that's why I tried PC-cillin, which seems to be even worse.

Please let me know If I am doing something wrong or if you have suggestions.

Thanks.

--JB

Windows XP service pack 2

[kstatefan40]

Well...

Trend Micro has a virus cleaning / detection utility for DOS that is separate from PC-Cillin, so instead of running in safemode, you can run from either a boot or a terminal window.

The fact that you cleaned a virus and then the next day it was back could indicate that not all of the virus was removed successfully. Have you researched the name in their virus database? Here is a link to what I found:
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_AGOBOT.AZQ

A quick Windows Update should solve the problem after it is removed.

HTH

[shazam]

I had the same problem. Virus kept repeating even after cleaning. It would show up the next day. I called them on the phone told them the problem They informed me that it was not a virus. They emailed me a patch (for want of a better word) that I downloaded and the problem was solved. I recommend calling them on the phone. They have allways have been quick to answer and quick to clear up my problem. I am very satisfied with there tech.support help over the phone.

[bruder]

Well...

Trend Micro has a virus cleaning / detection utility for DOS that is separate from PC-Cillin, so instead of running in safemode, you can run from either a boot or a terminal window.

The fact that you cleaned a virus and then the next day it was back could indicate that not all of the virus was removed successfully. Have you researched the name in their virus database? Here is a link to what I found:
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_AGOBOT.AZQ

A quick Windows Update should solve the problem after it is removed.

HTH

Yeah, I read that and downloaded the Template Engine (that's what they call their COmmand Line based tool.) Didn't catch anything.

After reading your post, I ran it again, this time in safe mode. It caught the AGOBOT in soundman.exe. But it kept coming back everytime I restarted. So I removed the regi entry that launches soundman.exe manually, and deleted the file. Hopefully, I'm worm free now.

Pc-cillin is prompting for updates regularly, When I check the version of the engine, the progrram, and pattern, all version stay the same. Definitely buggy. Doesn't leave me with a cozy feeling about Trend Micro. Not impressed.

Thanks for your post. Looks like you gave me that extra motive that it took to solve this problem (hopefully).

-J

[J1978]

[QUOTE=bruder]If I run PC-cillin in safe mode (with networking) I get a message that says:

'No networking device or a conflict with existing antivirus or security software'

Then, 'Unable to read configuration', hr=0x8007048c, line=7413, num=234.[QUOTE=bruder]

Same problem here.I cant find that dos tool on the pccillin website what exactly is it called?

[bruder]

It's called the 'Damage Cleanup Template / Engine'
Great name for the command line scan tool!

You can download it here:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp

Good luck!

[J1978]

It's called the 'Damage Cleanup Template / Engine'
Great name for the command line scan tool!
Good luck!


indeed.thanks

[leeley]

I'm having a huge problem with pc-cillin. I had Norton and I also added F-Prot and Zone Labs. Got rid of Norton and disabled the other 2 and downloaded the pc-cillin antivirus software that I purchased. Since then my javacript has been knocked out and nothing I tried seems to fix. The computer tells me that scripting etc. is all enabled but it isn't. TM's support was "lame" in my experience as well. They didn't respond to the e-mail messages, but I did get them on the phone after a couple tries. They suggested checking for spywear and turning off the pc-cillin fire wall, and when that didn't help they gave me Microsoft's number and said to call them. No success reaching anyone there. Does anyone have any suggestions for attending to the javacript problem. It stinks because so many sites require enabled javacript to be able to have full access, I can't seem to even attach pictures to my msn e-mail, or to use the background and font features. Can anyone help?

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=57266

- Replies posted to any review must add value to the original poster's review. A review is not an invitiation to start an unrestrained conversation.

leeley: You will get better assistance with a problem if you posted a new thread in the appropriate forum. This is a structured review forum.

[Jaggannath]

My younger brother bought PC-Cillin on the recommendation of my oldest brother, and he ended up uninstalling it. No doubt that it's a fantastic utility, but we pay for our downloads and with the downloads occuring 7-8 times a day my brother found he chewed through $30 of credit in 5 days. If we had unlimited downloads it wouldn't be a problem, but it's definitely something to consider. We even tried to get it to download less regularly (say once a day), but no go. Just a possible downside to PC-Cillin 2005

[Statica]

How do you pay for downloads? Do you pay by bandwidth consumed or the number of downloads (though unlikely, it is a crazy scenario). Even if it is by bandwidth, you can restrict the downloads only to patterns and do a weekly/monthly comprehensive update. The updates happen multiple times because of releases to all their security engines.

[jaysblueaus]

I was so wrapped with pc cillin, when i first started using the net back in 98, I had an oem vewrsion. Then used nortons for a while. I decided to go back to Trend in 03.

The 2004 version like alll over programs had its bugs. It was known to trend micro at the time that their anti virus program had issues regarding file sharing programs, with port forwarding, and I called them and asked them if they have an idea when it would be fixed, aS the issue was on their own website, and the tech staFF, new nothing about the problem either. My 2004 version was a registered one.

I descided over all, i would download it and give it another go, the virus scanner to be is good, the page filtering is aboslute garbage it crashes internet explorer, and blocks pages it shouldent i have disabled it. The spyware part is ok, i think many anti-spywear prgrams are good as eachother, one might find one and another will find another and so on.

Trend micro 2005 compairing to 2004 seems to be a resource hog, and slows everything right down. I had recommended to my mother to try trendmicro b4 updating nortons, as i am no fan of nortons what so ever. I hate how nortons takes over everything, and when you want to get ride of it, you can never really ever get rid of it.

I am wondering if my problems is trend micro, or with windows service pack 2.

A good idea is for people to also use a anti trojan program also with any anti virus program, and i am thinking of going back to an individual anti virus program, same as firewall such as out post, anti trojan and anti spyware.

If people want to get a good trial of trendmicro 2005, i suggest they do not got via the trendmicro site, as they only give you 30 days, when u go via the microsoft site they give you 3 months, and you can also buy it for like $60.00 off the rrp price. It will cost me like $32 aus$ if i decided to buy it. In shops in aus upto $110 off website around $90.

But 30 days trial is really nothing, you really need more time.

[Techdec42]

Im not sure PC Cillin is a resource hog Ive read quite a few articles in CPU mag and computer shopper mag about pc cillin and they all said that when doing a virus scan and other utilities with pc cillin they said it didnt use as much resources as Norton.

[Prew]

Don't know about the antivirus part because I've never had a virus; however, I must say the antispam is amazing- I receive 20-30 junk mails per day in Outlook.

I didn't check my email last weekend, but on Monday I had 80 emails waiting (76 of which were spam)- pc cillin automatically put all buy two of the spams into the spam folder- and this is without any training at all. :)

[lani]

If people want to get a good trial of trendmicro 2005, i suggest they do not got via the trendmicro site, as they only give you 30 days, when u go via the microsoft site they give you 3 months, and you can also buy it for like $60.00 off the rrp price. It will cost me like $32 aus$ if i decided to buy it. In shops in aus upto $110 off website around $90.

But 30 days trial is really nothing, you really need more time.

Where exactly on Microsoft's site can you get Trendmicro for 3 month trial?

thanks,
lani

[nocturnx]

Trend-micros actually been under alot of heat for a faulty update that slowed and damaged alot of computers. Check this out: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120577,00.asp

Heres a good article too, only i wish they compared more antivirus suites like PANDA and Nod32. http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,118792,00.asp

Heres a link to the Microsoft antivirus free trials:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/antivirus/default.mspx

[Prew]

I believe the article said the update 'degraded' the performance of computers- it didn't say the update damaged computers. BTW- I was one of those effected by this- wondered why my games were so slow.

[nocturnx]

Well I assume they were damaged since Trend Micro is having to pay for repair costs to the computers.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120612,00.asp

[mairving]

Well I assume they were damaged since Trend Micro is having to pay for repair costs to the computers.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120612,00.asp
Computers with the problem particularly in a corporation caused a tech to actually go to the computer and install the update. This was where all of the repair costs came from as it is quite costly in the corporate world to visit every affected computer. Generally updates are downloaded and then each workstation pulls the update off of the server.

I run TM at work but the update occured over the weekend and I wasn't affected. They have had other bugs as well. A couple of weeks ago one of the virus signatures caused a trojan false alarm on every machine on my network. Quite annoying.

Still would rather have TM than Norton or McAfee any day. They are not without their problems too.

[nocturnx]

True, no anti-virus is perfect and from what ive read Trendmicro seems to be the best right now.

I didnt relize that they actually had someone install the updates, I figured it was kinda like an automatic update or something similar, now the article makes more sense heh.

[mairving]

I didnt relize that they actually had someone install the updates, I figured it was kinda like an automatic update or something similar, now the article makes more sense heh.
TM didn't actually install the updates. The cost involved was incurred by the companies that used their product through overtime getting the problem fixed. TM is reimbursing some of the cost of that.