OnGuard in Relation to Virus and Spyware

[DocLotus]

Hi;

I am a little confused about OnGuard.

Is it part of the Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware?

OnGuard seems to be very important to Internet Security so I am wondering if it should be on the main screen along with the current four items?

OnGuard takes a LOT of CPU cycles on my older 2 Gig P4 with 1 GB memory machine on Win XP Pro. I often see 100% CPU utilization with OnGuard turned on. When I turn OnGuard off, the CPU returns to a more normal usage.

With OnGuard turned off, does Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware still work correctly are they crippled?

Thanks;
Doc

[mjq424]

Hi
OnGuard is the Antivirus and Antispyware protection. Disabling it, stops all protection except Firewall and Antispam.
You can, however, just disable Antispyware, or Antivirus, but still leave all of OnGuard on.
Hope that helps

[DocLotus]

Thanks; Thay was what I was thinkng but was not sure about.

Doc

[DocLotus]

Looking at this a little closer I am still concerned that we are missing something here :confused:

I turned off Anti-Spyware and viewed OnGuard and all items were still on.

I turned Anti-Spyware back on and Anti-Virus off but all OnGuard items were still on.

What I am saying is it makes no sense that the same exact items would be used for both Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus.

Something else is going on.

Any ideas :confused:

Doc

[mjq424]

Hi
Because PCTIS is based on the Spyware Doctor with Antivirus it is possible to just have one or the other of Antivirus or Anrispyware active, while all of OnGuard is still on. OnGuard is just the areas where PCTIS provides protection. It is both Antispyware and Antivirus protection or just one.
Hope that helps

[DocLotus]

This is really strange :confused:

I’m still confused as I have noticed that I can have either (or both) Anti-Spyware and\or Anti-Virus on BUT OnGuard turned off. Under this scenario, I am wondering what Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus is doing :confused:

What I am suggesting is if OnGuard IS the Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus why can I have them on with OnGuard off?That makes no sense to me.

With OnGuard off, what is Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus doing :confused:

Something does not ring true to me about this and I think something else is going on here :rolleyes:

I’m thinking that OnGuard is additional assistance to Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus and NOT the Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus itself.

Doc

[Saxel]

It's a while since I've used a PC Tools product but from my recollection of SD, On-Guard provides the real time protection against spyware and / or viruses.
With on-guard turned off what you have is an on demand antivirus and / or antispyware scanner.
As mjq424 said you can disable individual elements of On-guard meaning you are turning off real time protection for that element of the system e.g site guard, e-mail guard etc.

[DocLotus]

Thanks for the input ;)

That works for me.

Due to the heavy CPU usage of OnGuard, I have it turned off but have Scheduler set up to do an Itelli-Scan every day.

So what I am hearing you say is that OnGuard is not the actual A-S or A-V itself but is the real-time (always active in memory) portion of A-S and A-V for real time protection. That is kind of what I was suspecting as I could not understand why OnGuard could be turned off without also turning A-S and A-V off.

So, it looks like with OnGuard off but with A-S and A-V on I have no real time protection but can still do a manual or scheduled scan to kill the bad stuff that my computer has picked up in the last 24 hours.

Thanks again;
Doc

[mjq424]

Hi
With OnGuard off you have no active virus protection on your system! This is what is so confusing...
If you turn off OnGuard - Antivirus and Antispyware are off
You can also just turn off either Antivirus or Antispyware separately, which means that the remaining protection still uses all the OnGuard detections but it is viruses only or spyware only.
I hope that clears things up a little!

[DocLotus]

Yes, that is VERY confusing and it also verifies my suspensions.

I believe that is VERY misleading to the user who will think they have A-S and A-V protection on (by looking at the main screen) but in reality if OnGuard is off (which is not too noticeable) they have absolutely no protection at all unless the scheduler runs a daily scan (if it is set to run at all).

This MUST be changed pronto as it is VERY confusing to most users and currently provides a false sense of security.

I suggest that the A-S and A-V icons on the main screen be split into two halves each such as…
• A-S Left half… Real-Time Protection (OnGuard on\off); A-S Right half… (Scheduled\Manual Scanning on\off).
• A-V Left half… Real-Time Protection (OnGuard on\off); A-V Right half… (Scheduled\Manual Scanning on\off)

This will allow the user to quickly see just what protection is on or off without all the confusion that currently exist.

I will add this suggestions to the Feedback\Suggestions thread.

Doc