Forum: Author Hangout

White Smoke

Vincent Berg 🚫
Updated:

Just got yet another ad for White Smoke, but for once the price seemed reasonable ($20/year). Only, when I went to check it out, the demo only plays a short ad, the site lists PayPal, and then forces you to enter your credit card information direction, and they insist on information completely unnecessary for an electronic sale (such as your physical mailing address, phone number and Brazilian tax ID numbers (there's no friggin' way I'm giving them my Social Security number!).

Has anyone tried this software? If so, is it worth it, or is the entire organization questionable (i.e. likely to sell my private information to whoever is willing to pay for it?).

Right now, I'm likely to balk and never look again. The fact they won't even provide a sample for a permanent subscription service is suspicious.

Update: Never mind. My 'security suite' (the same one I keep deleting because it's a piece of crap which won't allow me to access any of my favorite sites) flags it as a Malware site.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Vincent Berg

Never mind. My 'security suite' (the same one I keep deleting because it's a piece of crap which won't allow me to access any of my favorite sites) flags it as a Malware site.

I think your security suit is conflating two different white smokes.

I searched for white smoke malware and came up with this https://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-whitesmoke-toolbar/ which indicates that the whitesmoke malware is a browser add on toolbar, not the writing tool you seem to be referring to.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

I think your security suit is conflating two different white smokes.

I used the link they supplied, hit "Demo" (after backing out of the payment link), and immediately got the Malware warning. Apparently, the security doesn't like the White Smoke software site.

Then again, the security package is a pile of shit. I was required to load something which prevented me from accessing certain sites as I did it, I ran it, and then deleted the security package (Coronodo???), and it's never gone away. I think it's now a part of my PayPal website, although it's not listed as an add-on service, so I can't figure out how to rip it out of my system completely.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Vincent Berg

Sounds like your "security package" is itself a form of malware if you can't uninstall it cleanly.

Replies: sejintenej Grant

sejintenej 🚫

@Dominions Son

Sounds like your "security package" is itself a form of malware if you can't uninstall it cleanly.

Yes. I was having problems with a very well known security package sold in all the computer shops. Remove it? They took an hour trying to remove it (no clashes any more) but it's name still keeps cropping up on the program menu

Replies: Dinsdale

Dinsdale 🚫
Updated:

@sejintenej

John McAfee sold his security suite to Intel and they kept the name - initially. I remember him posting a video showing how to remove the software from a computer, it involved scantily clad young women watching while he attacked a PC with a sledgehammer.

Have Intel changed the name of the suite since then?

I just tried to find it on Youtube but came up with this instead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg (don't try this at home guys!).

Replies: sejintenej

sejintenej 🚫

@Dinsdale

John McAfee sold his security suite to Intel and they kept the name - initially. I remember him posting a video showing how to remove the software from a computer, it involved scantily clad young women watching while he attacked a PC with a sledgehammer.

There is a program around with his name which I guess is the one I needed a sledge hammer to get rid of

Grant 🚫

@Dominions Son

Sounds like your "security package" is itself a form of malware if you can't uninstall it cleanly.

Don't know if it's still the case, but Norton security products for several years required a 3rd party programme to remove all traces of them.

JohnBobMead 🚫

In order to totally clear Avira off of my machine, I had to use Regedit to remove all mention of it, and then Everything to track down every last directory entry; when it uninstalled it left fully functional subsections set to load on startup.

Replies: Dinsdale Vincent Berg

Dinsdale 🚫

@JohnBobMead

Avira provide a downloadable program to do that. I had an update go wrong and the only way out was to completely remove the product and reinstall.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@JohnBobMead

In order to totally clear Avira off of my machine, I had to use Regedit to remove all mention of it, and then Everything to track down every last directory entry; when it uninstalled it left fully functional subsections set to load on startup.

In my case, the only remaining vestage in when I use Firefox to access certain sites, and then the deleted software posts a message warning me about the website. Only I'm unsure whether it's FireFox with the wrong settings, which I haven't located, or Malwarebytes. One or the other seems to have been compromised by the program and simply won't let it go. Fortunately, the warnings rarely show up, so I never feel forced to dig too deeply for the source of the trouble.

They don't seem to be terribly concerned with truly dangerous sites, but with certain shared sites which they don't feel are secure enough to allow anyone into (which is another reason I don't trust the software in the first place, as their warnings seem to be completely random and arbitrary).

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Forum: Author Hangout

White Smoke

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