If I am going to buy Avast! IS or Sandboxie, which should I choose?

[Mo0nwalker]

avast! Internet Security 6 costs 49,99 dollars while Sandboxie costs 40,05 dollars.
 
Which one would you say I prefer? And is it a lifetime license or not? Since the Sandboxie offers lifetime lincense.
 
Your opinions please

[vecchio]

My opinion is to buy ais
Its a spetacular product
And ais have sandbox
Its not a lifetime product but its a cheap product

[Mo0nwalker]

How long does Avast! 6 IS license last?

[DavidR]

The AIS cost is for up to 3 systems, I don't know what sandboxie is. So if you have more than one system it will possibly work out cheaper.

But in all honesty you can't compare the two on price as they are completely different applications and AIS offer more functionality/security and it included the full sandbox function in the avast Pro that is part of the AIS package.

The AIS license is for a year, you can increase the duration (2 or 3 years) and that should also slightly reduce the cost per item per year.

[Mo0nwalker]

I see, thanks for the reply

[Nesivos]

It is helpful to understand what sandbox is and what it isn't and what is the best way to help protect your computer.

The Sandbox concept one of isolation.   It essentially isolates those items in the sandbox from outside attacks and keeps what ever bad stuff is in the sandbox out of the rest of your system.

Avast AIS has four tools along these lines that help protect your computer from attacks by malicious software.

1.  Sandbox which basically does as I described above
2.  Auto-sandbox which selectively warns and sandboxes what it deems to be questionable executables.
3.  Safe Zone which keeps bad stuff from getting into your computer and spreading
4.  Real-time shields that protect your computer from bad stuff.

Personally I love and use Safe Zone.  It is a great easy to use feature of AIS that allows you to not only serf the Net worry free but also protects you from identify theft and the like.  I also really like auto-sandbox because it knows that my Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office programs etc are safe to run.   AIS real time shields along with real time protection from a program like Malwarebytes or SuperAntispyware(SAS) do an excellent job of protecting your computer from bad stuff on the Net that may occasionally try and get into your computer.  When in doubt about a website one can easily one click into Safe Zone and then use the Chromium browser to go to those questionable websites.

Auto-sandbox protects against malicious executables that one has downloaded and then attempts to run.

I love the combination of AIS along with its Safe Zone and auto-sandbox features used in conjunction with SAS, other prefer Malwarebytes.

I have not yet found a reason to use the regular sandbox feature of AIS.

Sandboxie is overkill that in my opinion is not needed and is more trouble than it is worth.  I much prefer to use the AIS with its real-time shields along with its Safe Zone, auto-sandbox features and either real-time versions of Malwarebyes or SAS.

[Cassy]

The AIS cost is for up to 3 systems, I don't know what sandboxie is.

"The Personal (Home Use) License for Sandboxie... does permit you to use Sandboxie on any number of computers that you personally own;".  In other words, even aside from having a lifetime license, if it's at all likely that you're going to personally own more than three machines, the Sandboxie licensing terms could come out much cheaper.

However, I don't really understand the question.  They are intended as two completely different types of software:  AIS is intended to be a complete security solution (I think), while Sandboxie is a sandboxing program.  On my XP systems, I use a firewall, AV, and a behavior shield in addition to Sandboxie.

I have never tried most of the functions in the newest versions of AIS.  However, my personal experience and my impressions from the support boards of both programs is that Sandboxie is more reliable, and less likely to interact badly with other applications or with OS changes.  The main difference that I noticed is in board support.

On both boards, fellow users do try to be helpful, and often succeed in solving problems, (although there is rare nastiness by fanboys on the Avast board).  On the other hand, if the official Avast support people can't solve your problem very quickly, the may quickly decide that neither you nor your problem are worth their time, even if it turns out that half a dozen other people have the same problem.  You and the half dozen others will just be ignored.  The author of Sandboxie is willing to go the extra mile to help you; after all, his pride is wrapped up in that program.  I once had a problem of which he hand never heard, and couldn't duplicate, on a system apparently almost identical to his development system; even though he couldn't duplicate it, his instinct led him to immediately suggest an easy solution - not a workaround, a real solution - for the problem.

My $0.02.  You can send me the change through PayPal.

C.   

[mokkaman]

why BUY sandboxie? its free and if u use it more than 30 days u need to wait 5 sec before running ur prog sandboxed, thats all!! u can wait few seconds and save money and use it for AIS if u need.

get the free version here

http://www.filehippo.com/download_sandboxie/

[doktornotor]

why BUY sandboxie? its free and if u use it more than 30 days u need to wait 5 sec before running ur prog sandboxed, thats all!!

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FAQ_Licensing

Q. Which features are available in the paid version?
A. Two features:
     •  "Force" programs: Automatically run programs under Sandboxie even when they are not started directly through Sandboxie. Programs can be "forced" by name or by containing folder.
     •  Run programs in more than one sandbox at the same time. This causes error SBIE1303 in the free version.

The first one is very useful (a.k.a. set up Sandboxie in a way that BFUs won't have to deal with sandbox details and yet won't be able to infect the machine by browsing pr0n and warez sites).

[mokkaman]

why BUY sandboxie? its free and if u use it more than 30 days u need to wait 5 sec before running ur prog sandboxed, thats all!!

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FAQ_Licensing

Q. Which features are available in the paid version?
A. Two features:
     •  "Force" programs: Automatically run programs under Sandboxie even when they are not started directly through Sandboxie. Programs can be "forced" by name or by containing folder.
     •  Run programs in more than one sandbox at the same time. This causes error SBIE1303 in the free version.

The first one is very useful (a.k.a. set up Sandboxie in a way that BFUs won't have to deal with sandbox details and yet won't be able to infect the machine by browsing pr0n and warez sites).

But i think 40$ is much more for these TWO features compared to the features provided by AIS

[mokkaman]

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FAQ_Licensing

. Is Sandboxie freeware or shareware?

    A. Sandboxie is shareware software. The free version is missing a few features which are available in the paid version. After 30 days of use, the free version displays reminders to upgrade to the paid version, but remains functional. For personal use, you are encouraged, but not required, to upgrade to the paid version.

[doktornotor]

But i think 40$ is much more for these TWO features compared to the features provided by AIS

As soon as Avast introduces life-time license for unlimited number of computers you personally use, sure... 

After 30 days of use, the free version displays reminders to upgrade to the paid version, but remains functional. For personal use, you are encouraged, but not required, to upgrade to the paid version.

You apparently missed my point. Remaining functional (albeit with the annoying popup) will not add the missing features I've mentioned.

[Cassy]

But i think 40$ is much more for these TWO features

It depends on one's own opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of the two programs, which in turn depend partly on one's personal taste and circumstances.

I decided on the paid Sandboxie plus a free third-party firewall, two free AVs, and a free behavior monitor, instead of the Avast! all-in-one because

1.  I'm underwhelmed both by the reliability of Avast and the attitude of their support people and management, and favorably impressed by both the Sandboxie software and Sandboxie support, and
2.  My setup is much, much cheaper - $40 on unlimited number of personal home machines forever and ever.  I often have two or three machines, but at the moment have four, and could occasionally have five.

I chose the paid version of Sandboxie over the free one because other members of my family use some of the machines sometimes.  If they cannot use SB without enabling it manually each session for each program, they will end up frequently using their software unprotected.  I suppose that I could use scripts to force some programs to run only with Sandboxie, but even the splash screen might annoy them enough to bypass SB.  If you want people to use your security setups without bypassing them, you have to make them convenient.  I could make it difficult to disable a scripted Sandboxie, but I have both practical and symbolic reasons not to do this.

There is no reason why one solution has to be better for everybody, and the other worse for everybody.  Sometimes it's better to leave people with the power of choice.  I just ate a large breakfast every course of which my spouse would find revolting.

T
C

[Lisandro]

I'm underwhelmed both by the reliability of Avast and the attitude of their support people and management

Can you elaborate both things? I mean, the reliability and the attitude?

[Cassy]

I'm underwhelmed both by the reliability of Avast and the attitude of their support people and management

Can you elaborate both things? I mean, the reliability and the attitude?

I'll try to, but until Sunday any responses from me will have to be very disorganized, since I am under some time pressure in the real world until then.  For example, the URLs below may include redundancies; in any case, I believe that the Avast people deleted the original threads from the v. 5 beta board.

The threads below refer to the fact that on a few systems, the gadget which sends email alerts on a detection event works when tested with the "test" button, but not when tested with an EICAR file pseudo-detection, even when a non-SSL SMTP server is used.  This was first reported by me as a problem with the v. 5 beta; I really do need the function.  A member of the Avast! development team simply said that he couldn't reproduce it, and Avast! simply ignored the problem afterwards, even though five or six different people reported it, presumably on varied systems, and Avast! was (is?) still advertising it as a feature.

1.  I don't think that the Avast! developer who said that he couldn't duplicate the problem was trying very hard.  If I saw four or five people on these boards saying that they have the problem, it can't be that rare.  Maybe if he had asked those users some questions he could have found out what their systems had in common, and then he could have duplicated the problem.  However, neither he nor anyone else from Avast! asked anything; they just ignore the problem, because they just don't care.
2.  It's not just a QA and support problem.  When the Avast! tech department sees something like this, and then doesn't even bother responding on the boards (after their original 7 or 8 word non-answer), they're making it clear that they feel contempt for the customer.  The message is clear:  'We won't even bother responding, even though we know that an advertised feature doesn't work on many systems, because you scummy littler customers just aren't worth our time.  We'll get enough $50 purchases from the customers on whose systems that feature does work, or who don't need the feature and never test it.  As for respect for our customers as human beings, or pride in a job well done, are you joking?'

As I said, I don't have time to check the references right now, and the original beta threads were deleted, but these might be relevant:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=67352
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=59054.msg497996#msg497996
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60345

Just in case some of the younger people on this board are curious as to what I mean by pride in doing one's job, they might want to see this famous example:

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090606000131/http://vatel.netfirms.com/  (I had to post the Wayback Machine version, because the original site no longer exists.)

As to the problems with the reliability of the software, I am judging by what I have seen on these boards, in comparison with what I see on other AV and security software boards.  I was testing v. 4 for a while for my own use, and had no major problems myself.

Thanks.
C.