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Immunet Protect - Cloud Based Anti-Malware
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Introduction
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| Immunet is a relatively new developer of security software which was set up by a small team of industry veterans in 2008. The company objective is to develop a solution more capable of dealing with new and emerging threats than the established traditional alternatives. |
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Discussion
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So, how is this project evolving? Well, already it has two important features. First off there's a free version, and second it's designed to run in tandem with another product thus satisfying those folks who like layered solutions or just insist on running more than one program of the same type.
As a cloud based solution, Immunet Protect focusses on Community Based Protection using Collective Intelligence. There are other players in this field too, such as Panda Cloud, and the numbers are growing as more vendors recognize the need to place less reliance on traditional signature based scanners. Immunet calls their own solution "Collective Immunity".
The program has just evolved into V2.0 and there are still a few bugs to iron out. The devs are actively working to support other programs and details of which are supported officially and unofficially are listed here. Bill Pytlovany, author of the famous WinPatrol is one of many people providing feedback.
"I've been trying Immunet along with my WinPatrol and while I'm sure there is some redundancy I haven't found any problems or performance issues".
Installation was quick and easy after only a 3.5MB download. The program recommends a "flash scan" after install, but requires no reboot. The interface is neat and tidy with no confusing detail.
 The default "summary" window shows the "active" status of your protection, details of the cloud community and how many programs you've installed during the past two weeks. It also shows if a supported program is installed, and recognized my Avira 10 straight away. Be aware that the program connects to the internet using ports 53, 80 and 32137 outbound and requires the same for the return trip. Please check your firewall logs/settings if your Immunet GUI shows as "inactive". A back trace of the IP address using port 32137 will reveal Amazon.com who host this service.
  The settings window offers a range of choices for protection modules, each one with mouse-over information in the adjacent panel.
 There are two options for scanning and with both enabled on my XPSP3 system this took less than three minutes.
 Finally, the history window shows details of what was installed, the date, file path and which program was responsible (click each item to activate the information panel) This even recorded my Avira updates, and the period can be customized.
 Popup alert window:
 Conclusion:
Immunet Protect has now progressed to the stage where it makes an ideal complimentary tool for your existing setup. The developers are actively engaged with their community and respond quickly to suggestions and comments about the product. Some thought has also been put into the forum layout which is easy to use and navigate. More features are planned for inclusion in the coming releases, so expect it's effectiveness to improve further. Immunet Protect website
Immunet community forum for feedback and comments
Immunet FAQ and download page.
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Related Products and Links
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| Please see JonathanT's Best Free Antivirus Software article here for information about which front line program you might like to partner Immunet Protect with. |
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Comments
Tried Immunet Protect yesterday for both my office and home and here are my experiences:
1. A noticeable slowness on my PC especially on my web browsers (Mozilla and Chrome) after installation. Tried to observe it for a couple of hours and reboot my pc many times hoping it will go back to normal but still the situation didn't change.
Conclusion: In contrary to what the marketing slogans says in their website that it won't slow down your PC because of its small imprint, well it does slow down my PC considerably at least in my own experience.
3. Cloud scanning won't work in my office PC because it cannot detect my internet connection which my internet is working just fine, don't know if the port use by Immunet is blocked or it simply will not work under proxy set-up.
2. It crash my Peerblock cache database and repeatedly shows error messages just after I've installed Immunet. As mentioned in the article, Amazon host the Immunet service as it was detected and blocked (anti-p2p) by Peerblock before crashing (I think that's where the conflict starts with respect to Immunet and Peerblock).
Conclusion: I'm happy in what Peerblock is doing in my PC and not with Immunet so the latter will definitely go.
Sorry for my bad English.
The issues you describe including compatibility with other programs and system requirements are all detailed in the Immunet support section.
Thanks, but how about the considerable slowness of my web browser and PC(?)
This could be due to a number of things not least your hardware specs, other installed programs and how you might have them configured.
Just to let everyone know. I've been running Immunet alongside Comodo Internet Security without any problems.
Thanks for the input.
According to information on the immunet support site, the requirements include having IE 7 or 8 (with IE6 mentioned but not recommended) plus an OS of XP SP3 or later. These, IMHO, are limitations that should be included in any overall description of immunet. To show that I am quoting an immunet source, the url is:
http://support.immunet.com/tiki-read_article.php?article=4
There may be later info somewhere that contradicts the above and if so, I stand corrected as I have not found it yet. But if I am not up-to-date, I would certainly appreciate knowing about it. Because, deep down, I feel that there is some great potential with this software and its approach. I particularly like the quick responses from the Immunet rep.
Immunet, Immunet, Immunet,....Why is everybody gone nuts on a program that is, well, inferior at best......??? I tried Immunet, when it was in Beta, and afterward, and it let several things through, which were caught by other, more reliable security in my arsenal. I have seen controlled tests in which single-day threats were thrown at Immunet, and it didn't do TOO badly, but, still, a lot of nasties slipped through. It only takes one threat to shut down your P.C. If you want a true cloud computing Antivirus-Antimalware, that runs several well-known antivirus-antimalware engines, and is more unshakable than Immunet, then why not try Hitman Pro? Or, for that matter, Panda Cloud AV? I think Alfred Huger, and the the marketing dept. at Immunet has thrown everybody a lemon, and to their eventual dismay, they will find that they caught the lemon, along with some other "goodies" for their P.C.'s.........!!
This is quire a late reply to this comment but I think it's necessary. All security programs started small. AVG started as a simple scanner. Each component was available as a separate program from different companies. Over time, they combined into one cooperative program but different companies independently developed each component. Eventually they have become the powerful security suite we see today. Many antivirus solutions including a few you mentioned used Norton's AV engine and signature database until development went far enough for them to step out on their own. If we would strike down every new product that enters the market because in its youth it is still not perfect, there would be NO antivirus program available today whatsoever. For that matter there would be no Windows, Linux, MAC, Unix, or any other working operating system for that matter.
Immunet Protect is still a young product and it's still learning and growing. Mr. Huger has given a potentially very good product and is dedicated to its development to make it a solid contender for security one day. I have tested Immunet Protect on several systems and I have found it has about a 92% accurate detection rate from my testing. At least one of the products you named in your comment scored at 80%, and another tied for detection rate.
Immunet Protect is not a perfect product, but I would urge readers to give it a try. By participating, you will be helping to contribute to its development. Zone Alarm users should ignore the invitation as Immunet is not yet compatible with Zone Alarm products.
Hi,i'm using immunet with avast and zonealarm all so have superantispyware and malwarebytes for occasional use.immunet is doing a fine job no one program catches everything.immunet does not slow down my computer at all.I go for layered protection route as recommended by immunet them selves.would recommend immunet to anyone for layered protection im very happy with immunet.
Please note. Posted by Al Huger in the Immunet forum:
"Now that our release is out, we've had a moment to sit back and reflect on the feedback we've gotten from our community. Some of the feedback we received was clear that our implementation of a build with the ASK toolbar gave some people a degree of discomfort.
As a result we've released a new build - Version 2.0.11.4. This new build fixes some outstanding UI issues and completely removes the ASK toolbar. In the next couple of weeks we'll discuss this issue with our Community to review our next steps"
The power of the community speaks and it's great to actually find a vendor who listens.
That is a very welcome move indeed. Kudos to Immunet for taking this decision.
Is there any benefit to using Immunet if I am not always online? Is it even functional, being a cloud app, if I am not always connected to the Internet? Finally is the new free version able to remove malware or just detect it? Thanks!
It does have some functionality when not connected but this is limited.
To be honest, if there are periods when you are offline then your standard AV plus a couple of extra scanners like HitmanPro and Malwarebytes is a better way to go. Please check out WinPatrol too which is an excellent program, even if you already have a HIPS component in the firewall you use.
The free version of Immunet does have quarantine and removal capabilities but there are still a few bugs to be ironed out in this area.
Is it even safe or ok to leave a laptop always on or online? As a newbie I am not sure if it will overheat of perhaps the hard drive may get too hot.. Thanks
Laptops often have cooling issues and these vary between make and model. Whether or not it is left connected to the internet won't affect this issue overall. If you have a concern, first install Speedfan.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/SpeedFan.shtml
After your PC has been running for a while in normal use, and make a note of temperatures recorded for your CPU (processor) and hard drive. Speedfan now recognizes a wide range of motherboard sensors but you could still get a wrong result so a little care is needed. You should then consult the user guide which came with your laptop to see if these temperatures are within the recommended range. If this information is not included in your user guide you can try Googling something like "XYZ laptop operating temperature" to see if anything is online, possibly in one of the forums. Don't forget to look for your specific model number which have very different characteristics to others from the same manufacturer.
If you do identify a problem then you will need to consult a qualified technician to help you. Although the options for additional cooling in laptops are no where near as many as for desktop PC's they do exist. Use a recommended service agent though to avoid being sold something which isn't the right solution for the job, or which you might not need at all.
The new versions of Immunet Protect invite the installer to load an "Ask Toolbar". You can untick this option during installation - but it seems not to make any difference. I have found it insalled on my PC on the original instal and, after I erased it, on the update.
It seems to me that if you are setting out your store to protect people's PCs the very last think you should do is add unwanted items in the background!
I've tested this twice on my own computer and neither time was Ask installed. There was a bug in an earlier beta version which allowed this to happen but this was fixed. "Standard install" needs unchecking too as this also refers to the Ask toolbar.
This is where a program like WinPatrol comes into it's own because you can always stop it setting connection permissions with this in the event of an error during install and then remove it with Revo. I also tried this by allowing the Ask installer and although Revo took it out I still received an alert from WinPatrol later for the Ask updater. Presumably, without killing this as well it would have reinstalled itself at the first opportunity. I manually deleted the registry entries for this and now all is quiet.
How do Prevx and Immunet compare in reliability, detection rates and general protection?
We don't discuss commercial software here. Prevx is a commercial product with a highly restricted "free" option. As such no real comparison can be made.
I am not certain why there can be no comparison between Prevx and Immunet if "commercial product" is the only justification. I can say with confidence that they are both trying to make money and they both have a free product. So, based on the above, it would follow that we either mention neither or mention both.
Sorry-I forgot Prevx is a paid product.Is the latest version of Immunet ready at this time for "safe" use or are there still bugs to be worked out?
Don't get me wrong, the free version of Prevx does have a use but it's designed purely to get folks to "upgrade" to the paid version and the free one does a lot less that what most users believe it to.
Immunet will be releasing a public beta of their latest version shortly so it might be best to wait for this as it will have more features. They do plan a paid version too but the free one will be fully functional and still coexist with most other programs so you could run it with say Avira quite happily. As a program still in development, I would not yet rely on it as a total solution, especially while still in beta. The benefits of running it alongside another program though are well worth having. This will give you a chance to see what it's capable of and whether or not you want to include it permanently in your security setup.
Really good article! Congratulations Chief!
Mony xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Can or should this be run with Avast 5 and Superantispyware both in real time? Are there any programs that are known at this time to conflict with Immunet?
It's actually wise to keep track of this thread in their forum because as a product in development, new data is being posted all the time. Currently there are several users running Immunet alongside Avast!5 without any problems. SAS on the other hand for anything other than an on demand scanner is not so popular and I've not been able to find anything about this one.
http://community.immunet.com/immunet/topics/what_security_software_do_yo...
Thanks MC.You mention SAS not being so popular. I am surprised as I thought this was one of the better antispyware programs. (Yeah, I know I am referring to PAID on THIS forum-Sorry!) Is this due to low detection rates and removal difficulties or for another reason? Can you recommend an alternative antispyware?
This is quite a contentious area because IMO a lot of folks overestimate their need for having a separate spyware program.
As most spyware is designed first to record something and then transmit it somewhere else, installing a good firewall with anti-keylogging capabilities like Online Armor or Privatefirewall would be one defense layer. Also, because of the cross-category nature of much of today's malware most antivirus solutions like Avira also contain an element of spyware protection. Immunet Protect warns you about any programs/dll's loading and will work very happily alongside Avira as another layer of defense. It's history file also records which program was responsible for installing it and when which is very useful if you're attempting to track stuff after the event. If you really are in a high risk group for this kind of stuff then from my own research I would suggest that Spyware Doctor still retains the edge for detecting and removing infections but I guess 99% of the population have no need to shell out money for this kind of program. I stress that this assumption is based on third party research and not attempts on my part to infect a machine and then count the results.
Having recently reverted back to XP from Windows 7, I'm currently using Sygate, Avira, Comodo Memory Firewall, PeerBlock, Immunet Protect and WinPatrol. I also run Secunia and keep Malwarebytes and HitmanPro as on demand scanners. Despite the long list, the only one which makes me work occasionally is PeerBlock but I can live with this for the extra peace of mind it provides.
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