Don't use Fast Connect!!

olasek

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olasek
Just a friendly warning - don't use the Fast Connect product from White Sky which often is a free download. It advertises itself as a login/username/password protector and organizer but in fact is a nasty TROJAN. I got sucked into using it since it was recommended by Comcast, I started having RAM issues plus constant ads popups appearing in the middle of screen. When you call White Sky tech support and ask them how to remove/disable all the popups they would try to sell you $350 worth of PC "tune-ups" claiming your PC was totally infested with malware, etc., yeah it was infested with their product. Comcast forums were filled with similar complaints, Comcast stopped recommending the product. Anyway, after uninstalling Fast Connect my life returned to normal :yes:
 
Yeah, I get the same result every time a MacAfee or Symantec product gets on a computer.
 
I don't deny you had a problem but, to be fair, I can't find anything about Fast Connect that shows it is associated with viruses, malware, or crapware. I'm afraid you've fallen for a recent scheme that prays on people downloading software from the web. It's a well-known problem and we have clients fall for it every day. You go to download some popular software and are presented with a screen that has numerous misleading "download" buttons. Or they have a download program that also downloads several other unsavory programs. Or the install program for the legitimate sofware you want also has a "wrapper" containing several program you don't want.

When I Google "download Fast Connect" I find several of the results are really bogus websites with misleading download buttons and wrappers galore. Google is aware of their part in this problem and are working to eliminate the scum from the search results.
Check this article:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DownloadWrappersAndUnwantedSoftwareArePureEvil.aspx

Be very careful where you download your software, and use the author's site if possible. Even legitimate download sites are now dangerous, as they accept advertising that is designed to look like legitimate download buttons.
 
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FastConnect itself is ad-supported. I don't know how much resources its ad serving consumes versus the download wrapper mentioned by Tim, but I also suspect that the wrapper was the primary culprit. Generating a banner in its own interface really shouldn't have any noticeable effect.

That being said, I've never used it, so I'm really just speculating. Except for GPL and other truly FOSS stuff, I avoid freeware in general.

Rich
 
I can't find anything about Fast Connect that shows it is associated with viruses, malware, or crapware.
You have to do more search, read Comcast tech support forums, etc. Yes, it is associated with unwanted adwares, yes it is a total crap, it displays banner over the stuff you want to read and when you try to disable them (there is an option for that), the stuff reappears within hours even though disabling should be good for a week. No, there were no other 'options' to install the product (I downloaded from my account at Comcast) and I did not inadvertently install stuff I did not want. And Comcast tech support people officially now recommend to uninstall the product and Comcast severed all ties with the company. On Microsoft support forums this product was labeled Trojan by some. By the way - just go ahead and install it. But forget the product itself - the biggest fraud is their tech support, I mean White Sky's tech support.

Buy the way here is a snippet what they write:


Uninstall Fast Connect.

It bills itself as a "security" program. It is not a "security" program.

A reputable security program would not bombard you with ads popping up in the taskbar telling you your computer is slow.

It would not install adware. It will not hijack your browser search.

Fast Connect installs Visual Shopper which is adware.

There is no opt out to prevent your browser search from being hijacked.

I fired up the sacrificial lamb computer and installed Fast Connect on it.

Did not take long for the pop up to tell me my computer may slow. (my computer is NOT slow)

I had a suspicion the scan would be done, results listed and then be told "fix issues with System Mechanic".

I was right. If you want System Mechanic to fix it you have to buy System Mechanic.

iolo is a purveyor of "scareware". They want you run the scan, panic when you see the results and purchase System Mechanic, which to me and others is nothing more than snake oil. Some of the "problems" are not anything that should cause concern.

Anything System Mechanic can do can also be done by using built in Windows tools or other REPUTABLE 3rd party programs.

You might find this page informative http://www.whitesky.com/monetization.html
It clearly shows that they provide a way for a company to target you with ads.

Connect Safe Search provides filtering and ratings of URLs prior to customers visiting the site. Your customers can now easily avoid potentially dangerous sites.

I suspect that they give priority to those who use the service when filtering URL's and that some of the "potentially dangerous sites" are labeled that because they are competition for whoever is using it to generate business.

This is the confirmation I need that Fast Connect is a scam disguised as a "security" program.
 
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Just because you see stuff in forums, don't believe all that you read. Idiots abound. Many, many legitimate programs have been accused of having malware when the real problem was misleading download buttons or wrappers. It got so bad for VLC, a popular media player, that Google created a special results item that appears at the top of searches. PCMag did a very recent review and did not mention virus/malware, but did mention it contained ads.
Google "vlc malware" and see what it did to them. or malware and almost any legitimate popular downloadable program.
 
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Just because you see stuff in forums, don't believe all that you read. Idiots abound.
I don't have to read it, I experienced it. There are even more idiots who try to defend indefensible :mad2:
 
Yeah, I get the same result every time a MacAfee or Symantec product gets on a computer.
:rofl::rofl::rofl:


I paid a little for a product called Dashlane. It stores all your login info and will create "strong" passwords for you, keep all your info updated across platforms. And, it is supposedly user point encrypted, which means that no one else should have access to it.

So far, all I've heard about it is good. The only negative I have is that now, I'm so used to being automatically logged on to all my various accounts and such, when the auto login function doesn't work occasionally, I have to look up my username and password. Its not a real problem, just a minor annoyance.
 
Dashlane, LastPass, and Keepass are all very good and respected products. Of course, there is something creepy about having all your passwords out there on the cloud, somewhere. Certainly no worse that many people I know, who keep them in a spreadsheet, titled "passwords", on dropbox. I happen to use LastPass, but that relationship was rocked, recently, when they were hacked.
 
Dashlane, LastPass, and Keepass are all very good and respected products. Of course, there is something creepy about having all your passwords out there on the cloud, somewhere. Certainly no worse that many people I know, who keep them in a spreadsheet, titled "passwords", on dropbox. I happen to use LastPass, but that relationship was rocked, recently, when they were hacked.

That's what bothers me about these services. They're gold mines for miscreants.

Rich
 
I paid a little for a product called Dashlane.
Dashlane and LastPass are typically cited as very good examples how login/password security should be done, they are on the very opposite spectrum to Fast Connect. But I am using Symantec since it came free and I am a happy camper.
 
I will vote lastpass. They are a juicy target and my read is that they were hacked but everything that was taken was well encrypted. And they forced users to update their own master password pretty much negating the stolen data. But if you want extra security grab Google authenticator and add that to your lastpass login. I wish more sites had that for multi factor authentication.
 
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