Malwarebytes Tray Application

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12 minutes ago, exile360 said:

I don't know of any VPN extensions for Chrome, however Malwarebytes offers Malwarebytes Privacy and they have a free trial so that you can test it out to see if it meets your needs.  I honestly can't recommend any of the free VPNs I know of as they all come at the cost of either privacy (which defeats the purpose in my opinion, since avoiding being tracked online is probably why you want a VPN to begin with), having to see constant advertisements (i.e. ad supported VPNs; pretty much the most common case for any of the 'free' VPNs I know of), or both (i.e. both tracking and advertising).

Thanks for your reply.  Since posting my message, I did find the following...let me know your thoughts on these 3 free VPNs....

Get Unlimited Free VPN on Google Chrome | Best 3 Extensions (2020)

 

[exile360]

I can't make a recommendation as I have no experience with them, however I would advise at least reading each of their privacy policies thoroughly to ensure that you are comfortable with their data handling practices:

The first two are both from the same company (sadly, there has been a LOT of consolidation in the VPN space recently, so there are far fewer unique/separate VPN providers than there once were as all the major ones belong to a handful of companies, so if that company isn't trustworthy, you might as well disregard any VPN offered by them or any of their subsidiaries):

https://www.pango.co/privacy/

https://veepn.com/privacy-policy/

I didn't post active links in order to prevent any SEO.

[AdvancedSetup]

If you do a bit of research I think you will find that most of the free ones have been implicated in various levels of non privacy activity. Some include selling your data others have been breached and data about users stolen.

Though there is some great free open source software out there the majority of software that is free and advertising is often going to come with it's own baggage

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1 minute ago, AdvancedSetup said:

If you do a bit of research I think you will find that most of the free ones have been implicated in various levels of non privacy activity. Some include selling your data others have been breached and data about users stolen.

Though there is some great free open source software out there the majority of software that is free and advertising is often going to come with it's own baggage

 

10 hours ago, exile360 said:

I can't make a recommendation as I have no experience with them, however I would advise at least reading each of their privacy policies thoroughly to ensure that you are comfortable with their data handling practices:

The first two are both from the same company (sadly, there has been a LOT of consolidation in the VPN space recently, so there are far fewer unique/separate VPN providers than there once were as all the major ones belong to a handful of companies, so if that company isn't trustworthy, you might as well disregard any VPN offered by them or any of their subsidiaries):

 

https://www.pango.co/privacy/

 

 

https://veepn.com/privacy-policy/

 

I didn't post active links in order to prevent any SEO.

Thanks to both of you for your help.  I did try one of the freebies, and it conflicted with Youtube, so I removed it immediately.

[exile360]

Yes, unfortunately, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and most other major streaming/video services try to block VPNs in order to prevent users from being able to view content that is restricted/blocked/unavailable where they live.

[AdvancedSetup]

Not free, but one of the best for bypassing the Netflix guards. I've used several VPN over the years and CyberGhost consistently was able to bypass and work with Netflix in 9 out of 10 connections. Most of the others simply either did not work or you had to try several times to get it to work.

Unfortunately there is some controversy over them selling to other investors that have been known to support Ad revenue streams. No proof I'm aware of though that CyberGhost has enabled or is using any such practices at this time.

 

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1 hour ago, AdvancedSetup said:

Not free, but one of the best for bypassing the Netflix guards. I've used several VPN over the years and CyberGhost consistently was able to bypass and work with Netflix in 9 out of 10 connections. Most of the others simply either did not work or you had to try several times to get it to work.

Unfortunately there is some controversy over them selling to other investors that have been known to support Ad revenue streams. No proof I'm aware of though that CyberGhost has enabled or is using any such practices at this time.

 

The interesting thing is, after deleting the extension, I was still unable to view YouTube videos.  I had to do a hard reboot to get Yahoo to work again.  So, the freebie leftd its mark even after it was banished from my browser.

[exile360]

This is typical; it is likely due to DNS caching in Windows.  It's not the fault of the VPN or browser extension; it is the fault of either Windows or your browser not refreshing your connection settings, resulting in Netflix still seeing the same banned IP/service.  Flushing the DNS cache should fix it, or of course restarting your system as that too will typically force your connection to reset/reconnect.

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10 hours ago, AdvancedSetup said:

Not free, but one of the best for bypassing the Netflix guards. I've used several VPN over the years and CyberGhost consistently was able to bypass and work with Netflix in 9 out of 10 connections. Most of the others simply either did not work or you had to try several times to get it to work.

Unfortunately there is some controversy over them selling to other investors that have been known to support Ad revenue streams. No proof I'm aware of though that CyberGhost has enabled or is using any such practices at this time.

 

I'll have to give it a try.  Thanks for the suggestion. 

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Well, the problems continue.  The free Malwarebytes trial expired yesterday.  Now, I cannot get Malwarebytes Free to launch no matter how I try.   I blame myself and my bad luck.   The problems never stop.   

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I forgot to add, I reinstalled Malwarebytes to give it one more try.  I liked the program, and I wanted it to work as an online second defense.  Alas, it has not. 

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11 minutes ago, Dubble_D said:

Well, the problems continue.  The free Malwarebytes trial expired yesterday.  Now, I cannot get Malwarebytes Free to launch no matter how I try.   I blame myself and my bad luck.   The problems never stop.   

Well, after some additional troubleshooting, I was able to get Malwarebytes to launch.  I first had to remove the Malwarebytes icon from the taskbar, and then I could launch the program from the start menu.  I then re-added the Malwarebytes icon back to the taskbar, and now the program launches from there as well.  

[exile360]

Thank you for the update, please let us know if you have any further trouble.

Thanks

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Well, I had another bad computer day with several lock ups, doggy performance, and resources maxed out.  The only change in my computer usage has been the addition of Malwarebytes.  FYI I have a 2015 Toshiba Satellite, which I would probably upgrade if it wasn't running so well. I removed Malwarebytes for a 2nd time, and the TS performance has improved and returned back to pre-Malwarebytes levels.

That's not to say that Malwarebytes is a bad program.  I'm sure it works well for most all users.  It just did not work this time on my antiquated system.  

Thanks again to all for your invaluable assistance, and the invaluable ad blocker recommendations. Cheers!

DD

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes, sadly the Toshiba Satellite brand was never quite a performance hit even brand new. I had one way back years ago brand new but within a couple years it was already too slow to run modern updated applications for me. I ended up giving it away to a friend that had no computer.

 

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7 hours ago, AdvancedSetup said:

Yes, sadly the Toshiba Satellite brand was never quite a performance hit even brand new. I had one way back years ago brand new but within a couple years it was already too slow to run modern updated applications for me. I ended up giving it away to a friend that had no computer.

 

Indeed! I'm well aware of TSs reputation.   The interesting thing is, I've had great luck and success with the TS, as long as I don't o'"overburden" it, if you know what I mean ;).