No more TDS?

So now "they" have abandoned TDS and I feel disenfranchised. I bought a licensed copy, I spent my hard earned money and then they just dump it? I don't understand... TDS to this day still comes in handy for me. It still finds stuff my other scanners don't. Is there another product out there that does the same job(s) as TDS? Can anyone recommend any products? I had no idea they stopped supporting TDS until recently when I noticed that I was not getting any new TDS updates. I have no idea they stopped updating either. From what I have been able to find out, it' seems TDS has been abandoned for like 4 months already? Possibly longer? Sigh... Is there any product out there that I can use that will help me fight off the scum on the net?

Thanks in advance.

 

TDS was discontinued for many good reasons, mainly because it was in the best interests of all of our customers but there were a lot of reasons. See http://tds.diamondcs.com.au for more information, including how to obtain a free license to your choice of either ProcessGuard or Port Explorer.

There haven't been any updates since the discontinuation, but that was half-way through last year. Please note that only the database updates were discontinued - you're free to keep on using the program and all of its tools, as well as the last database that was released.

Best regards,
Wayne

 

Based on buying a lifetime subscription to Ewido....

.....them boys at Ewido better not pull a TDS on us.

...although I don't think Fish would let that happen.

 

Please define "lifetime subscription"? Software rarely lasts more than a decade, and certain types of software - security software in particular - must evolve with the times, just as businesses must change and evolve with the times. Sometimes that involves making big decisions, but if that's in the best long-term interests of customers then companies shouldn't be afraid to make those decisions. Things have changed a lot since the 90s, and being an anti-trojan developer myself who has been around since the very first days of the trojan vs anti-trojan battles (TDS was one of the first ever anti-trojan systems) I've been able to see this first-hand since the start. Discontinuing TDS was not an easy decision to make, but now we are free to develop so much more than just one program, and ultimately it will be our customers who will benefit from that which was why this decision was made - we're not just here for the short-term - I was the first developer at these forums, and my company DiamondCS was registered in 1986, so the decisions I make are not just for today and tomorrow. This decision will make more and more sense as time goes by
Best regards,
Wayne

 

Wayne, thanks for your reply.

I think one of the Ewido guys defined it as good for "life" based on the 1st death of one of the entities -- you (the user), them (the company), or it (the software).

Just as long as the death of the "them" or the "it" does not happen prematurely, that is OK. If the "lifetime" meant 10 years, I'd be pretty happy with that.

No doubt that times change, and business models have to change too. No doubt that business is business -- there to provide a product or service and make a profit...and decisions have to be made based on that.

It seems that many TDS customers believe that having TDS was to their benefit. And that is a great testament to your product. But in the end, the business decision had to be made that is in the best interests of the business.
And apparently, that happened with TDS. No issue there.

But in the case of buying a "lifetime membership"..... and if the product was discontinued in a few years..... I would have an issue with that. So when I say I don't want Ewido to "TDS" me, all I'm saying is that I don't want them to decide to abandon the product for any reason for quite awhile (subjective term -- I know).

I look forward to seeing what you guys come out with. And I thank you for your participation in this forum.


Very Respectfully,

Frank the Perv

 

TDS was started in approx 1996/1997 - it was one of the very first anti-trojan scanners (in the first three), making it about 8 or 9 years old at the time of its discontinuation. It was started when the very first remote access trojans for Windows were coming out ... (Back Orifice, NetBus, Acid Shivers, Sokets de Troie etc), at a time when anti-virus scanners weren't detecting them as well as they should've been - this has since changed.

On top of that, TDS wasn't a conventional release-and-forget program, which made it a lot harder to maintain ... during those years we provided free daily database updates (we were the first anti-trojan company to do this) as well as free software updates, even to people who only ever bought TDS-1 back all those years ago - I never charged for yearly updates or anything like that. All programs have a limited lifespan unfortunately, and it is important to the developer for the sake of his customers to realise when that time has come, and from my personal knowledge of anti-trojan systems I firmly believe that time has definately come. It was still making money for us so from a financial point of view some may say I was crazy to discontinue it, but it simply was not in the best long-term interests of my customers - this one program was not only preventing us from releasing updates to our existing programs but also preventing us from creating and releasing new programs, and our software is the reason why we're here so for our customers sake we cannot afford to be tied down to one program.

Now that I'm free from the shackles of daily TDS development I'm in a position to develop more software. I've already been able to get a new release of Port Explorer and ProcessGuard out, and I've also got one new program which is mostly finished and almost ready for beta testing, although I can't say any more for now about that, but all will be revealed soon ...

Best regards,
Wayne

 

No disrespect intended and without going over old ground,but im sure many TDS3 users would have paid a yearly subscription for updates ,therefore maybe easing the burden of supporting daily updates for a small company,possibly with extra staff...but were never given the opportunity to do so.Also many other antitrojans "seem" to be carying on, updating etc ,quite well , and have not gone down the road of TDS3.Im sure you checked your bank figures with incoming and outgoing ,and decided that TDS3 was not commercially viable,rather than "not being in the long term interests" of the customer,which is what any commercial company would do.Personally i think TDS3 should have evolved rather than be discontinued in the fashion that it was.Im sure many present and future customers would have supported it financially through yearly subscriptions ,which is the norm these days.
ellison

 

Good decision to discontinue and move to far better software like processguard - being one step ahead that way.

 

Lets not turn this into another TDS war.

For antitrojan software, BO Clean, Ewido, and Trojan Hunter are all supposed to be very good. Antiviruses like Kaspersky apparently also very good trojon protection. You can use HIPS to try and beat trojans too (programs like Process Guard, jetico personall firewall, Core Force, etc).

 

Nothing wrong with discontinuing and i believe commercally it probably was a good desicion , however the fashion in which it was done was wrong (imo).Im sure if youd bought TDS3 with an all inclusive "upgrades" policy ,then have it discontinued after a few weeks (of which im not one of them by the way) , you,d have enough to say about it.Im sorry but "its in the best interests of our customers" just doesnt cut it with me.Phasing it out over a minimum of 3 months would have been more in the customers interest ,than pulling the rug from under every tds3 users feet.Still its all water under the bridge , and i wish wayne and DCS all the very best.I just hope that if they need to "serve the customer interest " by discontinuing a product again, it wont be done the same way as TDS3, and there will be advance warning the next time.
ellison

 

Let's get into this over and over again. TDS3 was discontinued and that's that. The OP asked a question about which At is the best to use (I summed it up a little). I think Trojan Hunter is pretty good but you can't go wrong with Ewido. The downfall for Trojan Hunter is that it fines a few FP's. Another downfall (which isn't TH's fault) is that when updating, McAfee flags the updates. Ewido on the other hand find some spyware cookies (I know but it's a simple way to express these kinds of cookies) that other program can't find. Try them both.

 

PestPatrol does not get much attention on this board, but I like the way if updates frequently, and it seems to find things that Ewido & McAfee miss.

 

Pest Patrol, is not a bad Anti Malware program
but the one negative thing it has, is it's False Positives.

But if you are able to determine what is a False Positive or not.
I is very nice program and i have seen it find a lot of REAL malware that others (great names) didn't.

but it is not in my personal top 5

 

I wouldn't put Pest Patrol up there with an anti torjan program. IMHO it's not an anti trojan program. Note on their web site they call it an anti spyware program not an anti trojan program. That's why no one said anything about Pest Patrol. If you ask my Pest Patrol is a litytle to much for people. Too many false positves. Again, this is MHO.

 

i can agree with the above.

The best replacements for TDS for me are NOD32, Ewido, A2 (squared)
and tools like Online Armor , ShadowUser etc.

But i really hope to see a new prog of Diamondcs this year though,
and not only a new version of an current release.

What i find surprising is that there was no other way to continue
TDS , there are some companies that could really use something
like that in their new Security Suites.
Where there no other parties interrested, was the code too
Company Confidential? Or was it to old fashioned?

Lots of software do make a new start, like Kerio etc.

I always thought this could happen with TDS too,
a new gui , a new owner etc.

 

Wayne - DiamondCS guy, well I did as you told me, I requested my free license of process guard on the day you posted. (Jan 20th) 2 emails later and Wilders Security/Diamond has yet to reply or respond to me. I followed the instructions given at http://tds.diamondcs.com.au/

But no one responded to me. So what do I do now?

 

Newbster,

Since you mention e-mails, I would suggest a direct private message (PM) to Wayne via this site if you haven't pursued that yet as well.

Well, this is a matter that has to be handled by DiamondCS, not Wilders, they are completely separate entities. However, as I mentioned previously, use this sites PM facility to make direct contact with Wayne to get your situation sorted out.

Best of luck,

Blue

 

BlueZannetti, Will do, thank you

 

That's a handy non-link for know-nothing customers who have only just noticed their TDS3 isn't giving them the protection they thought it was (not me . . . I've just had a call from a user saying "how did I get this Trojan when I'm using that wonderful DCS software you recommended?").

Did you actually tell these people, or are they expected to be hanging off your website and here every week to see what you're doing?

I can't believe you've erased all reference to TDS3, and redirected the tds.diamondcs.com.au link to your "It never existed!" web site. I can't believe I had so much trouble even finding out where TDS3 had disappeared to!

 

While I should just let a dead dog lie....what lack of protection are you referring to

 

Without going into my jaded past with DiamondCS, I will just say that the demise of their primary product comes as no surprise to me. A welcome surprise for many I am sure.

That is all.

 

What exactly was this TDS that some here speak of?

 

How soon We forget

 

time to use the search function for the first time apparently Frank the Perv... ... apparently you didn't lived the good ol' days

/edit : the fact this question raises again .. it is rather sad imho ...

 

Nice piece of research Bubba.

Yes, my statement was (big time) tongue-in-cheek.

Quite frankly, I'm worried that the "lifetime pass" I purchased from Ewido with go down the TDS path of oblivion.