Entered CNET Catalog: 02/17/2007
SKU: CNETSITEADVISORPLUS
Manufacturer: SiteAdvisor Inc.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 02/16/2007
We downloaded and installed SiteAdvisor Plus from the McAfee site, but we had some minor trouble. For example, if you have Firefox running the free SiteAdvisor on the same machine that has Internet Explorer running the paid SiteAdvisor Plus, we found the free version gave inconsistent results. The fact that two editions of SiteAdvisor can't coexist on the same machine struck us as odd. We also found that if you use the native browser within AOL or other branded browsers supplied by subscription services, you will need to open a separate instance of Internet Explorer to see the SiteAdvisor ratings. Other than that, we found SiteAdvisor played well with other antiphishing tools tested, including Linkscanner Pro, the Netcraft toolbar, and the native antiphishing tools within Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. SiteAdvisor does not work with Opera. Because SiteAdvisor blocks access to a suspicious site, it often competed with Internet Explorer 7's own antiphishing protection, which is notoriously slow; in order to compare results, we had to disable SiteAdvisor to let IE7 process a page.
SiteAdvisor Plus has one configuration option, to turn on Protected Mode or not. Protected Mode is a password-enabled feature that automatically blocks access to dangerous sites. McAfee says this feature is designed for multiuser Windows systems--for example, parents blocking dangerous sites for minors--but we'd rather see SiteAdvisor block only the dangerous components on a site rather than block full access to the sites themselves. Should you ever want to remove SiteAdvisor, we found the uninstall process to be quick and clean. After restarting each test browser, we found all traces of SiteAdvisor were removed.
Unlike the Netcraft toolbar, which detects only suspected phishing sites as you access them, SiteAdvisor and Linkscanner Pro both display their safety ratings over your current Google or Yahoo search result page. SiteAdvisor does not work with Microsoft Live.com results. SiteAdvisor Plus also alerts you to suspicious links within e-mail and IM chats, a feature that none of the other secure browsing tools provided. But the heuristics within SiteAdvisor appeared to be off during our tests, a fact confirmed by McAfee. Thus, sites previously rated as clean but that have since been defaced still came up clean.
One defaced Web site, a Massachusetts-based restaurant Web site, is infected with a malicious Trojan. By viewing the source code of the page, we can see the hacker-added iFrame script at the very bottom; in this case the code calls out to a site in Korea known to host malicious code. SiteAdvisor rated the restaurant's site as green, or clean. Another example is a sex site hosted in a foreign country; it hosts--either deliberately or not--a malicious WMF file. With SiteAdvisor (both the paid and free editions) we were able to access both sites, and we were also prompted whether or not we wanted to install the tainted WMF file. Neither the Netcraft toolbar nor the antiphishing protection within Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7 blocked our access to these two sites. Only Linkscanner Pro flagged us, allowing us access to the sites after it had stripped out the malicious content.
But Linkscanner Pro failed to identify most of the suspected phishing sites we visited; here's where the premium SiteAdvisor Plus truly shines. Using 10 sites recently reported to a reputable, independent phish-tracking site, we found that the premium SiteAdvisor Plus identified and blocked access to all 10 sites, tied with the free Netcraft toolbar. Next-best tools were Linkscanner Pro and Firefox 2, each identifying or blocking access to 7 suspected phishing sites; these were followed by Internet Explorer 7 with an abysmal 5. The free edition of McAfee SiteAdvisor gave us inconsistent results over the five days we tested it and was not ranked. In general, we found that IE 7 (at the bottom of our results pile) consistently failed to catch phishing sites less than 1 hour old, although IE 7 caught all phishing sites known for at least 1 hour or more. Most phishing sites are removed after their initial 72 hours.
McAfee doesn't include a tutorial for using SiteAdvisor Plus. What McAfee does provide is a contextual knowledge base, asking you a series of questions. There is also an FAQ on the SiteAdvisor site, although it could be much more thorough. Should the knowledge base or FAQ fail to answer your question, you're taken to another window where a remote scan will attempt to diagnose what is wrong. If none of these solutions work, you're given more options, including online chat, user forums, and e-mail.
SiteAdvisor Plus includes the ability to report suspicious links within IM and e-mail and can automatically block access to flagged sites. However, SiteAdvisor Plus lacks additional configuration options and doesn't work with Firefox or Opera, or with branded browsers from AOL and other services. In addition, the paid version on Internet Explorer appears to conflict with the free version installed on Firefox. Overall, we experienced greater flexibility and fewer hassles when using the free Netcraft toolbar, and we also liked the proactive nature of Linkscanner Pro better.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4
User Rating: 
1/10
Site Advisor Run Amuck
Pros: Nice concept
Cons: False positives, horrible customer service
If it were a perfect world, this would be a wonderful concept. But in this world, Site Advisor appears to be so badly mis-managed by McAfee that their product and its ratings have become irrelevant. It would be one thing if they got a site rating wrong and fixed it, but McAfee is so unresponsive to ratings complaints that the volume of false positives and false negatives has become unsurmountable, again rendering their ratings irrelevant.
Their customer service is so inconsistent in its responsiveness and the advice it gives that one simply shakes their head in disbelief. What in the world is going on at McAfee?
It's too bad.
User Rating: 
2/10
Another Bad Product From A Disreputable Company
Pros: You Don't Have To Install It
Cons: Site Bashing, Unfair Competition, Supression Of Free Speach
The first thing I asked myself was why. So I started looking at who else had met my fate. One of the first sites I encountered was PcMag.com. A site I have long trusted to give the straight scoop on software. Why Them? Well it seems they had given the McAfee Package a less than glowing review, and their readers agreed by an over whelming majority. Could it be, that this respected company, McAfee, had an evil side? That they were vindictive or even worse?
Well the simple fact is, yes. McAfee since it's inception has came up with multiple scams to defraud it's stockholders. We're not talking small time either. They are the Enron of the software industry. It started in 1998, with the over stating of earnings, that bankrupted many investors, and eventually landed McAfee Execs in jail, and continues until today. McAfee has until Jan. to restate it's earnings or face delisting from the NYSE. It's backdating options scheme cost investors, McAfee's own numbers, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000. We won't know the full extent until they finally fess up.
So why is a criminal company, involved in an ongoing criminal investigation, running around the web, black listing honest webmasters sites? It's like hiring the mob to watch your house, while you go on vacation. To compound the problem, you've got these anonymous Mcafee associates or reviewers if you will, blasting their competition, trying to suppress free speech by blasting any site, whose content they disapprove of, or are in competition with. So McAfee has come up with another scheme, this time to scare people into buying their products by turning the web as red as possible. The CEO in the earnings call, stated that they were trying to monetize SiteAdvisor.
This company with a completely dubious past, now seeks to control and what they cannot control, destroy, through their 6 billion dollar market cap, much of which was stolen from investors. What they are doing now is far from security. It is book burning. It is taking the little guy out of the equation. It's slapping the press around, PcMag.com. The last time in history this was done in such an efficient manner, people following like sheep, was by Hitler and his goose stepping legions.
How do we stop this rouge company? It's simple, boycott McAfee products.
User Rating: 1/10
Very BAD Program
Pros: Not Download this it meesup your computer
Cons: Very BAD Program give false advice
User Rating: 
9/10
Simple, seamless integration
Pros: Instantly rates sites as you browse
Cons: none yet found
