Help
Post your comments for Review: Internet Cleanup 5.0 here
Page 1 of 1
Review: Internet Cleanup 5.0
#2
clintbradford 
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 87
- Joined: 24-February 07
Posted 21 July 2008 - 09:26 AM
I was alarmed when "schedulermailer" all of a sudden began asking for permission to access my keychain upon every bootup. After finding out that it was a module of Smith Micro's I asked them what it was for - ESPECIALLY since I only downloaded a demo copy of one of their utilities. Their support people replied in a very timely manner, but didn't seem to acknowledge that I didn't particularly like unknown, undesired routines running on my system. BTW, schedulermailer is some sort of routine they use to filter email. I wasn't impressed with the overall implementation, and there are other proven, reliable, more-compatible-with-Leopard products out there.
#3
esteban
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 39
- Joined: 04-June 07
Posted 21 July 2008 - 12:39 PM
"BTW, schedulermailer is some sort of routine they use to filter email. I wasn't impressed with the overall implementation, and there are other proven, reliable, more-compatible-with-Leopard products out there."
You mean like Mail.app? With gmail + Mail.app SPAM filters I rarely (almost never) get SPAM on my INBOX.
You mean like Mail.app? With gmail + Mail.app SPAM filters I rarely (almost never) get SPAM on my INBOX.
#4
derekc
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 137
- Joined: 07-March 08
Posted 12 August 2008 - 10:17 AM
I bought Internet Cleanup 5.0 early on after its release as I liked some of the features. It potentially could fill a void for Mac users on the Internet regarding net security. What it did I liked. But it is clearly a work in progress and is Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time. I found some annoying bugs, even more than those mentioned above. I also found that it missed the boat on the one big feature it should have nailed down: Identification and control of Tracking Cookies. (They are deposited into your browser and follow you around to other sites that know how to access this particular cookie. The idea is to collect data about your browsing behavior from site to site. The information is supposedly used by marketing humans so they can better target you with ads for things you'd be interested in buying. What really goes on is the question).
The biggest problem with Internet Cleanup 5.0 is that is uses .kext files, a number of them, which it deposits into your system. This is a big fat no-no according to Apple. If .kext files are not perfectly programmed, you end up with that old horror from old Mac OS days where you have to test which system extension is messing up your machine. That is indeed the case with Internet Cleanup, where I found one particular .kext file was conflicting with some standard Mac OS X system calls.
I ended up turning in my serial number and getting my money back. Allume were extremely nice about the entire process. But I've been waiting for several months now for them to update Internet Cleanup to fix the offending bugs and hopefully soup up their cookie control system. But nothing has happened! It's like the guy who coded the program fell off the planet and Allume have no idea how to fix any bugs. That's a big shame.
I would NEVER recommend this program to anyone at this point. Maybe if they fix it. But I wouldn't count on it.
The biggest problem with Internet Cleanup 5.0 is that is uses .kext files, a number of them, which it deposits into your system. This is a big fat no-no according to Apple. If .kext files are not perfectly programmed, you end up with that old horror from old Mac OS days where you have to test which system extension is messing up your machine. That is indeed the case with Internet Cleanup, where I found one particular .kext file was conflicting with some standard Mac OS X system calls.
I ended up turning in my serial number and getting my money back. Allume were extremely nice about the entire process. But I've been waiting for several months now for them to update Internet Cleanup to fix the offending bugs and hopefully soup up their cookie control system. But nothing has happened! It's like the guy who coded the program fell off the planet and Allume have no idea how to fix any bugs. That's a big shame.
I would NEVER recommend this program to anyone at this point. Maybe if they fix it. But I wouldn't count on it.
#5
derekc
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 137
- Joined: 07-March 08
Posted 12 August 2008 - 10:41 AM
While we wait...
Some alternatives to what Internet Cleanup is supposed to do, and they don't use
1) OmniWeb - This is easily the most powerful web browser for Mac. I've paid for it for years and still use it as my primary browser. It does have bugs. I know as I've been a beta tester for years as well. But it also does a lot of things no other browsers know how to do, or don't know how to do so well.
2) Little Snitch - No way will my Mac ever be zombied. No phoning home from my machine without me knowing about it. Little Snitch catches all calls out from my machine to the Internet. It's my reverse-firewall. I am the boss and I like it that way. The program does use a .kext file, but it is nicely programmed and gets along well with others.
3) 1Password - This thing is so simple but so amazing. You'd think it's just a glitzy re-version of the Apple Keychain. But it's not. This is more like Ulimate-Keychain. Imagine doing this: You dump ALL your cookies from your browser as you're sick of all the rubbish cookies you've built up. You have much better things to do than go through every cookie and mark the good versus the bad. No problem! Dump away. All your passwords for all those sites all over the world are in 1Password. So who needs cookies? It has lots of other great little features as well, such as powerful encryption, and is easily customizable. Until there is a Tracker Cookie solution for Mac, this is my favorite alternative.
4) AppleJack (so far only up to 10.4.x) and/or Leopard Cache Cleaner - You can run each of these scripts/programs in Single User Mode to repair your boot drive, repair your permissions and toss away all your cache files. AppleJack does even more and is much simpler to use. Hopefully it will be updated to deal with Leopard very soon. Both of these scripts/programs save a lot of time versus having to boot to a CD to do a drive repair, then boot into the system to do other repairs, then reboot again. Yawn. Leopard Cache Cleaner also offers a zillion other little features in its main program, like nicely integrated ClamXav, that are well worth the shareware price.
Some alternatives to what Internet Cleanup is supposed to do, and they don't use
1) OmniWeb - This is easily the most powerful web browser for Mac. I've paid for it for years and still use it as my primary browser. It does have bugs. I know as I've been a beta tester for years as well. But it also does a lot of things no other browsers know how to do, or don't know how to do so well.
2) Little Snitch - No way will my Mac ever be zombied. No phoning home from my machine without me knowing about it. Little Snitch catches all calls out from my machine to the Internet. It's my reverse-firewall. I am the boss and I like it that way. The program does use a .kext file, but it is nicely programmed and gets along well with others.
3) 1Password - This thing is so simple but so amazing. You'd think it's just a glitzy re-version of the Apple Keychain. But it's not. This is more like Ulimate-Keychain. Imagine doing this: You dump ALL your cookies from your browser as you're sick of all the rubbish cookies you've built up. You have much better things to do than go through every cookie and mark the good versus the bad. No problem! Dump away. All your passwords for all those sites all over the world are in 1Password. So who needs cookies? It has lots of other great little features as well, such as powerful encryption, and is easily customizable. Until there is a Tracker Cookie solution for Mac, this is my favorite alternative.
4) AppleJack (so far only up to 10.4.x) and/or Leopard Cache Cleaner - You can run each of these scripts/programs in Single User Mode to repair your boot drive, repair your permissions and toss away all your cache files. AppleJack does even more and is much simpler to use. Hopefully it will be updated to deal with Leopard very soon. Both of these scripts/programs save a lot of time versus having to boot to a CD to do a drive repair, then boot into the system to do other repairs, then reboot again. Yawn. Leopard Cache Cleaner also offers a zillion other little features in its main program, like nicely integrated ClamXav, that are well worth the shareware price.
#6
donlfrank1
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 04-September 08
Posted 04 May 2009 - 07:39 AM
Smith Micro told me, "We haven't heard from you in a while," and offered Internet Cleanup for free. It is the most expensive "free" I have ever encountered. The program doesn't work, endangers your entire system, hits you with incessant popup warnings, and is almost impossible to uninstall. After hours of frustration, and no little anxiety about what this program has done to my computer, I finally got rid of the program (I think), and now I have gotten rid of Smith Micro as a vendor as well.
#7
IMLaughlin
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 23-May 01
Posted 12 September 2009 - 07:08 PM
derekc, on 12 August 2008 - 10:17 AM, said:
I bought Internet Cleanup 5.0 early on after its release as I liked some of the features. It potentially could fill a void for Mac users on the Internet regarding net security. What it did I liked. But it is clearly a work in progress and is Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time. I found some annoying bugs, even more than those mentioned above. I also found that it missed the boat on the one big feature it should have nailed down: Identification and control of Tracking Cookies. (They are deposited into your browser and follow you around to other sites that know how to access this particular cookie. The idea is to collect data about your browsing behavior from site to site. The information is supposedly used by marketing humans so they can better target you with ads for things you'd be interested in buying. What really goes on is the question).
The biggest problem with Internet Cleanup 5.0 is that is uses .kext files, a number of them, which it deposits into your system. This is a big fat no-no according to Apple. If .kext files are not perfectly programmed, you end up with that old horror from old Mac OS days where you have to test which system extension is messing up your machine. That is indeed the case with Internet Cleanup, where I found one particular .kext file was conflicting with some standard Mac OS X system calls.
I ended up turning in my serial number and getting my money back. Allume were extremely nice about the entire process. But I've been waiting for several months now for them to update Internet Cleanup to fix the offending bugs and hopefully soup up their cookie control system. But nothing has happened! It's like the guy who coded the program fell off the planet and Allume have no idea how to fix any bugs. That's a big shame.
I would NEVER recommend this program to anyone at this point. Maybe if they fix it. But I wouldn't count on it.
The biggest problem with Internet Cleanup 5.0 is that is uses .kext files, a number of them, which it deposits into your system. This is a big fat no-no according to Apple. If .kext files are not perfectly programmed, you end up with that old horror from old Mac OS days where you have to test which system extension is messing up your machine. That is indeed the case with Internet Cleanup, where I found one particular .kext file was conflicting with some standard Mac OS X system calls.
I ended up turning in my serial number and getting my money back. Allume were extremely nice about the entire process. But I've been waiting for several months now for them to update Internet Cleanup to fix the offending bugs and hopefully soup up their cookie control system. But nothing has happened! It's like the guy who coded the program fell off the planet and Allume have no idea how to fix any bugs. That's a big shame.
I would NEVER recommend this program to anyone at this point. Maybe if they fix it. But I wouldn't count on it.
#8
IMLaughlin
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 23-May 01
Posted 12 September 2009 - 07:18 PM
Date: 2009-09-12: Internet Cleanup 5 started crashing my 2009 MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6 from the first time I loaded it three weeks ago, to present. Recommend don't put it on your machine running 10.6. It will drive you up the wall.
(Previous internet Cleanup versions I ran on older Mac operating systems didn't cause problems.)
Also, when Apple loads updates, such as to itunes and OS, when I restart the machine it says some software is incompatible.
Best regards,
Mike
(Previous internet Cleanup versions I ran on older Mac operating systems didn't cause problems.)
Also, when Apple loads updates, such as to itunes and OS, when I restart the machine it says some software is incompatible.
Best regards,
Mike
#9
urbanex
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 28-August 04
Posted 22 December 2010 - 02:33 AM
A word of caution to Mac web designers who choose to install Internet Cleanup. I bought the app last week as part of a bundle and tried all its features, most of which are pretty lame. I thought I'd turned off the NetBlockade function within Internet Cleanup, but apparently not ...
Yesterday I updated a client's page and uploaded it to their server. I looked at it on the web and there were two images missing, which threw the CSS into disarray so the layout was a disaster. I then browser-checked the same page off my hard drive and it was perfect, with both images appearing. This doesn't happen - if your code is correct on your HD and it's identical on the server, the pages must be identical.
I spent an entire day trying to figure out what was making the two pics disappear off server but appear off HD. Almost out of exasperation I looked at the page source from the server, which is the last thing you think of doing because it's easier just to check the code on your own computer if it's the same. Lo and behold, code for the two images had been replaced by something along the lines of <-NETBLOCKER, class="button"; NETBLOCKER, etc, etc->.
I opened Internet Cleanup and found Netblocker was on, even though I'd swear I turned it off, so I did turn it off and for the 30th time uploaded the page file to the server. Voila ... image code hadn't been replaced by Netblocker and the page appeared perfect and identical from both server and HD. Problem solved... after 24 wasted hours.
Netblocker is supposed to block pop-ups, ads or whatever from appearing in your browser when you're web surfing. It isn't supposed to have anything to do with files you're uploading via an FTP program. But it does. The app is obviously detecting a file and replacing the offending code, but it doesn't distinguish between files being uploaded or downloaded via whatever program you happen to use!
I'm still shaking my head in awe that an app can do this. So if you're a web designer using the Mac version of Internet Cleanup and you enable the Netblocker function, be aware that it will rewrite your code when you're uploading to server and destroy your layout.
Yesterday I updated a client's page and uploaded it to their server. I looked at it on the web and there were two images missing, which threw the CSS into disarray so the layout was a disaster. I then browser-checked the same page off my hard drive and it was perfect, with both images appearing. This doesn't happen - if your code is correct on your HD and it's identical on the server, the pages must be identical.
I spent an entire day trying to figure out what was making the two pics disappear off server but appear off HD. Almost out of exasperation I looked at the page source from the server, which is the last thing you think of doing because it's easier just to check the code on your own computer if it's the same. Lo and behold, code for the two images had been replaced by something along the lines of <-NETBLOCKER, class="button"; NETBLOCKER, etc, etc->.
I opened Internet Cleanup and found Netblocker was on, even though I'd swear I turned it off, so I did turn it off and for the 30th time uploaded the page file to the server. Voila ... image code hadn't been replaced by Netblocker and the page appeared perfect and identical from both server and HD. Problem solved... after 24 wasted hours.
Netblocker is supposed to block pop-ups, ads or whatever from appearing in your browser when you're web surfing. It isn't supposed to have anything to do with files you're uploading via an FTP program. But it does. The app is obviously detecting a file and replacing the offending code, but it doesn't distinguish between files being uploaded or downloaded via whatever program you happen to use!
I'm still shaking my head in awe that an app can do this. So if you're a web designer using the Mac version of Internet Cleanup and you enable the Netblocker function, be aware that it will rewrite your code when you're uploading to server and destroy your layout.
Share this topic:
Page 1 of 1