Thoughts about finding viruses in email inboxes

[Ray Parrish]

David M. Karr wrote:
> Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
>   
>> Also, those two BD packages are not all of bitdefender.  Do an aptitude search bitdefender and it will show all of them such as mail scanner, etc. Install what you want and need. You do seem to be using plain text now; thanks for that.
>>
>> Leonard Chatagnier
>> lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
>>
>>
>>   
>>     
>
> I now have another concern with this.  I thought the "home" version was 
> free.  When I start the app, it says "Trial key found. 30 days 
> remaining.".  Does that mean what I think it means?
>   
Here is a quote I just copied from their license agreement, which comes 
up the first time you start the program.

"At the end of the trial period, all scan- based product features 
(disinfect, delete) will be disabled, and the user  will  have to either 
go online to www.bitdefender.com and register for a personal license or 
purchase a commercial license from any BitDefender reseller."

Registering for a personal license is free for home use as stated in the 
license agreement, so it's just a hoop you will need to jump through 
towards the end of the thirty day "trial" period. Here *finally* is a 
link to their online Registration page, which took wading through many 
false leads through attempt after attempt by them to get me to buy the 
paid version. -

<https://myaccount.bitdefender.com/site/MyAccount/newAccount/Create_a_new_account.html>

They also do not make it easy to copy and paste your trial period 
license key from the Bitdefender GUI. It shows right there on the face 
of it, but will not allow you to highlight it for copying. However, if 
you load their help file, and find your way to page 63, they reveal the 
location of the configuration file, which contains the key, and it is 
located here -

etc/BitDefender-scanner/bdscan.conf

It's down at the bottom of the file, and you need this old license key 
to register online. I just completed the registration process 
supposedly, but I do note that they still insisted on asking me "Where 
did you buy from?" during the registration process, and would not let me 
leave that field blank, so I'm still not sure I have actually found the 
registration for their supposed free home users yet. I answered 
BitDefender to their where did I buy question.

OK, I got their registration confirmation email, and proceeded to their 
site, only to discover that they have me listed as "evaluating" the 
commercial version of BitDefender which costs over $250 for a ten seat 
license which I have no use for. There was a link to "evaluate other 
versions" which I followed to the Free Version download, and then had to 
click it's Download button, which only got me a form to fill in, after I 
submitted that, it notified me that I would receive an email with 
instructions for downloading the free version shortly.

I'm sorry, but these people are really beginning to tick me off! I have 
never experienced this level of complication connected to any previous 
attempt at obtaining the free version of any program, ever before. Their 
entire site is designed to dance you all around the ability to find the 
page which will allow you to update the free license key, and makes 
every effort to cast you as a paying customer whether you like it or not.

I may as well send this post for now, and I'll let you know if anything 
good actually happens.

Later, Ray Parrish

-- 

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