Hello,

 

I noticed recently a Youtube by Frooglesim indicating that FSXGenius had been, it looks like, scamming people out of money offering to build them PCs and never fulfilling after receiving money.

 

I cannot know whether this is true or not.

 

Then, there was recently the A380 add-on for sale scam, which is documented here and elsewhere in the Flightsim Community.

 

I have to disable my Norton Antivirus to successfully download and install anything with a Flight1 wrapper.  I am told this is not a risk, but I recently discovered one of those wrappers is identified by Norton Power Eraser as containing a rootkit.  It was the only file/executable out of literally hundreds of thousands on my system identified as such.

 

I have NO other source of online digital software that requires this kind of stripping-naked of my system for the sake of running an executable.  It is bad practice, and I am no longer going to do it.  The Flight1 validation system even requires you to turn off your firewall for it to run.  Their problem, not mine, nor anyone else's.

 

There's an increasing tendency to offer add-ons as "alphas" or "open betas" with promises for completion.

 

There was gossip towards the end of 2013 -- perhaps not gossip, but truth -- about IRIS Simulations failing to fulfill payments to developers working for them.  A company split off from them, Metal2Mesh.com, offers an "avionics upgrade" for $15 to the IRIS F15 -- which is real -- but the site is plastered with Coming Soon references to more projects than even an ORBX or Carenado could plan and handle at once, or over three years, even, for DCS, FSX, etc.  Along with a Mirage 2000C "Open Beta."  Metal2Mesh has also said they'll be completing their own F15.  We shall see.

 

I am simply NOT going to make any further purchases from any company that has any odor of shady practices, no matter what anyone says online to defend them.  If projects are released unfinished, incomplete, buggy, requiring breaking fundamental principles of software and network security to operate..... they're never going to see me.  If developers are going to make promises that are on the face of them unrealistic and wildly ambitious..... ditto.  Enough of us know how long it really takes to _complete_ something that we're not going to be suckered into buying unfinished software that never gets completed.

 

I suggest you do the same.

 

I am willing to be generous, and give people the benefit of the doubt, but the internet is chock-full of scams, and they seem to be proliferating in the small world of flight simulation.

 

People and companies should recognize this damages everyone's business.  If you can't abide by the fundamental principles of making realistic release promises, guaranteeing your software works with standard virus and internet protection in place (like the rest of the world).... you should be out of customers, and soon, no matter how harsh that sounds. 

 

I know it's a tough business to be in and the risks and work are high, the rewards are small.  But many of the people spending money on your work -- who have far less than I do -- are being damaged by shady practices, and we cannot and must not tolerate that.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

Steven

Flight1 wrappers work for me with Windows firewall enabled and Microsoft Security Essentials running, including realtime protection. I even have UAC constantly at its highest level.

 

On the other hand, I had to dismiss ZoneAlarm, as it turned out to be a genuine PITA on a number of occasions.

Have used Flight1's wrapper for a number of years and never disabled any of my AV or Firewalls and never had an issue. I'm sure that to eliminate any pesky support concerns they might recommend it, but never been an issue here.

I saw that Vid. Do not give that guy money for a PC (many have) until all of that is cleared up

 

Im with you on buggy and unfinished products and that includes not being a Beta tester for Lockheed martin

Maybe it's just the Milviz stuff at Flight1, then? Milviz has warnings in big red letters on their product pages to disable protection before downloading or installing. NSA scam? <g> Norton deletes the files after I download them and I have to stroke its hair and reassure it and then Restore and Trust, taking that chance on Milviz. Bad idea? I used to think not, but am less and less sure.

Yep, same here have never had any issues with Flight1 wrapper and having to turn off my virus protection...

I haven't needed to turn off my antivirus either with Flight 1 wrappers, everything has worked just fine.

 

Norton is rubbish by the way, you should get rid of it. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware paid version + free Microsoft Security Essentials has done way better job for me at least. 

Steven,

 

You should never have to disable your firewall or AV for anything or anyone.  Having said that, IN MY OPINION, and in the opinions of other hardcore system builders and gamers, Norton is a huge, buggy, system hog that is more trouble than it is worth.  I haven't used Norton in 5 years or more.  Went to Windows Defender, AKA Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and no viruses, no bugs, no demands that I stop a process, and best of all, the system doesn't cry wolf when no problem exists.  I also don't have the latest Heartbleed issue...

 

Regarding Milviz, pretty darn good products, and I also have the Metal2Mesh add on for the -E and I also have the Iris Mudhen and Warthog packages.

 

As for Metal2Mesh pulling off their new projects, they probably will do at least 50% of them as they say they will.

 

As for Froogle and FSXGenius, there may be a story there that none of us are privy to.

Froogle and FSXGenius are the best as far as I am concerned.......

Kattz, I agree in part with you and others' assessment of Norton, but have been using it for years, am familiar with what it can/can't do, so I stick with it.  Their rate of update/tracking of a variety of existing issues is quite aggressive, and thorough.  There's a system cost, yes, but I'm willing to take it.  The only problems I've ever run into with Norton actually have been with its heuristics identifying false positives.  Properly installed and configured, it (mostly) is not an issue.

 

Agreed re: your assessments (have some IRIS stuff, too -- the latest Warthog II is great), but I do think caution and care are still warranted.

Steven, I agree that one should never disburse money where a return of goods or services is not guaranteed.  If it smells funny, there's probably something wrong.

Norton themselves have admitted that anti-virus is not quite the protection you might think it is in general, see here, you can find it covered all over the net at the minute.

As for buying a system from some essentially unknown self promoting guy on youtube, well it just never seemed like a good idea did it?

As for unfinished products, again, buyer beware. I wonder if the market is rather saturated at this stage?

As with many others, I have never had a problem with Flight 1 downloads, or needed to disable anything in order for them to work.

 

I stopped using Norton several years ago for all of the known reasons.  I was using AVG (free) until I had a major problem last year which was identified as a couple of nasties that had got past it.  On the recommendation of the guy who fixed it for me, I am now running Avast!, which so far seems to be doing a decent job - but then I thought the same of AVG until it all went T/U!!

Yes of course, no AV protection is sufficient, even with a variety of different systems. Ditto firewalls. Blacklisting IPs. And so on.

 

There are a huge variety of different kinds of security techniques, but their proliferation - along with the increasing tendency due to the growth of digital advertising of pop-ups to take over and contaminate almost anything you're trying to do online, and make you waste your time and hurt your hands trying to get around - is rendering the Internet almost unusable at this point.

 

I'm truly concerned some sort of catastrophic implosion is imminent, not necessarily from the hackers but from the overload of the environment with techniques on an increasingly impossible mission.

Like others have said, I've used Flight1 wrapper and have never disabled anything either, so not sure what that's all about.