Spyware

[Allison]

I've used Ad-Aware for a long time now. But, to those of you in-the-know, are there other programs I should be using in conjunction with this, or instead of?

[Kyriee]

I run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy, the 2 of them seem to catch most everything together

[Figtoria]

Definately spybot and ad-aware.

I've also taken to installing Google pop-up blocker on any computer I am forced to support.

[Kyriee]

I found Mozilla (which is what I use now after coolweb's nice littel attack on my IE) is nice, it auto-blocks pop-ups, saving me from having to use anything seperate (I used to use webwasher back in the day)... It seems more secure, that or people justhaven't gotten around to hacking it out yet ;)

[Allison]

Thanks!

[malkovich]

i run ad-aware , spybot s&d , and the google toolbar and i still have 3 spyware/malware things that i cant get rid of so i just gave up ... some VX2 thing , some www.callinghome.biz thing , and a www.websearch.blarg thing ... couple that with the fact that i have been so busy that i havent reviewed a bank statement in 3 months and for all i know i could be funding a revolution in a small south american country right now ...

[Kyriee]

There's a couple of nasty things, that coolweb one i was talking about earlier.. there ARE tools to get rid of them, you might try it... do a google search for coolweb and you should find it, the duo's called Hijack this and CWshredder, they worked to get rid of mine on IE, i just chose to start using Mozilla so as not to get them again.. I'm normally very careful where I go online, so I've no idea which site I went to that had it lol

[Figtoria]

There's a coolweb fixit tool called CWShredder. I think it's the 3rd thing down in a Google search.

[spyder913]

XP Service pack 2 will help a lot with the spread of spyware and other malware (I hope)

I sure hope it helps my parents, I'm getting tired of cleaning up their computer - but at least mine doesn't have problems.

[malkovich]

tried cwshredder and did the whole deal with the safe mode and the reboot and everything else i could find , doesnt get rid of it , seriously tried the steps given at like 6 different sites and it wotn clear it ... :/ ...

[Kyriee]

I ended up saying forget it, and getting mozilla, and using it ;) haven't picke dup any spyware since (seriously, I run ad-aware, etc on startup...)

[Figtoria]

LoL[malkovich|mOO']tried cwshredder and did the whole deal with the safe mode and the reboot and everything else i could find , doesnt get rid of it , seriously tried the steps given at like 6 different sites and it wotn clear it ... :/ ...


If you're running XP - you have to turn off system restore first and you have to run CWShredder (and any other spyware removal stuff) for each and every profile you have.

There is another program called HIJACKER - which is a bit less end-user friendly - but you can try that too. You can get rid of Coolweb - but it can be a real pain.

[Swifty_Johnson]

I use Spybot and it does a really good job, just keep it updadted.

Blogs seems to be the most common area for this type of stuff. My brother went blogging with my computer and I have to clean a ton of stuff off of it.

Swifty

[Rooster]

To sum up (and support):
SpyBot S&D 1.3
Ad-Aware
CWShredder
XP SP2 (this is pretty durned nice)
Mozilla/Firebird (NO POPUPS FOR ME!)
Trend Micro Housecall (on occasion - it finds Worms and nasty stuff)

If it's yours, start using Firebird. It doesn't do everything IE does (Windows Update, Office Update, Housecall)

[spyder913]

Blogs seems to be the most common area for this type of stuff. My brother went blogging with my computer and I have to clean a ton of stuff off of it.
Maybe some certain sites.. any reputable site won't have spyware installation as a part of using it.

The real problem is people clicking 'Yes' 'Accept' or 'Install' when they shouldn't. And exploits which allow stuff to be installed without the user's knowledge, but that's not the majority of it.

[Eiru]

Definitely don't use IE if you want to really avoid these things. That'll save you a ton of problems. I, personally, don't visit any website outside of LOL and the panda cam so I got nuthin to worry bout! :D

[bloodreign]

hmm, i use spybot and bazooka.

cool thing about bazooka is it shows you how to manually remove most spyware programs. great little program that most people don't know about.