Spyware & Adware problems crop up every so often so I thought I would gather together recommendations in one succint thread on the topic. I have tried to link to the download page to make it easier to find what to download. They are all free.


Spybot

Hijack This

Ad aware



It is probably a good idea to run all three of these every few weeks or as necessary as some catch things that others miss I recommend running them one at a time and rebooting and checking that your other applications are still working fine after each one is run.

It will help to keep your computer fighting fit

A word of Warning for users of P2P software

If you use Kazaa, Blubster, Grokster etc etc you must be cautious with your use of Adware/Spyware removal tools. Removing the adware associated with P2P software will render said software unusable.
The above named removal tools allow you to restore what you have removed thus you can undo any damage to the p2p software setup.
BUT
Many p2p software regularly download new adware and you'll find new stuff appearing all the time.
A right royal pain in the arse.
Oh yes indeedy.

A few gems more:
If you visit websites of dubious intent (warez, porn and the like) BE CAUTIOUS about what you click.
One Click and your homepage is hijacked in many cases.
If you receive that warning dialogue about "Do you wish to download and install..." DO NOT CLICK unless
a - you have asked for the installation.
or
b - you have googled and discovered the origin and purpose of the installation.

This simple gem will stop 99.9% of malicious downloads. If you are a p2p user, however, you have little choice but to install new lovelies.

If you're not using a firewall, you are courting disaster. But you knew that.
(If you didn't, stop reading now and go get ZoneAlarm for free and halt the tide!!)

A final word.

SpyBot is a great bit of kit, but it does a whole lot more than remove ad/spyware and your favourite Microsoft usage tracks so caution is advised when using it.

Happy cleaning

Shit. That was nearly a full scale lecture, huh, but there was just one more thing...

If you're having problems with spyware then may I suggest you make the firefox from the mozilla project (formerly firebird) your browser of choice.
Try it and you won't - i promise - be disappointed.

After i'd gone to bed last night i wondered why i didn't post this link too

Free AntiVirus software

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

This one's called AVG and is a very updateable free download. All you need is an email addy. so they can send you a personal license code

I've got AVG an' Zone Alarm running on an old PII 333mhz, win xp and have had no pc, software related problems with these programs and they're Free, Free, i tell you

Some of the viruses write themselves instantly to your 'puter registry and AVG may not be able to remove. It will stop the virus running around your pc but every time you reboot the virus starts again. AVG will, at least, give you the location of the virus so you can manually remove if this is the case.

If you have win xp, an' a virus that's difficult to get rid of a good tip is to use MSConfig.

You start this off the start button>>>run, type in 'msconfig' and this will give you options to start in safe mode or to disable certain programs at start up.
usually the virus is easy to spot in the 'start up'

Well, that's exhausted my knowledge of free pc protection

Back to the war on internet baddies

Seriously now.

If you really want to protect your machine from malware, you need to forget IE.

For a start, download a decent browser.

Then get your hands on Javacool's fantastic Spyware Blaster, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware Free and a *fairly* decent hardware router.

Unfortunatly routers aren't free, but all of the software above is.

If you are stuck with a wide open modem connection, a working free software firewall is
Agnitum Outpost 1, don't upgrade though.... you'll end up with a 30 day trial of their Pro software.

I generally don't recommend AV software, I am sceptical of their use, I prefer common sense and vigilance to avoid virii. You just have to be carefull.

.m.

In the interests of balance;

Seriously now.

If you really want to protect your machine from malware, you need to forget IE.

For a start, download a decent browser.

Firefox has many well know vulnerabilities, http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/k...rabilities.html, if anyone is paranoid about malware the browser that has had the lowest number of vulnerabilties is Opera.

Also Firefox still has many bugs and doesn't render all CSS pages correctly.

a *fairly* decent hardware router.

Unfortunatly routers aren't free, but all of the software above is.

Only a router with an integrated firewall is of any use, but there is an achilies heal with HW routers based on their packet filtering. Inbound packet headers are examined to a set of predefined and/or user-created rules that determine whether the packet is to be forwarded or dropped. It doesn't so this with outbound packets, hence doesn't make you a great netcitizen allowing outbound attacks from an infected machine inside your network. A user could get into the router config and individualy block ports to prevent this happening, but as there's 65000 ports available this isn't an option.

I generally don't recommend AV software, I am sceptical of their use, I prefer common sense and vigilance to avoid virii. You just have to be carefull.

I wish all users were born with common sense and vigilance. Why are you sceptical?

Netscape, AVG, Zone Alarm, Spybot S&D, Ad aware, updated regularly. Almost never a problem. And don't use p2p with ads on use winmx, oldest and best. And never open an email unless you know who it's from, delete all spam immediately.

be safe

hello peeps ive been down the virus trojan spyware route i had 7 trojans on the pc at the same time now i use the following

adaware

avast antivirus

zone alarm firewall

not had any problems since installing these running software like kazza etc is just asking for trouble in my opinion for people who wanna download tunes porn etc try emule never had a virus or anything from there

peppi

ps the trojans i had set me up as a virus email sender and sent repeatedly to the names in my address book !

I used to use AVG and Zonealarm and Adaware.

I would say Zonealarm and Adaware were great, but I really couldnt recommend AVG which I did use for about 2 years for anything other than price.

It is free, so if you cant afford proper anti-virus software then by all means use it, but do not think that you have much protection with it because you dont. After more than two years I got sick of having to remove virus's myself that AVG just didnt know about, I downloaded PC-Cillin, which replaces all the above tools and also and a few more, although the firewall in my opinion isnt as easy to use as ZoneAlarm it still does the job.

I get about 2 virus's a month! my PC has win 2000 pro, and it is updated all the time with the latest patches ect. PC Cillin spots the virus's fast and treats them properly. Rather than my PC virus checker updating itself about once or twice a month it now updates itself 2 or 3 times a day!

I got the licence via the USA version of Ebay, as they are alot cheaper that way (cant see em on UK ebay)

Cost for 12 months was about 15 quid.
Not free, but alot better than free.

While I am here...

I wish IE would support pseudo selectors on all elements

boo retarded IE...

There has been xpi based malware written for firefox, there have been vulnerabilities and if 90% of people used it i'm sure we would see a lot more.

I still hope that ultimately they can produce a more secure browser than IE thanks to open source, there is still an element of security through obscurity though on the part of mozilla devs which is worrying.

I use Eset NOD32 anti-virus - which many experts like 'Virus Bulletin' believe is the best anti-virus product in the world. It's very fast and small since it is written in machine code.

If you are stupid enough to ignore such warnings you deserve all you get.

Unfortunately many users just click anywhere to get rid of a dialogue box that interrupts their flow. I've seen them do it, it is a stupid thing to do I agree but the people who do it actually arent stupid

Malware authors have been taking advantage of that aspect of users for years now by getting them to click ok to the IE install dialogue.

http://www.download.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=...x=33&search.y=4
Avast Home edition free and updates as and when.

but this is the thing, Ive been on the net for 10 years, I know how to shut a box down and even how to shut an application down without clicking.

A few confident people surf the net with only half protection, and think that if they close boxes properly and never install anything that they wont get a virus. I used to think that too, how arrogant I was!

but where do people get this idea from?
Its total crap, If you want to see a virus install itself on a freeware protected computer running M$ programs without the user downloading it or closing a window or box incorrectly im sure I could find a link or two which would infect your PC in seconds.

If you dont belive they exist then chances are you are probably already infected.

I'm one of those less informed persons using the internet. I recently upgraded to broadband and then last week i was directed to get my system scanned and i found a load of viruses. I installed spybot and ad aware and they found loads of stuff which was deleted. However, everytime i booted up they detected more of the same and i lost the ability to get online. Thinking i had a serious virus i got hold of a copy of McAfee security suite and installed it. Now i cant even get online using IE6 so i am using Mozilla Firebird. BUT, this has stopped me being able to access my work email!! Nightmare. Plus my system seems to run far slower than before and to top it all, my PC keeps trying to log on using the old dial up modem!!

Confused...? i should f##king say so!

Any quick fix ideas anyone?

cheers binary, i'll see what happens.....although i think that now i just have damged files and no viruses

http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm
If you go there you will find lavasoft adaware6 se for free with updates.


Works a treat.

Ad aware I have used this with good results and it's free it takes a couple of runs but does the job



if it aint broke don't fix it

cillin found another one, RBOT.PO they only put it on there pack the other day and it was found on my PC when it updated.

I reckon alot of these are varients of spyware, I wouldnt blummin mind but it isnt like I do a lot of downloading and porn watching.

hi what about us peeps who dont have a pc and are running on mac os8.6 ?is there any hope for us ????
i cud do with some kind of spywear or something
cheers

just to point out that cw shredder hasnt been supported since june 2k4 & may well miss many new variants of the coolwebsearch spy/adware(tho still very effective for older versions).
heres some variants(and a wee bit of info) worth googling for anyone interested:
/bootconf (adds www.coolwebsearch.com to your trusted zone sites, this allows it to download and install code)
/datanotary (copies css sheet to windows folder, redirects & adds some cool xxx popups to your browsing experience)
/dnsrelay (hooks into ie bar searches redirecting to activexupdate.com or similar)
/msinfo (note drops a file by same name with a exe extension into the windows folder, not to be confused with the msinfo32.exe in the same folder which is a legitimate windows file. runs from the win ini file and redirects to true-counter.com)
/msspi ( a bastard, impersonates a winsock2 layered service making it a right fecker to get rid off)
/smartkiller (awesome variant, closes browser windows used to access anti spyware or security sites to protect itself)
/svchost (points all main search sites such as yahoo or google to localhosts, why? because localhosts isnt running a webserver, so attempts generate an error page.... its the error that delivers the payload to redirect you to clawsearch.com

reason for theyre being so many variants is that coolwebsearch is really a toolkit for redirecting ppl to somewhere they dont wanna go & although theres been pressure on the web hosts of these sites, it`s believed that these over 1000 domains associatted wi cws(coolwebsearch).

have fun peeps.

cheers mdp i'll remove cwshredder.

A freeware product I haven't see mentioned which I've found usefull is Spywareblaster.

It's more proactive, not a Spyware fix tool but one that'll prevent a lot of Spyware getting on your machine in the first place. It's getting good reviews and is becoming quite popular, it has Firefox and IE support.

It's freeware and can be downloaded from http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/, there's a small review at http://www.majorgeeks.com/review.php?id=19.

Highly recomended.

Its still on the go,

... and its still free, ver 2.00 its at now.

Peace

K.

Here's a new one for you all, Microsoft Anti Spware

It's still in beta, but it's based on the Giant spyware scanner that's been around for a while, looks like Microsoft have bought them out.

I've loaded it on a few customer pc's to sort out some very stubborn malware that adaware and spybot could not deal with. I am quite impressed with it so far.

It also runs a real time scan, like a virus scanner, so it should stop anything before it gets installed on your system.

DF

Thats bollox. Have they forgot that loads of people (like me) prefer windows 98?

Arse.

Me too mate, even tho I now use XP. Kind of like XP now tho..but I digress

What gets me is the fact that its an anti-malware product which Microsoft now owns.

I use all Microsoft products and don't suffer the annoyingly trendy "anti-Microsoft" bigade too readily, but a "default" spyware program? Which will (no doubt) "filter" the content which gets through?

No doubt it will take some serious registry tinkering to get shot of too!

I don't think they should be allowed (a la Java "Sun Micro" - recent court case), to install security or spyware products during a "default" windows install.

That would be "security-risk central" for the majority of "non-techie" home users.

Tuppence.

Just ran ad aware for the first time 610 infections
ditto spysweeper 1465 infections
ditto avast 40+ infections phew computer now clean.
This is a cool unexpected find good one.

another great spyware prog, that i think is better then spysweeper is spybot.

Used em both and i def think spybot is better.



FTM

Hi A great free antivirus program is Antivir personal edition classic
i use that with ad-aware and spybot

Hmm,

I use AVG for virus killing (free)

Kerio for my firewall (free)

Lavasoft Adaware (free)

And a hardware (NAT) Firewall (£50)

Theres a nice little site here

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

This will (if you hit the proceed button then the all service ports) check the first 1056 ports on your system to see how secure your computer is.

*Geek*

feking ell you lot have just done my head inn takes another toke ok next
month my Mcfee security cntr ends and they want another £50.00 ish, contains (viras scan) (personel fire wall) (privacey service) i have had a few probs with "pups"? but they seemed to sort it. and tbh i dont mind paying for the next year, but if you think i am wasting my money then tell me. i did download the spy bott
thing that mickle recomended, and done a scan and it found 99 so called spy thingamy jibs so i kliked on clean and all seems to be ok, well all that red writing has gone makes me think why didnt mcfee didnt spot that shit??. and should i down load the other 2 ? (highjack this) (ad aware) so if you could please just keep it simple bacause as you have already guessed i havnt got much of a clue thank god for system restore t.f.k

wheres the tech heads still i got till the end of december

if you have no idea what you are doing i maybe wouldnt recomend huijack this but probably worth getting ad-aware, give it a sweep see what it turns up. As to wether or not mcfee is worth it i couldna tell ya, i dont have any paid for software on me comp and i have no virus trouble. Is your computer playing up or r u just doing a christmas clean?

thanks for getting back when i say i havn't a clue? i do most things to kepp my pc clean defrag every month and clear disk space, all that in system tools, and i have been using viras scan to se if i have any probs but tbh it does all seem to be working ok. ime just wondering if that will all end once my Mcfee stops
at the end of dec, but as i say ime not to bad on the pc i do abit of invoicing and music downloads "limewire" but ive been told you can cause probs even just having this on your pc?. and ime allways googling. mainley pot sites and e-bay and no where near as much porn as a lot of guys at my age, honest. but yea ad-ware ill give it a go and do a sweep, but once againe i never get rid of anyting i aint to sure about. cheers man happy days t.f.k.

erm... does anyway have the MS spyware exe file? You have to do windows validation now, as only genuine copies can download it and erm well...