mickle Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 (edited) 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 Edited November 14, 2004 by mickle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouda Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouda Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hophead Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 After i'd gone to bed last night i wondered why i didn't post this link too Free AntiVirus software B) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binary Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 (edited) 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? Edited September 7, 2004 by binary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HvyFuel Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickle Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 Also Firefox still ... doesn't render all CSS pages correctly. Are you kidding? No browser out there renders all CSS pages correctly, from my experience coding CSS I have found that Firefox implements much more CSS than IE. Using Firefox wont make you invulnerable but it does make you much less of a target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peppi Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 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 ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondor Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickle Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) I get about 2 virus's a month! where from? I think i've had 2 viruses in 10 years edit: ahh just realised maybe you mean you recieve them by email, I get some by email but they usually get put in the spam folder and arent dangerous anyway. Edited September 8, 2004 by mickle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binary Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) Are you kidding? No browser out there renders all CSS pages correctly, from my experience coding CSS I have found that Firefox implements much more CSS than IE.Using Firefox wont make you invulnerable but it does make you much less of a target. No mate I'm not kidding, http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+css...en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 the developers I work with are constantly complaining about this issue and so far they've found no CSS rendering bugs with IE6 and I've been unable to find any major one. It reared it's head with developers now doing their page layouts with DIV containers instead of tables. Earlier versions of IE were bad, but 6 is fine although to be fair the Firefox problems could be due to it still being a beta and not having released production code yet. I think the reason you are less vulnerable with Firefox, is roughly 84% of users use IE, hence more effort being put into finding exploits with IE. Same situation between PCs and MACs. On the home/family PC I use AVG, Zonealarm, Adaware. and Spybot and can't remember having had a virus. Edited September 8, 2004 by binary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickle Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 No mate I'm not kidding, http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+css...en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 The first result on that page is someone discovering that IE doesnt properly support position:fixed the developers I work with are constantly complaining about this issue What issue? IE renders many things wrong or fails to support CSS standards so if people design something with IE in mind then they will be surprised when they view it in a more standards compliant browser such as Firefox. Often they see it as Firefox being wrong when it is actually their own faulty coding. I think the reason you are less vulnerable with Firefox, is roughly 84% of users use IE, hence more effort being put into finding exploits with IE. Same situation between PCs and MACs. Theres something I can agree with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickle Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 While I am here... I wish IE would support pseudo selectors on all elements boo retarded IE... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binary Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) if people design something with IE in mind then they will be surprised when they view it in a more standards compliant browser such as Firefox. Often they see it as Firefox being wrong when it is actually their own faulty coding. Someone mention W3C ? Who are they then? That's a very good point, 1 nil to you. Edited September 8, 2004 by binary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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