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Spyware

 
Heard of it?
Yeah. [ 18 ]  [100.00%]
No. [ 0 ]  [0.00%]
What the heck is SpyWare? [ 0 ]  [0.00%]
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Posted: 19th September 2004 16:25

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Treasure Hunter
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This is tiny programs that is coming to your computer through programsthat is downloaded from internet. They spy on everything you do and can read all your files.
I myself got a program to stop this. I know this could sound like a comercial, but anyway. it is totally free and only to the best for you! Download Ad-Aware and start it up at the end of your day. Tadaa! All the apywares are gone. But remember to do this one time each day!

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Post #60035
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Posted: 19th September 2004 19:21

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Chimera
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This is a nice program but it doesn't get rid of everything all the time. On multiple occasions I tried to fix computers that were acting weird with Ad-Aware. The program found stuff, deleted it, and later on it was all back again. Ad-Aware didn't attack the source of the spyware, whatever that source was. Only a reformat of the boot drive completely cleared everything. On other occasions I had to download other programs designed for specific bugs in order to clear them out.

For viruses AVG is good anti-virus software that's free. Again it won't always clear all viruses but it will at least identify them so you can look online for programs specifically made for them.

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Post #60058
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Posted: 19th September 2004 19:41

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It's not the end of the world.
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Indeed: if you have to remove spyware once a day, there's something very wrong with the spyware detector or your browsing habits.

Step one: if you're going to use Internet Explorer, make sure you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 and the latest updates. Even better, use the latest version of Firefox, Opera or Mozilla.

Step two: don't give the go-ahead to downloading and installing or running ANY software unless you know exactly what it is and that it's free of spyware and malware. If a browser asks you to install software in order to read a page or download something else afterwards, it's almost certainly going to be malware.

Provided you do this, you're unlikely to get hit by any spyware in the first place. Nevertheless, good antivirus and adbusting solutions are also important.
Post #60061
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Posted: 19th September 2004 19:44

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Climbing Marle!
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I use Mozilla , no file sharing programs, click on no pop-ups, and only download things I'm sure are safe, yet I still have spyware galore. Ad-aware is a good spyware/adware scanner, but it doesn't get nearly all of the spyware on your computer. I *highly* recommend SpySweeper by Webroot to be sure you get rid of everything. It's free and is very efficient. It takes much longer than Ad-aware, but it is more thorough.

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Is PJ
Post #60062
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Posted: 19th September 2004 20:38

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I just ran this to test it. It found 27 items, which on the face of it looks like I have a lot of spyware. In reality, in the breakdown of what it found:
  • 25 were browser cookies, which at worst can only track information of your visits to Web pages using the same ad provider to show ads only on those sites, never independently. The cookies it caught included one for MSN Passport, which is used for Hotmail. They were all IE cookies, too. (I assume it can't read the Mozilla format.)
  • 2 were actually related to adware/spyware I'd consider harmful: one from a defunct provider that was connected to GetRight, and one that's apparently installed by Microsoft Office XP. In both cases, the actual elements found by the program were leftover traces that couldn't do anything on their own: I expect Getright added the associated entries as a leftover of when it used to come with adware, and MS Office probably had the actual adware elements removed in one of the service packs.

So that's a total of 0 entries that are actually worth worrying about in some ten months without running any ad software. Rather than Adaware not being vigorous enough, I have to wonder whether SpySweeper is in face a little overzealous.

Nevertheless, I must stress that it does no harm to scan often, and in many cases it does a lot of good. I don't mean to discourage use of such software in any way. But, y'know, "not all horses are Trojan". Or something.
Post #60067
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Posted: 20th September 2004 00:32

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Dragoon
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AdAware is actually kinda iffy about removing spyware...

I once ran like four scans, but the same types of spywares and cookies kept showing up... however... after I rebooted and ran it again to get rid of them, and then ran it a second time... they were gone...

It's kinda wierd. Sometimes it gets rid of everything, and sometimes it don't... I don't have an explanation, that's just my observation. :-/

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Post #60093
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Posted: 20th September 2004 00:40

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Black Mage
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I actually have SpyHunter, the full version that costs $30. I run it every once in a while, but not that often. It's actually a very good program to have. It will find all parasites in the Memory, Files, Cookies, and Registry, explaining whether or not the parasites are Severe and what each parasite does and comes from. I haven't heard of AdAware, though. From some of the posts, it doens't seem like a very reliable source for deleting SpyWare. sleep.gif

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Post #60094
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Endless Knight
Posted: 20th September 2004 00:55
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Quote (MathNo.2 @ 19th September 2004 19:40)
From some of the posts, it doens't seem like a very reliable source for deleting SpyWare. sleep.gif

No, it's pretty good. It's not perfect, but it will tell you if a file is a cookie, etc... and allow you to remove it. I'm not saying that it's the best, but it does a pretty good job. I know many people who use Ad-Aware and none of them have ever had any problems with Spyware since. I'm sure that other programs could produce simular or better results.
Post #60095
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Posted: 20th September 2004 03:00

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Lunarian
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As a sidenote, the second and third options are the exact same thing. How kind of everyone to not point that out.

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Post #60106
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Posted: 21st September 2004 15:30

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Treasure Hunter
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It is free and don't take to much time. It helps if you take it once aday. I don't see why that is any problem. All spywares disappear if I take it once.

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Post #60210
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Posted: 21st September 2004 21:47

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Engineer
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Yeah, I know about Spyware. I know about the 318 peices of it my Dad found on my Compy. I know about all the crap I got in since I'm the only one using the internet anymore... *sigh* He used Ad Aware to get rid of it, and now makes me use firefox as our browser. Ahh well.

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Post #60236
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Endless Knight
Posted: 22nd September 2004 02:00
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Quote (Ultros: Octopus Royalty @ 21st September 2004 16:47)
He used Ad Aware to get rid of it, and now makes me use firefox as our browser.

Well as Tiddles would possibly say, "At least some good came out of it!" wink.gif
Post #60260
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Posted: 22nd September 2004 03:03

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Magitek Soldier
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I use Spysweeper by Webroot. All I have to do is boot it up whenever I turn on my computer and it catches everything. I used to use this program called Spybot but it always froze, so I stopped using it.

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Post #60265
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Posted: 22nd September 2004 17:48

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Dragoon
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Come on guys. Go the Spybot: Search and Destroy route. I have both that and ad-aware. And believe me, I run ad-aware all the time first, and it's amazing how much stuff it misses. I've been at college, and no one knows anything about computers in my family, so I came home to a spyware infested computer. Spybot always does the job for me. Ad-aware gets rid of mostly cookies and items that really don't make much of a difference anyways. Spybot gets rid of registry changes and the root of the spyware. You can also immunize against 2000 or so types of spyware. I can't believe no one's mentioned it. thumbup.gif

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Post #60298
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Posted: 23rd September 2004 16:06

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Treasure Hunter
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I use Ad-Aware first and then i use the TuneUp Utillities. After that my computer is clean!

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Post #60382
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