The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Man I swear, Spyware is a frikkin pain in the rear, somehow all this crap has piled onto my computer and i was finally able to get the software runnin to kick all that crap out, anyone else here had some seriously frustrating runins with spyware

I have to deal with that crap almost everyday. I work on the computers at a medium sized business. Nearly everyday I get a call from someome complaining about spyware or annoying popups. Usually I can run Spybot and Adware to knock it out. Sometimes, however, it's just easier to re-build the PC. It's a real pain to deal with but, on the bright side, it does provide a form of job security, I guess.

Dude, I'm getting that shdeit on a daily basis. Wouldn't you love to meet one of those folks who was bragging about setting up a spy or virus? I'd need a blow torch and a pair of plyers...

RagingRigginz wrote:Man I swear, Spyware is a frikkin pain in the rear, somehow all this crap has piled onto my computer and i was finally able to get the software runnin to kick all that crap out, anyone else here had some seriously frustrating runins with spyware

www.lavasoftusa.com get "AD-Aware Personal" it's free and it takes the crap out of your computer!

Does it clash with Norton Professional ?

You can eliminate most of your spyware/adware problems by using a browser that is more secure than Internet Explorer. In my opinion Mozilla Firefox is the best there is, but there are several others.

I use both AdAware and Spybot S&D on my computer to clean out spyware, but I was recently warned by IT at my work that they have had problems with Spybot bringing in viruses on computers. I don't know how credible that information is, because I've never had a virus. My wife is the only one who uses IE on my computer and that is where all of the spyware/adware/random IE toolbars come from.

Also, if your virus software is out-of-date or you don't have any, there is a good free program called AVG.

tcwest10 wrote:Does it clash with Norton Professional ?

I have Norton Corporate Edition and never had a problem!

Okay. Becuase when I run the scan, all the Gain stuff remains. Norton can't delete it, and I want it gone.
Will that download do the trick ?

Which program are you running? Because I've seen both AdAware and Spyboy S&D catch things the other didn't.

Also, does Gain have a web site? Many of these intrusive marketing programs provide removal instructions on their web sites.

Yeah, Gain does have all that. The problem is, you have to delete each file individually, and the process could take days since the programs seem to have fifty files each.
I'm running XP, BTW.

tcwest10 wrote:Okay. Becuase when I run the scan, all the Gain stuff remains. Norton can't delete it, and I want it gone.
Will that download do the trick ?

I'm not sure if Ad-Aware gets "Gain" or not, but if it doesn't try to find "Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.2" that gets "Gain" 100%!

After you run these programs "restart" your computer!

I use a program called spy sweeper for spy ware, and a program called stopzilla for popups. I haven't had a single pop up since installing it. The spy sweeper works great as well.

I use Ad-Aware, which seems to kill anything that's killable. Two tips:

- don't forget to pull the Ad-Aware updates. Then run a sweep. Data miners and "malware" writers add variations just as often as virus writers...maybe more often, because the data miners and their ilk are good old capitalists, making a buck for their employers, while the virus guys have been mostly unpaid, self-appointed destructors. [side note: there are rumors in the trade press that some Eastern European crime gangs have gone in for extortion: pay or we will have our programmers launcha denial of service attack on you company's website.]

- I've plunked down the whole $25 to get the in-core upgrade. Free Ad-aware scans in batch, only when you run it. You are vulnerable in between runs. The pay version sits in RAM, and blocks the spyware/malware from installing itself.

I haven't used Spybot.

General advice, which I tell my wife and kids, but which they resolutely ignore):

- don't install Limeware

- don't install KaZaa (or however it is spelled)

- don't any "free" browser add-ons, such as the "enhanced" search system

- don't download music / videos from "free" sites

Yes, this seems harsh, old-fashioned, even ascetic.

All these companies make their money in some way. If they don't charge you up front, then, like KazAa, they probably want to sell popup adds and information about you to marketing firms.

welch wrote:I use Ad-Aware, which seems to kill anything that's killable. Two tips:

- don't forget to pull the Ad-Aware updates. Then run a sweep. Data miners and "malware" writers add variations just as often as virus writers...maybe more often, because the data miners and their ilk are good old capitalists, making a buck for their employers, while the virus guys have been mostly unpaid, self-appointed destructors. [side note: there are rumors in the trade press that some Eastern European crime gangs have gone in for extortion: pay or we will have our programmers launcha denial of service attack on you company's website.]

- I've plunked down the whole $25 to get the in-core upgrade. Free Ad-aware scans in batch, only when you run it. You are vulnerable in between runs. The pay version sits in RAM, and blocks the spyware/malware from installing itself.

I haven't used Spybot.

General advice, which I tell my wife and kids, but which they resolutely ignore):

- don't install Limeware

- don't install KaZaa (or however it is spelled)

- don't any "free" browser add-ons, such as the "enhanced" search system

- don't download music / videos from "free" sites

Yes, this seems harsh, old-fashioned, even ascetic.

All these companies make their money in some way. If they don't charge you up front, then, like KazAa, they probably want to sell popup adds and information about you to marketing firms.

Did you me "limewire"????? I have it & never had a problem!

Yes, "limewire".

(Also "Gator" and a "smiley bots" search enhancement that my wife and kids like).

On Limewire, I couldn't point to one particular problem, but sales reps at work loaded it onto the shared office "cyber cafe" machines. The machines slowed to a crawl. I un-installed Limewire, and they improved. That is one bit of evidence.

(For accuracy, I uninstalled everything that I didn't know should be on the machines. Maybe the machines got "the crawls" from something small that I didn't take special notice of when I killed it.)

If I remember correctly, Limewire is the program that tries to keep you from un-installing. It pops a window that says something like, "I won't un-install unless you tell me why", and pesters you for an answer. That's another bit of evidence. Makes me suspicious. A legit program has an install, it uninstalls cleanly, and that's that.

Again, if I remember correctly, Limewire installs odd things all over the place. That's another bit of evidence.

Finally, there is my general rule: nobody writes software and runs a website unless they have some kind of revenue stream. I didn't bother to look over Limewire central; who pays for them?

Further, any bit of software that installs and controls the downloading of files should not be trusted, unless they are known good guys.

As they say, you mileage may vary.

welch wrote:Finally, there is my general rule: nobody writes software and runs a website unless they have some kind of revenue stream. I didn't bother to look over Limewire central; who pays for them?

Well, that's just not true.

welch wrote:Further, any bit of software that installs and controls the downloading of files should not be trusted, unless they are known good guys.

I totally agree.

Again, with Firefox you won't get any spyware installed without your knowledge, and it blocks pop-ups. So, get Firefox, don't download software unless you trust it, run ad-aware and spybot, and keep your antivirus current.

Clarify: I'm not talking about Open Source, in general. In fact, I'm using Mozilla this minute, and will not use Internet Explorer except for wacky websites that are tightly coupled to it.

Use Mozilla, and its subsiaries. Some virus writers use a few Microsoft features -- parts of ActiveX -- that Mozilla does not support. Hence, those viruses can't hit Mozilla.

Further, Mozilla and family are easily as good -- steady, feature-ful -- as IE.

It is not perfect, and Mozilla has had its own problems. Check for updates.

I believe in Linux, Apache, etc, but each OSS project has to support itself. On smaller projects, people volunteer their programming, and the projects are small enough that it works. On larger ones, see the struggles of Redhat, SuSe, etc etc. At the smallest, they depend on donations, and the programmers work in their spare time. Note the Australians who give out a phone number so you can donate a pizza.

Often, the business model is to give away free copies, but sell the nifty enhanced version. That is the Add-Aware model.

However, look for the hook inside the bait. Be careful; peer-to-peer software, especially, can be misused.

Cville, thanks for the firefox tip! Man, that was easy. You know this computer stuff like the back of your hand - appreciate it very much.

I was getting hammered with spyware and pop-ups to the point I called my cable company and complained that it was the modem. They sent someone out to take a look at it. He said it wasn't the modem, but showed me what to do. He went to www.webroot.com and walked me through the process. It's free initially, and then it's free for 30 days. I haven't had a problem since. Not only that, but he tipped me off the the ONLY p2p that's safe.

I use Firefox based on a tip from NC43Hog and as cville said, except for sites that say you need to run IE, I never use it. No pop ups since I started using it. I even downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird email client to use with my theHogs.net email. Unfortunately, none of the major email providers that I can have the mail forwarded to allow for pop3 and smtp connections anymore unless you pay for it.

Cville and Welch gave some very good advice.

Also another thing that is very useful for those in need of a firewall is zonealarm. Very user friendly and a lot simpler for the "average user" than Norton which can be a bit more complex even thought I prefer it.

Zonealarm like Norton offers a lot of internet protection including ad-blocking and spyware detection and elimination.

Forgot one thing that was free too - Spysubtract. I downloaded it and bumped a couple of things that I couldn't get out ISTbar and CWS. I'm going through a bunch of sheite right now. Anyone heard of Pest Patrol? How is it if so?

I just got hit with a really annoying one this weekend, the cashback/bargain buddy. This one was a pain, it would come back after being cleaned out by adaware/spybot/gaint everything I tried worked, then after a reboot it came back. Then I found that it installed a service called ISEXEng that I had to set to Disabled, then delete all my temp internet files then run again and that finally stopped it. So if you run across the cashback dog icon, remember this.