Tech: Spyware alert

Subject: Tech: Spyware alert
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 03:55 PM

Clicked on this in the Weird news & true stories thread

Subject: RE: BS: Weird news & true stories
From: Bee-dubya-ell - PM
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 11:17 PM

Rustic, my dear nekkid Net-surfer, CLICK THIS THANG!

My security blocked an adverse download... be careful !

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 04:07 PM

Gah... more paranoia...

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: GUEST,Rosie
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 04:09 PM

You dont know what paranoia is Clinton !!!!!!!!!.

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 04:44 PM

Actually, it's ignorance. I've recently got back on the net and had hellish problems with viruses and spyware and adware and know virtually nothing about them. I just got Norton Anti-virus and Spybot but I'm still having problems. I really thought I might be doing someone a favour. Perhaps you could help me out Clinton. What would you suggest old buddy ?

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 06:16 PM

I just discovered E-Bay wants to keep loading 'Double click' when I visit, that's one of them tracking cookies I think.
Giok

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 06:44 PM

My ISP recommends ALL of the following. I downloaded them all. I've been running Spybot, but got the newer version and it found some stuff. Then I downloaded, installed and ran Ad-Aware, and it found a bunch more stuff. I got CWShredder, and it didn't find anything further. I am EXTREMELY careful about stuff like this, but there isn't much you can do to prevent getting spyware/adware on your system if you don't have programs to protect you.

Spybot Search & Destroy

Ad-Aware: Gets some things that Spybot S&D doesn't.

CWShredder: A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). Spybot S&D and Ad-aware may not get everything.

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Teresa
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 07:02 PM

Well, depending on one's preferences, anti-spy software can give a "false-positive" if it's set on high alert. they're very configurable; you can have it block popups, or have it exclude things. However, it'll only do what you tell it to, so be careful with the settings. I'd rather get a few false positives than a malware invasion.

Teresa

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 07:12 PM

plus, there are a couple other things which help to stay safe....


there is a free anti-virus program that does quite well..
AVG anti-virus

and there is much more safety in browsers like Firefox .....it is not only safer than IE, it actually has features that IE hasn't dreamed of...

also, for a better WWW experience in general, many people swear by Proxomitron, which does so many things it's hard to explain...basically, it is a filter--it looks at everything your browser goes to and decides, based on YOUR choice of rules, what to allow or show....

finally, for ever MORE protection, there is SSM...SystemSafetyMonitor which watches what your computer tries to do from the inside-- for example, one of the nasty programs DOES get past the other stuff, SSM warns you when something you didn't plan tries to launch or run...

it all sounds overwhelming, but once you get it all set up, you don't have to do much more than click a preference now & then. Until someone figures out how to find and stop the nastys at the source, we all MUST learn certain tricks...like locking our front doors, or puting anti-theft gadgets in our car. You just can't trust to luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 03:08 AM

I have Norton 2005. It identifies adware and other things but can't always get rid of them.

Should I download other anti-adware programs?

Can running a number of such programmes cause other problems?

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 06:21 AM

I get doubleclick cookies all the time. Everytime I delete all cookies (except BBC & Mudcat) Ad-aware finds nothing. You can delete all cookies in IE itself, I use system suite to select those I want to keep.

I stopped using the Firefox browser because I can't set it to display history without being on line, now what use is that? N0ne to us, plenty to whichever site it is reporting back while (allegedly) refreshing the page you want to look at. That is not history, that is spyware. Ditto Opera. Only IE5.5 and Netscape 4.7 are free of this. Because broadband was not an option when they were marketed, thats why. I would bet IE^ (up) will be reporting your surfing - prove me wrong?

Subject: RE: Tech: Spyware alert
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 11:03 AM

Les in Chorlton: if you have an older operating system (Win 98 or 95) and a a slow machine, then it is possible for too many programs running to slow or crash your machine...just like putting too much weight on a truck.....and there are a very few security programs that do not "play well with others", but there is usually no reason to NOT have one program of each type (anti-virus, anti-adware, firewall) installed.


Mr Red...Firefox will indeed show history if you are offline.(though I'm not sure why you'd bother usually) It has a setting for "work offline" and a special history manager that shows you all the links for as far back as YOU tell it. Same with Opera.

IE5.5 and Netscape 4.7 are, in fact, LESS safe and secure than Firefox and Opera, when those are properly set up.
If you are that paranoid and suspicious of the 'normal' operations of a browser, you must have a tedious time using the internet ....

"allegedly"?? refreshing the page? *tsk*...sorry...but browsers do not contain spyware that "report" to the sites you visit...cookies do that, and cookies can be easily controlled.