Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?

Subject: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:25 PM

CRS.....

I don't rmember downloading Kontiki, but apparently I have it; do I want to keep it? If I downloaded it myself, what might I have been trying to accomplish?

It's offering to delete unused files for me (I don't THINK so!)....

Will I lose anything good if I uninstall it?

~Susan

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:29 PM

I think it's a dive resort on the coast of Bonaire. How did you download that???

:>)


A

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:30 PM

I was crewing for Thor Heyerdahl and when we ran aground we bought souvenirs?

~S~

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:31 PM

KOntiki may be a disaster waiting to happen. I think it may be worm.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:33 PM

Google has Kontiki as a trojan horse type worm. Spyware probably. Do you have Ad-aware? If not down load it, its free and it boots out spyware and other nasties pretty well.

Don

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:35 PM

Nothing at Symantec, and I have had this for awhile, through weekly Norton updates and scans. A worm asking me to OK it's action? I kinda doubt it....

~S~

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: artbrooks
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 07:42 PM

Kontiki is a download manager. PC Magazine reviewed it a couple of years ago, here. They said it was ok, if you really need a download manager, but nothing spectacular. Other comments from users indicate that other people using the program can see/access your downloads. I'd stay away from it.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 08:03 PM

AdAware is a quick, easy download and looks a lot like Norton in actual use-- very comforting. It just found and gave a lot of crap the old heave-ho.

I think these helpful programs ought to run shanty tunes while working. Someone please see to it!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 09:27 PM

Art, searck Kontiki and virus in the same window and see where it leads you.

Don

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 09:27 PM

"Spyware" components of download managers like Kontiki aren't generally detected by Ad-Aware. SpyBot is more specific to this kind of stuff, and should be able to eliminate the "spy" component.

Removing the spyware part of it will probably make the download manager quit working. Even Spybot won't remove the "whole program." It just kills the "tracking and reporting" functions. You will still probably want to uninstall (if you can) or go in and delete anything you can identify as "belonging to" the program.

Note that "uninstalling," or deleting the obvious files for the program, probably will not remove the spyware that came embedded in it. If there is an uninstall, it's more likely to run if you do it before you use Spybot, but you still will want Spybot after you've run any uninstall that the program put on your machine.

The "spyware" is contained in the program. Since you volunteer to be spied upon when you download the manager (you gotta read the fine print in those EULAs), Norton ignores it. It's just a program that you installed to Norton, and reporting everything you do is its "normal program function."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 09:36 PM

Per your suggestion, Don, I tried Kontiki + virus in Google, and find reports that McAfee uses Kontiki as their download manager. Reports remain, however, that like most file sharing "download managers" it has an invasive tracking component, which is the reason that things like Spybot (but probably not Ad-Aware) will report it.

If you use McAfee AV, you might want to investigate further before killing it, but it probably is being rather "nosy" about your web activities.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 11:43 PM

<> AdAware DID remove a whole bunch of Kontiki stuff, but I will go look and see if it's totally gone.

<> Since I don't use McAfee, that's not how I got Kontiki.

<> I do have SpyBot but all it seems to do is block Hotmail from opening till I click "OK" after it tells me it's blocked Avenue A, and then when I click OK an ad opens and so does Hotmail. We have come to loathe SpyBot.

???

~Susan

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 12:01 AM

John, My experience with Ad Aware, along with Zone Alarm and AVG has been very good. It has identified anything with Kontiki on board for me. And I have removed it. It also has isolated DyFuCa / Difica for me when nothing else would touch it. To each their own I guess but Ad Aware seems to do the job.

Don

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 01:01 AM

I suspect that the observations about the relative effectiveness of the "cleaner" programs probably has a lot to do with our individual surfing habits. Mine are extremely boring, so I tend not to encounter much beyond the AdClick and DoubleClick cookie things. After using Ad-Aware fairly regularly for a few months, Spybot did find several items that Ad-Aware hadn't noted, mostly minor. I also have not observed anything that Ad-Aware did find on my machine that I wouldn't have removed when I did my periodic "cookie cleaning," but this may relate to my unimaginative surfing.

I haven't attempted to turn Spybot on to get "constant surveillance." I use it only to clean up after I've been out and about a little beyond my few favorite sites; so it doesn't have the opportunity to interfere with my normal machine use.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 09:08 PM

How do I remove Kontiki from my p.c.? I've used spy-bot and ad-aware /norton and it's still ther. please help! [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 12:43 AM

Well, anonymous GUEST, I hate to be a downer, but this is not really a techie forum, but a muso forum. Some assistance is give to musos by some other more knowledgeable musos, but if you had carefully read the whole thread, you would see references to ways to remove it/search for tools to remove it .

This is why I suspect this anonymous post may merely be a 'bait' to entice people to contact the email address quoted - possibly for spam harvesting or malware stuffing purposes.

Robin

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: Alex.S
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 01:12 AM

I thought it was the name of some boat that a crazy guy built himself and sailed across the Pacific...

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 03:42 AM

Alex, it was. Not a boat, a raft. It is also (in Oz and NZ) a little version of that raft, used to pull out a longline fishing line from a surf beach, using an offshore wind.
Nowadays the Kontiki has been replaced by kites, which tack better and are faster through the crab zone.

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: Amos
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 11:27 AM

And it wasn't a crazy guy, Alex, but someone trying to prove a theory about what was possible, to explain the migrations of human beings across the Pacific thousands of years ago. And he was not alone. His name was Thor Heyerdahl, and the book he wrote on his adventures and the reason for them is called, oddly enough, "Kon Tiki". A fascinating read. See if your library can dig it up.

A

Subject: RE: Tech: What the Heck is Kontiki?
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 12:48 PM

anytime a download manager has all this baggage, it is more trouble than it's worth...I have a list of 4-5 GOOD, non-invasived download managers if anyone needs one...

(and Susan...did you have SpyBot in some constant monitoring configuration? I didn't even know it COULD stop anything in real time..I never use it except to run it now & then to tell me of problems. I have a regular firewall (Kerio) running, along with an antivirus (AVG) and Proxomitron as a "web filter"...those seem to protect me against everything necessary, and THEY can be told which sites/appplications to trust)