Malware, Adware and Spyware

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I use a Macintosh.

Same here. Let the PC users deal with this stuff, we have more important things to do.

[aaronbr28040]

I use Adware 6.0, and Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition......and msconfig haha. Our school provides most of the software we could want to all of the computers on the network (Windows XP pro, Office XP, Norton, Adware etc) for free. To stop the popups I use Mozilla Firefox.........well actually right now its calling itself Mozilla Supergoat due to an extension I added.
-Aaron

[Mike8519]

I use:
Opera internet browser
Ad-Aware
Spybot
Panda Platinum (Antivirus/Firewall)

Panda is pretty amazing, far ahead of norton/mcaffee

[Justin Stiltner]

In our school system we only use Ad-aware or our new favorite spy sweeper which seems to catch more things than ad-aware.

Ad-aware

Spy Sweeper

[Marc P.]

I use the standard Spybot/Ad-Aware combo, AVG Antivirus (free for personal use), and my own manual registry hacking.

The Google Toolbar works wonders for pop-ups in IE, but I use Mozilla Firefox for everyday browsing, only opening IE for Windows updates, or the rare site Firefox won't render properly.

I must say though, that spyware/adware/crapware is becoming more of a problem than viruses. I work for a small computer repair shop, and well over 80% of the problems we fix are directly caused by this stuff- pop-ups, slow computers, even corrupt winsock files and registry entries (resulting in loss of internet connection).

I think the biggest things they come with are the file sharing programs like Kazaa, LimeWire, iMesh, etc. Lots come from fake banner ads and pop-ups posing as Windows system messages (with messages like "your clock is not set" and "if this is flashing you have ______") people unwittingly click on. What's worse is that many are accompanied by downloader trojans, so once you get one, within a few weeks you'll end up with a bunch more.

You know it's a sad world when people try (and succeed) making money by hijacking your personal property for their malicious use (either as a spam relay, or constantly producing advertising pop-ups). Makes me very happy to be part of FIRST, with the hopes that within a few generations, Gracious Professionalism will work it's way up the corporate ladder and this sort of thing will be frowned upon by the supporters of this type of marketing.

[Ashley Weed]

On all three of my machines (HP Pavilion desktop, ze4100, and zd7000)... I have always been very fond of running Zone Alarm and Ad-aware. I run Norton Corporate usually as a standard, I am running the 90-day "prescription" for the standard Norton on the new zd7000.

.... I was always fond of IE. I ran Mozilla for a short time almost two years ago, never quite liking it. Wow! I just loaded Firefox - amazing! I love the google box!

[sburro]

Now I am scared. I only run a Mcafee virus scan/ firewall. I only have a dial up connecton Is there anything that I should be afraid of?

[MissInformation]

I have been having one #@&*% of a time with adware and spyware. I get pop-up ads without even having a browser window open! So I am now running AVG Antivirus, Spybot, Ad-aware and Stinger. I'm probably going to add Zone Alarm, and have seriously been thinking of going to Mozilla for my browsing needs... By the time I finish, I'm going to have a safe computer, but no memory left for anything else! It kind of makes me dream of doing evil, evil things to the people who create adware and such...

Heidi

<=========>
Evil, I tell you!

[ebmonon36]

I have Ad-aware, XP firewall, Google toolbar, Hijackthis, and have pondered installing ZoneAlarm, and when at home, dial-up so im not online that much.
Eric

[Jeff Waegelin]

I run Zone Alarm and Norton 2003 all the time, and Ad-Aware and Spybot about once every 2 weeks. My popup blocker is my right index finger

[Ryan M.]

Most of the above, plus, to "keep my computer running well" I use registry cleaners of various sorts. Although, I wouldn't recomend that to anyone who doesn't even know what the registry is...

Or, just go with Linux. You are instantly protected from the most common everythings...

--EDIT--
Oh, yeah. MissInfo. I can't see your computer, but they might be Windows Messenger windows. Try "shoot the messenger." (Put that into Google.) Or, find it under the Windows services and set it to disabled.

[JakeGallagher]

Originally Posted by MissInformation

I have been having one #@&*% of a time with adware and spyware. I get pop-up ads without even having a browser window open! So I am now running AVG Antivirus, Spybot, Ad-aware and Stinger. I'm probably going to add Zone Alarm, and have seriously been thinking of going to Mozilla for my browsing needs... By the time I finish, I'm going to have a safe computer, but no memory left for anything else! It kind of makes me dream of doing evil, evil things to the people who create adware and such...

My advice is to just reformat...my friend had the same problem and no matter what he did, he couldn't get the popups and all that crap off his system.

As for me, I run SpyBot: Search and Destroy on my systems about once a week, and that cleans most of the junk out...But as for anything else, we do Norton Antivirus which will *usually* protect.
*WARNING - Possibly offensive material in the next paragraph*
As for the people who repetitively get things like BonzaiBuddy and xupiter on systems, a lot of times it doesn't really help to preach to them because these are the people who don't know a lot about computers. They might just get another annoying piece of adware stuck on the system at some other point, so we just try to keep them informed on what kind of stuff to download, and what shouldn't be downloaded, as well as what should be avoided at all times.
Does that help any?

[Venkatesh]

Hwello,

On my Windows system (my laptop) I use the IPSec Filters as a sort of makeshift firewall. I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser. And msconfig is a good friend.

I used to run things far more securely. I had created a separate user account, stripped it of most of its rights, and ran IE under that user's context, using "runas" . But it was unnecessary once I switched to Firefox. I still run my Java interpreter under that secondary username though.

[GregT]

Mozilla Firefox
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Firefox is, in my opinion, currently the best browser. And it's opensource!
I'm convinced that most problems on a windows computer come from Internet Explorer. I can't think of any good reason to use IE.

Try Firefox.



Other programs I use, all are free:

AVG Antivirus - free for personal use
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

AdAware (adware cleaner):
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ (use the free version)
AND/OR
SpyBot S&D:
http://www.safer-networking.org/

SpyBot is probably better.

Zone Alarm (firewall):
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...id=zadb_zadown

[aaronbr28040]

I dont remember what site or forums I read it on but just the other day I read where some guy was having to register with his state as a sex offender due to child porn. He swears that he never went to those sites but it was a popup program that continually opened windows while he was browsing that sent him to those sites........It would really suck to have been falsly accussed of something such as this. Remember you are responsible for the content that is on your computer.
-Aaron