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Thread: Spyware: antivirus or 3rd party?

  1. #1
    PHP/PostgreSQL guy
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    1,164

    Post Spyware: antivirus or 3rd party?

    It's no surprise with the advent of spyware into programs these days, and it seems more and more have it. Spyware, by definition, is embedded into the code to do profiling for various things, based on history, cache, installed programs, etc etc to report back to some company so that they can "modify to the customer's needs". That might be a bit off but nonetheless, it's not something you'll see at install time and you may find out about it through word of mouth or reading online about it, etc.

    "What do I do about this and how can I check to see if I have spyware?", you say.

    1: A product called Ad-Aware by Lavasoft does an *outstanding* job of detecting known spyware, displaying the location of it, and you can leave it, mark it, and/or clean it. It's highly recommended (I bought a copy) and won't let you down. Add in the fact that with the bought version, you get a monitor program that's tiny and runs in memory real-time that will detect installing spyware. I tried this and within about 1 second, it popped up with the file and the spyware. Great product and I recommend anyone to buy a copy as you won't regret it and it'll be on your short list of "Things I have to install for Windows". For those who want to know, there's a "RefUpdate" utility that you can also download for free (it's on 1.3 now) that will download the latest reference file and install it into AdAware so you'll have the latest list to check against.

    2: Don't install just anything anyone gives you, regardless of what you can get for "free". A lot of p2p share programs have spyware, and there's a plethora of others out there. If you don't need it, or you would rather use a program that's a little more known, ignore these programs or at the very least, do your homework (research) on it. 5 minutes of education is priceless and might save you a lot of time.

    Hope this helps a bit for those looking to get rid of spyware.
    We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much with so little for so long that we are now qualified to do just about anything with almost nothing.

  2. #2
    Fastest Thing Alive s0nIc's Avatar
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    Cool

    wow.. thanks for that advice.. though i might d/l that software when i get my own computer.. lolz

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    590

    Thumbs up

    I would also strongly recommend Ad-Aware. I got it from those CD's that come with PC Magazines. Installed it and it detected 7 entries of spyware on my system (Most from Kazaa). I gave it to my friend - it detected 49 entries - I couldn't believe it!!!

    Like Vorlin says, it's really an *outstanding* program. I'll give it 10/10!

    Greg
    \"Do you know what people are most afraid of?
    What they don\'t understand.
    When we don\'t understand, we turn to our assumptions.\"
    -- William Forrester

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
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    Thumbs up

    You are right about AdWare it is a great program I`ve been using it for a year and have found no real problems with it. It installs very easy and is done in such a way that even someone who doesn`t know to much about security can use it with ease. There is a free version that you can download from their site which does most of the same if anyone wants that its at www.lavasoftUSA.com the version that I have is 5.5 .
    No good deed goes unpunished.

  5. #5
    Computer Forensics
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
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    672
    http://www.extremetech.com/article/0...53D1066,00.asp

    as I posted in another thread somewhere.....BHO cop is another great tool for removing spyware.... I found the link that describes spyware(how it works etc) and the download area for it.



    enjoy
    Antionline in a nutshell
    \"You\'re putting the fate of the world in the hands of a bunch of idiots I wouldn\'t trust with a potato gun\"

    Trust your Technolust

  6. #6
    PHP/PostgreSQL guy
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    1,164
    Good deal...that link hogfly posted as pretty informative. I hadn't heard of the Browser Help Object so it was a good read. I'm not liking the spyware that gets installed from an application, especially if you select it to NOT be installed (kind of like Online Services for Win98). I understand it might be a ploy to get leechers to pay for the product they're using but I'd just rather remove functionality from a program and let registered users get the full benefits. MHO that is.
    We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much with so little for so long that we are now qualified to do just about anything with almost nothing.

  7. #7
    good info and link, vorlin n hogfly.

    i hv been using adaware for some time now... it did occur to me and made me wonder if adaware itself is just another spyware??


    rgds
    de

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