Help Question On: Spyware & Parasite Blockers

11-25-2004 | FrankRepublican

[FrankRepublican]

Does anyone know a good tool to get rid of and block spyware,parasites,adware, viruses and other crap. I think Drudge has it on his web site. I surf but not a huge amount but the crap is getting too much.

These advertising parasites also come as worms, viruses, trohans etc.

I have tried free AdAware 6.0, free Spybot and the latest is the Giant AntiSpyware on a free trial. Giant seems the best but a lot of crap is still there.

I also run Norton (worthless on most of this stuff), Solo (great AV program) plus have used free Panada and AVG in the past.

The Internet is rapidly becoming a waste of time for me. I tried to stick to mainly newsweb sites and links off Drudge. I am thinking of switching to Mozilla's browser as MSFT IE appears to be crap.

Help. Any suggestion appreciated. Also let's give thanks to American trrops protecting us on this day.

[balrog666]

Oh, and two more things.

1) If you are running Windows XP, you need to clean out your C:\Windows\Prefetch\ directory to kill some sneaky spyware that reloads itself and to prevent accumulated debris from slowing you down. Just delete the entire contents of the directory.

2) Run the "msconfig.exe" program and clean out the Windows startup items; even disabling all of them is not too much, since you can always reactivate the ones you like.

[B4Ranch]

Disconnect from the Internet

Right click on Start. Left click on Explore. Clean out the contents of the Temporary Internet Files, Temp, Recent, History Today, and your Cookies.

In Cookies, delete Index.dat and replace it with a clean new file.

Open your Internet page, click on Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom Level. Then disable all the ActiveX and Java selections.

Pop-ups no longer occur.

When you start your PC ocassionally do a Search, Search Options, Date, Files "Created" in the last 1 Day to see what files have been created in the past 24 hours. By clicking on Modified you can line them up in order of time.

I keep copies of all my INI files and for example label Win.ini as XXWin.txt. That way if I see something going wrong I have a file to check the current INI files against.

I also use Ultra Wincleaner to keep the Registry in decent shape.

[B4Ranch]

Who Profits from Security Holes?

[puppetz]

IE has never crashed my machine. I've been running mine since '97 on up to 12 different machine and never gotten a virus.

you're also wrong about the rendering. I do cgi/perl/php and other serverside coding and I'm not the only designer who thinks firefox is as useless as a box of rocks. Where do you get this crap about what is and what isn't 'lazy'? You obviously don't code for a living. Also, how the hell do you know if pages are rendering correctly or not? Unless you have an ESP plugin you have no way of knowing if firefugs is rendering a page in the way it was intended by the designer. I've been working with HTML, DHTML, SHTML, cgi, php and more for years (since '95) and I know a lot of other programmers. THe concensus is that the firefox hype is a myth and a hoax, mostly helped along by the anti-business/anti-billgates/anti-ms philosophy of a lot of disgruntled script kiddies, dilletantes such as yourself, humbugs etc. It reminds me of the hype surrounding the supposed greatness of Wikipedia- the fact is free source progs have a lot more problems and bugs than the l337s that be on the net would have you believe. You want to live in your little phantasy world go right ahead. I have to do business in the real world hun.

[EggsAckley]

Very interesting article. I bookmarked it for future reference.

When my computer was cleaned of the viruses yesterday, they found a ton of programs which I had NOT loaded, one was even a very large PC game. (I don't "do" games, don't even own any.) I'm really getting sick of this crap.

Thanks for the link.

[Trinity_Tx]

I agree with most of the answers here. : )

All of these are free and have proved to be a very effective and low-overhead combination. They will clean most problems and help protect you from future ones.

(If you have a current infection that is so bad these don't fix it, you might check this page, which gives very thorough steps.)

Adaware along with SpyBot S&D. They overlap nicely. They are great for cleaning spyware you have as well as adding a few protections from future infection. Update before each use and use the immunization feature of Spybot.
Both can be run constantly, or as needed.

Spyware Blaster too - you update and run it once a week or so, and it gives you a strong "immunization."

Spyware Guard does the same thing, though I haven't needed it so far.

Giant looks very promising but I don't think they are quite ready for prime time.

If you use IE, then turn off active X and downloads. Set your security in the Internet Zone to "high." If you come across a page that requires one of these things, you can add the URL to the Trusted Zone. Know that there are exploits that allow bad sites to run as "trusted," so it may be best to just change the settings temporarily while you use the page and keep even the trusted zone on "high security". Here is a good page explaining how to tighten IE's security.

If you don't want to mess with all that configuring, download Firefox. It is many times more secure than IE out of the box. It's free, easy, very stable, and very, very customizable. You can install extensions in seconds that add "toys" or features you want.

Even if you have a hardware NAT/firewall router like Linksys, or are using SP2's firewall, you still need a software firewall to protect your outbound traffic. I recommend Sygate Personal. It's free, stable, requires fewer resources and is more configurable than Zone-alarm. (Just don't use it along with a local proxy program like Proxomitron) True geeks can use Kerio 2.x.

A good free antivirus is AVG, and the best one to buy is Kaperski, IMHO. About once a week, run an online scan trend Micro is good, MicroWorld uses the Kaperski engine, and you can have Kaperski scan individual files (like after a download) here.
Do NOT depend on your antivirus to protect you from spyware, trojans, or the latest outbreak. It must be updated at least once a week, or it's a waste of resources.

Practice safe Cyber... don't open attachments unless you get a separate e-mail from that person telling you about it. Scan it.
Don't ever install programs that claim to fix spyware without doing a thorough search at one of the security forums mentioned here or wilders, or security forums.org.
Never click on popups that say you're infected.
Set your e-mail to text only.

Finally, Keep Windows/IE Updated.

(There are also a lot of windows settings that should be tightened, but we'd be here forever. I don't have my links on here either.)

Hope this helps...

[backhoe]

Thanks! I'll fix that.

[backhoe]

Thanks- I'll mention that.

[Trinity_Tx]

Congratulations. I ran IE for years too without problems because I knew how to configure and use it safely. The people whose computers I fix don't, and they consequently suffer from malware. As IE exploits became even more difficult to avoid, I gave up the effort and installed Firefox 4 months ago. It's been awesome. Everyone I've recommended it to or installed it for feels the same.

I've no doubt you aren't the only developer who hates Firefox. I'd love to only code for one browser too. But I haven't and wont, because it's bad business. Standards are there for a reason - use them.

And you are just wrong to continue painting Firefox users and promoters as anti-MS, dilettante, script kiddies, yadda yadda. I don't fall into any of these categories. I'm just a pragmatist, and right now, Firefox is a safer program that has made fans out of people from one end of the spectrum to the next.

Anyway, I maintain my position, as do the vast majority of coders and security specialists I know. No sense in arguing over it further.

[B4Ranch]

Slowly go through your Registry, the Programs parts and look for names that you don't recognize.

For instance the Nero CD copying Program starts with the name 'About'. That's one you would download yourself.

When you do find a name that isn't making sense, do a Google Search and track down just what it is. If it isn't wanted then do a Removal and get it out of the Registry.

[EggsAckley]

Aha! Thank you.

Here's another question for you. When I boot up my screen resolution always defaults to 8-bit. I keep having to go into the control panel display function and change it to 32 bit. This just started about a month ago. I can't seem to make it default to 32 bit.

Thanks again!

[jumpingbird]

Try F-Secure Internet Security 2005.
Full autoupdating program. Virus/Spam/Spyware/Phishing/Hacking/ContentControl(porn,hate,violence)protection.
Free trial at www.fsecure.com

[Xenalyte]

1. Use Mozilla or Opera.

2. DO NOT visit Drudge. All his stories get posted here within minutes anyway, and his site is riddled with spyware.

I love Drudge as much as the next guy, but not enough to let him pollute my PC.

[Xenalyte]

I woulda done the job for only $125.

[Capitalism2003]

for those who don't have a solid antivirus program, make sure you download AVG. After a quick registration, you own it with free updates for life! ;) AVG 7.0

[Xenalyte]

I've found that Norton Antivirus seriously messes with my Windows 98 and ME.

That would be because 98 and ME are notoriously lame. Neither of them was an improvement over Win95 at ALL. Move to WinXP and I will bet you $100 that you don't have any Norton problems.

And lots of your other problems - especially the one about your PC being slow or unresponsive after you've been on it for awhile - will ease up.

[Xenalyte]

I went back to windows 98 for the internet.

"Back" implies that you tried something newer - which would be either ME or XP - and returned to 98.

I can assure you that XP allows you to browse the Internet. I'm using XP right now. If the only reason you're on 98 is "for the Internet," you don't have a reason.

ME, on the other hand, sucks rhino and should never be used. Ever.

[Xenalyte]

Know what file you want? (Yes, you do: it's called UnWise.exe.) Here's a hint.

Click Start, then Search, then "All files and folders."

A small box will appear asking you to enter "all or part of the file name."

In that box, type in unwise.exe.

Change "Look in:" to "My Computer."

Click Search.

If you don't find the file that way, drop me a FReepmail. However, I put your odds of success with my method at around 99%.

[Xenalyte]

I can vouch for Aluria Spyware Removal tool. This is the same system wide tool AOL uses. $39

That there's the best reason I have yet to hear for staying THE HELL AWAY from Aluria. Anything AOL does, it would be wise to do the exact opposite of.

[B4Ranch]

Off the top of my head that sounds like you have two settings that are conflicting with each other.

By any chance do you have RealOne Player installed ?