Spyware cures may cause more harm than good

C/Net News.com ^ | 2/4/2004 | John Borland

[Terpfen]

If everyone used Spybot, we wouldn't need these articles.

[N3WBI3]

yet another iece of third party software you need to buy to make a usable windows system somewhat safe..

[nuconvert]

I use Ad-Aware. Glad they have a clean record.

[dts32041]

Yes but it should be used with Ad Aware, a good anti virus program (updated at Least once a week) and a firewall.

[vetvetdoug]

I had to send my computer to the doctor because of this Spyware that invaded my computer without my knowing it. It completely screwed my puter' up. These guys that do this should be castrated with a dull knife or if its a woman have their nipples cut out. I felt as if I had been robbed because they invaded my computer without my permission.

[RosieCotton]

Spyboy is awesome! If I ever become rich, I owe them a goodly donation for all the problems they've helped me fix on various computers over the last few years.

[xrp]

Unless you're so stupid you don't know how to configure your Windows platform to be immune to such things.

[newgeezer]

Spybot Search & Destroy is the best. End of story.

:-)

[Terpfen]

Firewall; built in to my DSL modem. Virus scanner; AVG Anti-Virus 6.0.

[sinkspur]

Ad-Aware is fantastic. And it's free.

Run it once a week and you think you've got a new computer after running it.

All this spyware slows down an older computer significantly.

[Terpfen]

The situation is like this because 95% of all computers use Windows; if that OS was Linux instead of Windows, I guarantee many of the same problems would still exist.

Other OSes are safe only as long as they're perceived as l337 by the script kiddie h4x0rz.

[xrp]

Yes but it should be used with Ad Aware, a good anti virus program (updated at Least once a week) and a firewall.

Any ports open on that firewall? Ever load Java or ActiveX? BAM, right through the firewall ;-)

[wireman]

Absolutely!

[js1138]

And if you don't even want to see the "offers" to install, try this.

[dts32041]

You still have to practice safe computing even with all this, thats why the other software.

What really bugs me is I use opera 7.23 as a browser and zone alarm as a firewall, and have to deactivate it to log onto rush 24/7.

Haven't been able to figure out what is going on with that, only thing I can figure is zone alarm doesn't like Rush :-)

[xrp]

That's cuz Zone Alarm is just a FW and you need to find the port that Rush uses for streaming. You might want to get more than just a firewall for your desktop.

[robertpaulsen]

Also, run Spider to delete your Internet Explorer index.dat file which contains the sites you visited.

[per loin]

These programs are a form of breaking and entering, and all those involved with developing and distributing them, as well as those advertising through them, are members of criminal conspiracies to break and enter. Long prison terms are the correct method to deal with such criminal conspiracies.

[robertpaulsen]

delete=purge