Posted on 11/26/2004 11:49:59 AM PST by goldstategop
The site has multiple forums for various computing problems, but the overwhelming number of inquiries in the last year has dealt with spyware, which on the site has a variety of less neutral names, "scumware" being one of the more polite. Scumware had been an epidemic; in the last year it grew into a pandemic, said Steve Wechsler, one of those drawn to Eshelman's site.
Wechsler was tending bar at a public golf course in South San Francisco when he bought his first computer less than a decade ago.
"I brought it home and turned it on, clicked on Netscape and expected something to happen. I still think about how dumb I was," he said. That ignorance makes him empathize with other casual users, people who expect their computers to be tools, not obligations.
The muting of the usefulness of those tools is what motivates him most. "I hate bullies. I've hated bullies my whole life. They prey on people. I'm not going to sit by and do nothing," he said. "It's your computer. They have no right to assault it."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Free Republic is such a great resource and many thanks to everyone here who is so helpful.
I had AdAware 6.0 and had tons of crap the past few days. I got AdAware SE thanks to the suggestions here. I have SpyBot and others too.
AdAware SE clean up almost everything plus I ran a few AV programs. I will probably spend the $26.95 for the yearly pay version of AdAware SE Plus.
Thanks to everyone here. I sure miss Drudge but I got a lot of crap from his web site. I guess he cannot make it just on banner ads.
Knowledge is power all right. I used my superior logic and knowledge to reach the conclusion that windoze was no long worth the trouble. When I bought a mac laptop just for fun and it was so nice to use and easy to operate that when my desktop started to die I just bought a Mac G5 dual processor. I don't miss windoze even a little bit.
I have no virus, spyware, scumware problems whatsoever.
We said GOOD RIDDANCE to MS Windows in my house over four years ago! ...nothing but RedHat Linux, and FreeBSD here.
BTTT for later!
Yep, the best solution to the problem.
Great stuff. Thanks, backhoe.
Your CWShredder link is no longer valid. They were bought by InterMute, and Version 2.0 is freeware, now available here:
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/10/17/10-17-150.shtml
Sounds familar. I have two friends (both with MBAs) and when it comes to taking care of their computers they are lost. One I installed adware and he couldn't believe what it found. Then Spybot put him into shock. By the time I was done he thought he had a new machine...repeated with my other friend later that day. Amazing, very smart people but fail to understand what it takes to keep their computers going.
In my state, we can shoot someone for breaking into our home.
My computer is "home".
For some reason, we cannot seem to get anyone interested in prosecuting these vandals. As with spam, the Direct Marketing Association pays a lot of bribes to weaken and neuter the Can-Spam bill, and it would not be surprising if they had a hand in this as well.
That is new info ( to me ) and I appreciate it! Will mull it over. My adventures with hijackers are here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1168134/posts
Thanks for all the great links. BTW your sygate link has a glitch.
Ping to me (another all night computer tune-up)
Ping
Scumware
Thanks for the post. AumHa is wonderful. It was love at first sight.
I can relate to this as spyware has infected my computer and i can no longer get on the internet!Earthlink put forth a valiant effort to assist me with this problem but to no avail.Spyware should be illegal and the companies should be made to pay each individual for its attaching to files and corrupting browsers."IT IS I WHO WILL DECIDE YOUR NEED TO KNOW"!!! I DON'T GIVE A DA#N ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS AND HOPE IT FAILS!!When this spyware is used it is NO different than a thief breaking into your home and stealing.
A few months ago, I gave my son my "old" computer; a machine that had always performed perfectly for me, and which had a good antivirus program that I kept updated, as well as downloading all of the MS updates and fixes. Last month, they began to complain of it crashing. Then it stopped altogether. I ran AdAware and found over 700 instances of viruses, spyware and other data miners and dirty tricks. But they still had to reformat and reinstall. Files were so corrupted they simply couldn't run. Of course, neither of them ever thought to install any kind of firewall.
AdWareSE failed.
SpyBot Search & Destroy failed.
WebRoot SpySweeper failed.
Finally Giant AntiSpyware cleaned it up. It couldn't do it alone, I was busy in Add & Remove Programs, MSCONFIG, and the Registry. It took me 3 non-stop hours to finally eradicate everything (I hope it is gone.).
The bad thing is that my system is patched up, locked down, etc. But it STILL got slimed.
add to that list of spyware cleaners
Giant Antispyware
http://www.download.com/GIANT-AntiSpyware/3000-8022_4-10340291.html
have seen several pcs this week with "TVMedia", "180 Solutions" and "Network Terrorist" spyware that altho said 'cleaned' by Ad-Aware and Spybot, atill this Giant found more entires...
free to try for 15 days.
I think it is a good one.
Nice info. thanks.
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