Adware, spyware -- How to stop this crap

vanity

[no nau]

My computer is infested with this crap and I can't get rid of it. None of the free services can solve the problem, and I might even pay for such a service, except that all of them seem to be just folks willingly to take advantage of you and charge you more money, and possibly infect you more. Has anyone here seen this? How should I and anyone else deal with this?

[org.whodat]

You left out, In Xp create accounts, never use the administrator account and password on the Internet.

[Domandred]

.Ubuntu DOES have the same "try before you buy feature"

If you're paying for Ubuntu you're doing something wrong.

[Kirkwood]

I’ve been using PC-Cillin for over a decade on more than a dozen systems that are running 24/7 on a WAN with zero problems. That is 876,000 on-line hours with no viruses or ad-ware attacks. It is an excellent product.

[bjcintennessee]

ping

[Kirkwood]

I take that back... it is actually more than a million on-line hours with no problems at my company.

[hiredhand]

I can't answer that from the information that CERT or ISAC sends me. I do know from from a former "WhiteHat" job that a good many of the exploits are a lot easier than people think. Also, with the increase in public access WAPs, and tools such as AirSnort, Kismet, and AirCrack, the "mischief level" has increased in step with public wireless....even that which uses WEP only takes "about" an hour to crack with those tools I mentioned above. After that, IPV4 snooping attacks are as easy as being on an old broadcast ethernet LAN.

The IDS/IPS world has come a long way in the last five years and has essentially permitted us to determine the time between zero-day and proliferation of a network based threat.

IMHO, the threats referred to by the likes of CERT and ISAC won't be used by "users"....at least not the sort that most people think of when they hear the term. :-)

[HereInTheHeartland]

No one should be using Internet Explorer. It is a spyware magnet.
Firefox is quicker, cleaner and attracts much less gunk.

As others have said, AVG is a good anti virus.
Plus run programs like Spybot and AdAware regularly. They will get stuff AVG doesn’t catch.

Sometimes though you just have to wipe the drive clean ans start over if it’s bad enough.
But if you do start over, get the above software on your hardrive right away after reformatting.

[exDemMom]

I’ve had problems with trojans since the end of January. First, a.doginhispen and its spin-off b.skitodayplease showed up. They caused major problems for Internet Explorer. Norton did not pick them up. I got McAfee, and it picked them up, but they disabled crucial components of McAfee, and I was unable to remove them. While I was at work, hubby took a look and was able to get rid of them.

Then, a few days ago, trojan.advatrix showed up. McAfee did not pick it up. A full Symantec scan didn’t pick it up. However, a Symantec auto-scan kept picking up activity in the documents and settings folder, in a folder used by the Symantec program. A couple of tmp files were there; I looked at one, and found text in there (among a lot of gibberish) that indicated they were created by the trojan. After observing that new tmp files would appear upon computer start-up after deleting the previous ones, I figured the virus was hiding in that folder, and shift-deleted the folder so it wouldn’t go to the recycle bin. This trojan had also put some folders (Winbudget) in the program folder; I deleted those as well. On the Symantec website were instructions for editing the registry to remove entries made by that trojan, so I did that, too. It seems to have worked; I have not had the Symantec auto-scan window pop up again.

I have no idea how I got the trojans; when they appeared, I had downloaded nothing for several days. I rarely check email on this computer, and when I do, it’s to delete it, so they couldn’t have arrived as attachments.

[hiredhand]

I didn't mean it LITERALLY. :-)

[dayglored]

> You left out, In Xp create accounts, never use the administrator account and password on the Internet.

You're absolutely correct.

Good lord, does anybody still do that??? (Yeah, I know...)

[television is just wrong]

when I am im ing to a friend i get this message that she has sent me some virus scanning stuff or emo stuff

i aske her about it, she says she didn’t send it. either she has downloaded it and doesn ‘t know it is sending messages for me to down load or whatever. I don’t click on it.

it is just strange.

[jetson]

bip

[Sprite518]

Look all you need is three programs. Two are Free, and one will cost you about $30. Worth it I think to keep your computer smooth and fast.

1) Get CC Cleaner (Just Google It, and be sure all boxes are checked when running it)

2) Get Ad Adware. (Gooogle it too. Make sure it checks the entire computer)

3) Registry First Aid (It will cost you but worth it.) Your computer will be fast.

I run these three programs at least once every two and half to three weeks. I also run a virus check. It takes about 6 hours of maintenance. Nevertheless, my computer runs like a champ. The virus is the longest. Since I have it checking the entire computer. I usually run it right before I go to bed, or if I am heading out of the house.

Hope this helps you out.

[antiRepublicrat]

These have been suggested in other combinations, but for my PC the combo has been:

Adaware
AVG Antivirus
Firefox browser with the AdBlock (plus filterset updater) and NoScript extensions
Thunderbird email

All free. The only time I got anything was when my wife used Internet Explorer, but that got caught and removed by Adaware. I don’t do anything special for the Mac.

[DelphiUser]

I have two kinds of Sites, the kind I know and frequent, like FR, and the kind I treat like they could be carrying a disease (everything I have not checked out before)

For the Sites you know you trust, all the suggestions above are great, even overkill. For all other sites, I use a Virtual machine. With a virtual machine, I get through with the Internet, and don't commit any changes to disk, poof, all gone. Some will say stay away from pron sites, LOL really, I have been on tech sites and clicked a promising link to information and POOF Pron.

JFTR, I do a lot of research for work, research = sites I don't trust.

Microsoft has a Free Virtual PC Here. (Its not the fastest, but it's free.)

A couple of notes about virtual machine images:
A) build one, register the OS, share it around the office.
B) keep a backup of the original registered version on a DVD.
C) Use the base to build test machines.
D) Test installs to see if they are virus laden. A Million uses...

[Domandred]

Adaware AVG Antivirus Firefox browser with the AdBlock (plus filterset updater) and NoScript extensions Thunderbird email

All free. The only time I got anything was when my wife used Internet Explorer, but that got caught and removed by Adaware. I don’t do anything special for the Mac.

Same combo I use. No spy/trojan/virus problems since 2006.

[Fishrrman]

“See my post #40. Mac has its fair share of problems. Most people don’t know it though”

Then name five of them. Educate me.

Just another Mac user here. Been using the Mac since 1987 - 21 years.

In that time, I have NEVER had a virus infection.
I’ve NEVER had a spyware infestation.
I’ve NEVER encountered a Trojan.
What is “adware”? NEVER seen any of it on my computers at home.

I visit wherever I want, download freely, open attachments freely - no worries here.

I run NO virus protection on my home computers - NOTHING. There’s simply no need for it.

I guess things are different in the Windows world, eh?

- John (still waiting for that list of problems.... )

[grey_whiskers]

I will vouch for Kim Komando.

Also she is the real-life wife of radio talk show host Barry Young (the nearly famous Barry Young show) on KFYI, the Valley's Talk Station.

Full Disclosure: I used to listen to him in the morning before I moved to Phoenix.

Cheers!

[shaft29]

“good little browser called K-Meleon.”

Make a note to yourself: If you ever decide to delete this browser, make sure you save every shortcut or file on your desktop. I used this browser and did not like it. I went to delete the program and it deleted every file I had saved to the desktop.

[JennysCool]

Yow! Thanks for the heads-up!