posted
Information needed, but please keep it as simple as possible because I do not speak geek real well.
1. Should a computer on a dial-up have spyware protection? 2. Why? 3. What can happen to your computer if you do not have it? 4. How serious is this issue to the "health" of your computer and to your "privacy" generally.
Thanks in advance.
Posts: 440 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Spyware typically loads from webpages - if you've been browsing the web, you've probably picked up something.
2. Spyware bad.
Simplistic but true. Not all spyware is malicious, but I also don't like the idea of someone uploading monitoring software to my computer without my express consent. And, jokes aside, sometimes you click on links and get something you didn't want. The old "www.whitehouse.com" joke leaps to mind.
Do you want sextracker spyware lurking on your computer?
3. Depends on what accumulates on your computer.
I have yet to have a bad experience due to spyware, but the possibility exists. Spyware has been known to hijack your browser, to pop triple-x ads on your screen and so on.
4. How dangerous is it to throw out bills and other bits of paper with your personal information on it?
Are you at risk of having information distributed to third parties? Yes. What are the odds the information will be critical and damaging like identity theft? Not great.
I would also highly recommend not using Internet Explorer as your default web-browser. Most spyware is designed specifically for IE, so if you use something else, you miss out on the vast majority of it. I use Firefox.
posted
Out of curiosity, why do you have to use IE? If you're going to stick with it, I'd run your spyware checking programs every day. Otherwise, once a week is fine.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Also - spyware that loads when your computer does will slow down and clog your machine's ability to work effectively.
Of course, my aunt and uncle's home computer was so riddled with viruses, worms and trojans, their computer would take ten minutes to boot up and another ten to shut down.
posted
From what I have been told although I am not a computer expert Spybot is actually not good and can be part of the problem and my experiences with it seem to agree. On the other hand Ad-aware works great.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I have, I think, five different spyware killers on my home computer. I got three of them in an attempt to get rid of Web Savings from eBates, and none of them worked. I finally found instructions of how to modify the registry so I could delete the program folder. Crazy. I hate spyware. I don't accept anything, and I don't pirate. How'd it get on there?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: ad-aware6 is outdated. If you have ad-aware6, uninstall it and download the latest version called ad-awareSE.
Well, yes, but....
..If you are running AdAware 6, you should go in each time anyway and tell it to download new updates from the AdAware site, and it will load the latest and greatest of what to look for (kind of like installing new dats on your viruscan). That will keep you updated for awhile, at least.
posted
My younger son has a penchant for visiting gaming sites looking for hints and cheats. Gaming sites are right up there with porn sites and gambling sites for spyware. Very quickly his computer became inoperable, as one particularly nasty bit of spyware caused his browser to spawn 60 more browser windows, approximately every 5 minutes. It took me nearly three hours to clear everything out, since I had to reboot several times and because every time the browser dump began I had no option but to wait until it was over and then close them all before I could continue.
While his system was hosed he used mine. I didn't get the browser dump problem, but I did find my home page and search preference changed and a significant amount of lag between rebooting and my system letting me do anything.
I had to use three different programs and all of them found things the other two did not. Here's a quick rundown of my procedure:
- Download "HijackThis" from www.downloads.com . Place the program in a folder on your harddrive where you can find it again. - Run "HijackThis." It will produce a list of your startup files, all of them, even ones that don't show in your Startup folder or admin tools. Check any listings that look suspicious. An easy way to check is to take the filename of a suspicious file and typing it into Google.com to see what it is. Look for any that include the term "URLSearchHook," this is usually a program that takes control of your browser's search. - Click on Fix This. HijackThis will delete the files and their registry listings. - Some of the files and folders may not allow themselves to be deleted. Once HijackThis identitifies them and you've verified elsewhere that they're no good, reboot your computer in Safe Mode and delete them.
- Download "AdAware" from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware . Install it and check for updates. - Before you scan, change the following settings: - Click "Start" then "Activate in-depth scan." - Click "Use custom scanning options" and then "Customize." Turn these options on, if they're not already: "Scan within archives," "Scan active processes," "Scan registry," "Deep scan registry," Scan my IE Favorites for banned URL," and "Scan my host-files." - Click the "Tweak" button. - Open up the "Scannng Engine" section and select "Unload recognized processes during scanning." - Open up the "Cleaning engine" section and select "Let Windows remove files in use at next reboot" and "Automatically try to unregister objects prior to deletion." - Click "Proceed" to save your settings. - Click "Next" to scan your system. - When scan is finished, mark everything for removal and get rid of it (you can right-click inside the window and choose "Select All"). You may want to skim the list to make sure you're not removing anything you want to keep, but I've yet to see anything I wanted. It doesn't remove all the cookies, just the ones that mine information.
- Download Spybot Search & Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download . - Install the program and run it. Click on "Search for updates" to make sure you have the latest files. Download all updates. - When updated, click on "Check for Problems." - When it's through, problems displayed in red are regarded as real threats and should be dealt with. Select them all and click on the "Fix selected problems" button. - You can also choose to use Spybot to immunize your system against known spyware threats. Click on Immunize and select how you wish them to be handled (automatically and silently, automatically with notice, or by asking first). You may notice that some web pages won't load consistently after that, which demonstrates how many sites use this crap. When I go to Washingtonpost.com, for example, I get three separate warnings from ads loading on their front page, but it loads anyway.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
My computer certainly wasn't slowed down enough by spyware to bother me at all, even though ad-aware/spybot found hundreds of ostensibly bad things. But it was only after running those that the computer imploded, so I currently consider spyware the lesser of the evils. Perhaps it's only Spybot and not AdAware, but I don't have the inclination to run either. And I've never had a problem with IE (apparently aside from this inconsequential spyware), so I've never switched browsers, either. We got a virus once through the preview pane in Outlook, so we don't use the preview pane any more, except for a couple specific subfolders.
I don't expect much of the computer, though -- I basically check Hatrack and some other websites, correspond via e-mail, and play solitaire and freecell. Occasionally I'll play music that I didn't download.
posted
Kat - it could have snuck onto your machine in a number of ways. There are several websites that will auto-hijack your browser - they ask if you want to switch your homepage to x site and regardless of what you click, they have you.
I spent hours ripping out every last trace of "hotsavings" or somesuch from my cousin's computer.
Alex - Yeah, I hate that. I really, really hate that.
posted
Chris -- you did a great job with that post -- very thorough.
The only thing I would recommend you add is for Windows XP users: deactivate "system restore" before you do all the clean up, and then re-activate it afterwards.
That way system restore doesn't try to "restore" all that spyware you just got rid of.
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