Spyware, Adware, Firewall?

Jake

Jake

Registered User
How do I know if I have these programs installed and if not where do you get them? Can you download them off the net or do I need to buy a disk from a store? What company is the best? I have dial-up and this computer is 7 years old I'm sure theres crap all over it since I've never kept up on it. I have never had a "crash" so I guess that's good. I don't really search the internet but I do hit the same seven sites all the time. Thanks.

Jake.
 
Jake said:
How do I know if I have these programs installed and if not where do you get them? Can you download them off the net or do I need to buy a disk from a store? What company is the best? I have dial-up and this computer is 7 years old I'm sure theres crap all over it since I've never kept up on it. I have never had a "crash" so I guess that's good. I don't really search the internet but I do hit the same seven sites all the time. Thanks.

Jake.
Click to expand...

Do a search and download a copy of Zone Alarm. Free firewall, auto setup, has served me well for some time now. Since I am now connected full time I went ahead and spent about $29 and bought the ZA Pro version, but with a dial up line you won't really need that.

Do a search and download Ad Aware. Also free, when you run it it will clean up all of those adware programs that clutter your system.

Do a search and download Spybot. Also free, when you run it it will clean up all of those programs that slow up your system, and report back to their web sites when you connect to the web, or, go to Microsoft and download their free Spy Ware program which does the same. I've used both without any problems.

You've obviously mangaed to avoid any virus issues, but I don't know of any good free ones. I've used Norton & McAfee; both work well, both cost about
$69 for a subscription.

Ira
 
www.majorgeeks.com

download spyblaster and spybot






Jake said:
How do I know if I have these programs installed and if not where do you get them? Can you download them off the net or do I need to buy a disk from a store? What company is the best? I have dial-up and this computer is 7 years old I'm sure theres crap all over it since I've never kept up on it. I have never had a "crash" so I guess that's good. I don't really search the internet but I do hit the same seven sites all the time. Thanks.

Jake.
Click to expand...
 
I use Spybot first then I run AdAware to cleanupp what Spybot does'nt get.
You can download them for free from www.cnet.com just go to the downloads section and type in the names of these programs and it'll take you right to them.
You'll be amazed at the crap people have put on your computer.
 
avg antivirus works good, and its free,

OR if your in the sc guys group, you have access to all of my ummmmmmm, ya know programs and stuff. So pretty much its all free.

Tyler
 
Thanks guys, well I had 362 critical objects found and got rid of most of them, some I wasn't sure about so I left alone. All in all I deleted 351 of them so is that a lot? I"m not to good with computers but I don't download any movies and rarely search on the net but after 7 years I knew it would be full of junk.
 
Yeah....thats alot of junk. I forgot about CW shredder, I use that also.
Reg Cleaner is another good one because some of those spyware programs you removed may have hidden entry's into your computers registry which will just reinstall the spy program automaticly.
I get rid of everything thats listed as a critical object, if you're affraid you might get rid of something thats needed for your computer to oporate properly just qauranteen all those objects first. After qauranteening everything if your computer functions fine go back and delete the contents of the qauranteen file.
All of these programs have a use and there own limitations so useing more than 1 of them better cleans up your computer and gives you better protection.
 
Microsoft's Free Spyware remover

This is the best & free. .. Microsoft of course doesn't have an interest in advertising to you, so you know that it's just there to clean & it's going to catch EVERYTHING! ... It really is a great program.

Those who try, let me know what you think.. .. It's friggin the perfect solution.

Anthony
 
I use Trend Micro Internet Security 2005 and CounterSpy v1.0.29. Trend has antispyware built into the program-I use CounterSpy to clean whatever Trend misses.

If you use a wireless system, Trend will protect against wireless attacks-it can also be set up to protect a network.

Best feature about both is the frequent updates and virus-in-the-wild alerts-I usually catch an alert before it hits Norton or McAfee.

You can get 30 & 90 day trials of Trend, and 30 day trials of CounterSpy.

As in everything else, it all comes down to personal prefs. :)
 
Birdman93 said:
I use Trend Micro Internet Security 2005 and CounterSpy v1.0.29. Trend has antispyware built into the program-I use CounterSpy to clean whatever Trend misses.

If you use a wireless system, Trend will protect against wireless attacks-it can also be set up to protect a network.

Best feature about both is the frequent updates and virus-in-the-wild alerts-I usually catch an alert before it hits Norton or McAfee.

You can get 30 & 90 day trials of Trend, and 30 day trials of CounterSpy.

As in everything else, it all comes down to personal prefs. :)
Click to expand...

I work as a Network Administrator and have cleaned tons of spyware. The best spyware software that I have used is Webroot's Spysweeper(used most of the others mentioned here). If you have Windows XP, you can just download SP2 and it comes with a builtin firewall.
 
www.zdnet.com has a lot of good spyware tools. I use Adaware SE personal edition and just update my definitions every 2 weeks. I also have Avast Anti-virus and it auto updates. I even have Spybot Search and Destroy but it only finds stuff once in a great while.
 
spy sweeper

I use spy sweeper its a great program its the only program bestbuy uses to remove the stuff of the computers they fix, the good thing about it is it removes the tracers on your computer which just keep sending you spyware, i ran adware everyday then ran this it found 500 tracers on my computer. you can get the trial version at download.com but its only a trial you have to pay to keep it
 
I used to run spysweeper-Counterspy pulled up crap that spysweeper misses.

And that Windows XP firewall?? Pure junk-I have friends in the military who can swat that firewall aside like the little fly that it is-and if they can do it, a hacker can.
 
SilverCasket said:
Microsoft's Free Spyware remover

This is the best & free. .. Microsoft of course doesn't have an interest in advertising to you, so you know that it's just there to clean & it's going to catch EVERYTHING! ... It really is a great program.

Those who try, let me know what you think.. .. It's friggin the perfect solution.

Anthony
Click to expand...
Yea, I've used it for a while now. Works. That's all I care about.

Ira
 
I have a um.... "version" of XP Pro on my PC and it wouldn't work with SP2. BUt I figured its not worth the hassle anyways. Most people have told me the SP2 messes up or slows down their pc's.

I'd get a better firewall than Microsoft's anyways if you are on high speed. Its just not worth the risks.
 
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