28 replies to this topic

[floridaskier]

Does anyone know of a good program that stops spyware that's better than Webroot's Spy Sweeper? I have that and it's not catching anything. This past week, there were three unwanted toolbars added to my internet explorer browser and I can't get them to go away. My AOL Spam Folder no longer appears and my favorites list is refilled every day with sites I don't go to. This all started last week, and I haven't started visiting any new sites. Any ideas?

[liftmech]

Other than one called SpySafe (I'm not sure who designed it) I don't know of any off the top of my head. I honestly don't know if I have an anti-spyware programme or not, but I don't usually have problems like you've got.

[SkiBachelor]

Tyler, Ad-Aware is the best program I think and it's free. When you run the scan, do a "Deep Scan" because there are things that create stuff in your registry and other stuff like that. But Ad-ware should be able to get everything cleaned up.

[Kicking Horse]

Ad-aware PLUS Spybot..............

run both of them.

[edmontonguy]

Some stuff might require more power to delete. Use Ad-Aware first and if you have more troubles try using one of two programs. CWShredder will rid you of most Registry things like replaced hompages. "Hijack This" can be used to create a log of all the files running on your computer that deal with spyware and then they can also be deleted. Finally check what is in your Startup registry. Stop anything suspicious from starting without your knowledge. This might require the use of a registry guide of most programmes you'll find and tell you if they are harmful or not. Good Luck as this is a very hard thing to stop once it has started.

[CAski]

Spybot Search and Destroy has worked for me.

[hyak.net]

I browse with Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and it stops all hijacking and pop-ups dead in their tracks..... It is free so maybe you might want to give it a try. ( It has the look and feel of IE)

FWIW..

This post has been edited by hyak.net: 02 October 2004 - 01:31 AM

[Bill]

The version of IE that is with the XP service pack 2 does that as well.

[floridaskier]

OK, I downloaded Ad-aware, Spybot, and Mozilla.
SpyBot and Ad-Aware together found over 600 'critical objects'
And I like Mozilla's look and tab setup beter than Internet Explorer (I have Windows 2000)
Thanks everyone

[SkiBachelor]

Today I got my share of spyware and unwanted programs after going to a movie site trying to find an actor. But I left for the Duck football game and came back and found all sorts of stuff on my computer and I mean a lot of stuff, plus the stuff that ad-aware didn't find such as side bar stuff and internet optomizer programs.

I didnt' even know IE be could hijacked and and install programs such as a horiscope programs and stuff like that. But the scary thing was when I got home, my computer was displaying the window's shut down box that says Shut Down, Restart and some other stuff. But now I think I'm done with IE too unless microsoft de-integrates it with microsoft for IE 7 so it can't be hijacked.

But I don't know if i got it all since IE opens 2 seconds after I have clicked the icon.

[floridaskier]

That's what happened to me, I was on netscape.com (my home page) and a bunch of pop-ups came up, four toolbars were installed, and a bunch of sites I had never visited were added to my favorites list. I tried Spy Sweeper, and it caught about 40 programs, but nothing changed. That's when I started this topic.
Now when I turn on my computer, everything's fine except that two dialog boxes come up that say something like 'FATAL ERROR' for a few programs, but they all work fine. Ad-aware and Spybot got everythng else

[SkiBachelor]

Hey Tyler, do pop up ads come up for no where when you go and visit a site that you know that doesn't have any? This is the second time it has happened so I'm kind of scared of what else might pop up, which I don't want to see.

But last night I was trying to figure out what caused this and tried to deleted all the stuff that was installed and I found some interesting stuff. It appears that all this stuff was caused by a cookie a flash file from the site. The cookie had the title @www.somesite/install/ which I guess was a self download thing and then after a period of time I think the flash cartoon was able hijack the browser and computer and install the scripts for me and then hide it and probably install some other crap. Ad-Aware didn't catch all the stuff that I found doing a "date created file search" from the 'Find' in the 'Start' Menu, so Tyler you still might have some stuff on your computer that you don't know about.

Another scary thing I found was a log which was recording all my moves online and probably on my computer. It even contained timed information when I were at those sites and said that I was a dial up user. Anyway, I deleted that file ASAP.

Anyway, what happened to you and I was totally illegal and I feel like pressing charges. :)

[SkiBachelor]

Damn Damn Damn, I just deleted a lot of stuff using spybot but I'm still getting pop up under advertisements in IE.

This sucks.

[edmontonguy]

Try running HiJack This and CWShredder
Or check your startup log to see what might be running automatically that you DON'T want.

This post has been edited by edmontonguy: 03 October 2004 - 10:48 AM

[SkiBachelor]

The only thing I think that's left on my computer which I can't seem to get rid of is buycheapadvertising.com's pop up under stuff. But I did notice on its site that they talk about this type of advertising and have a way of getting rid of it and you have to e-mail them. I'm guessing when you do that, they will send you a self-unistall script because I'm guessing this thing is hidden on my computer somewhere.

However, HiJack turned out to be a pretty ncie program but it doesn't really detect spyware and adware, just lists the possible things that are still causing the problems which I still have. Maybe by unistalling IE and reinstalling might work but I don't really know.

Thanks for the help guys, I guess there is a bad case of this stuff going around these days and I didn't think it was this bad.

[floridaskier]

If you email them about it, they'll probably just send you more spam once they have your email address

[SkiBachelor]

Yea, that's what I thought too. But luckly, ad-aware updated its directory which contains more methods of getting rid or adware and spyware and it was able to clean up my entire system and haven't had one pop up under yet. It was getting really annoying because when I was using my schools website, stupid degree applications kept popping up because the adware was reading the content on my schools website and giving it to me thinking that would benefit me.

I just wish the internet society would make it illegal for people to install scripts on your computer without knowing about it. I mean with AIM it tells you about wild tanget but the other stuff that i got from visiting the movie site should be illegal to do. But I have a feeling in the next few years it will enforced.

[floridaskier]

That would be good if they did it.
Of course, that won't stop people from spamming us and installing a bunch of crap without us knowing about it, but it would show that they're doing something about it.

[SkiBachelor]

Well I hope that it will turn out to be something like how soliciters call your house and yada and if you ask them to put you on their no calls list and they call you back on the third time, you have the right to sue them I think. That's how I think this spyware and adware should be enforced. But like most people, they probably wouldn't know who's doing it since they don't know all that much about an OS. But who knows, maybe in the next edition of Windows, it will be very hard to get in. But I guess microsoft finally fixed IE with service pack 2. I recently installed it on my laptop but on this computer which is my main one, I still used Windows 98 because more of my programs and games use it. But if I have to reinstall my OS in the future, I will just upgrade to XP.