Spyware??

[deb]

Hi!
I'm not quite computer illiterate, (but close!) need some help. Could someone make some sense about this spyware stuff?  I kinda understand where it comes from and what it can do to a computer, so what should I do to get rid of it? Been told I most likely have thousands. I've received many conflicting suggestions. This computer is little over 7 years old (an antique, according to my son!)  Windows 98, Norton 2003 and keep it updated. I've seen mention of Spybot on this site, I am so leery of downloading from the internet.  What about firewalls, too. Been told that could give me many headaches, and I really don't need that.  What to do??

Deb   :-)

[quickdtoo]

Hi Deb,
I repair, build and upgrade PCs as a hobby, have been for the past 5 yrs or so. Here's a list of free recommended anti-spyware programs that have worked well for me. Download, install and update each program and then run em one at a time. It is imperative that you update them regularly, weekly at a minimum for them to be effective. I run mine at least weekly and they always find stuff. Spywareblaster needs to be updated, but no scan is run, it runs in the background and helps prevent your PC from being infected. The others detect malicious code after it's on your PC, so frequent scans are the deterrent.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

EDIT:
Forgot the firewall question....I recommend Zone Alarm if you want a free firewall. A firewall just adds one more level of security to your level of protection. Keep in mind that the more programs your PC runs in the background will affect performance, so other upgrades may be necessary like more memory, ect...

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp

[The Mechanic]

I can vouch for quickdtoo's advice on the ZoneAlarm firewall. I downloaded it yesterday. After installing it ZoneAlarm caught a couple of attacks on my computer. And the most interesting was after I had Xd out of the internet, but still had my cable modem turned on, it blocked
7 attempts at my computer. These were the mostly driveby's or maybe computer generated attempts at installing something on my computer. I thought after Xing out of the internet my computer was (safe). But with the modem active they can still attack you. I have Microsoft's Beta antispyware running active, SpyWareBlaster active, AVG I run manually and SpyBot Searchand Destroy I run manually. Also XP's firewall and my internet setting as high as I can and still get on the net and STILL I get (MUGGED). Wish there was a program that would let me attack them back. This is like adding more locks to your doors and windows and still they come in. I need a good .45acp or 45-70 for my computer so I can educate them NOT TO COME IN!

[quickdtoo]

A good resource for eliminating spyware and virii is TrendMicro's HouseCalls free scan, Ive used it many times to clean client's PCs with great success, specially with some malware than NAV and AVG never detected!! Be prepared for a lengthy scan, it usually take 1 to 2 hours for a PC that has a fair amount of data on it. It will clean or delete the offending files and if it can't, will give you options for manual cleaning/deletion.

http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp?id=scan

[Simple Man]

I have been the technical support coordinator for a big ten university for the last several years (at home on a back injury at the moment) and have been doing computer support as a profession for 12 years. I will share a little of what I have learned with you.
A firewall is extremely helpful to have on your computer. If you are running Windows XP then make sure it is updated to service pack 2 and that you have your firewall enabled. Also, it is very good to shut off the system restore feature on your machine because viruses can copy themselves to this folder and your virus software is unable to scan or clean malicious items in this folder.  SpyBot, Ad-aware and hijackthis are very useful tools in keeping your computer clean of bots and spyware. The Google toolbar is very helpful in keeping those pesky pop-ups from popping up all of the time. You can download this from the main Google page and clicking on (more). These all are free that I have mentioned so far. You can also check your run folder for items that are automatically starting up every time you turn on your computer - click on your start button and then click on run, type in msconfig and press the enter button - a box will come up - click on the STARTUP tab, here is where you will find most things that are starting up every time you start the PC. The first column will show you the name of program that is starting up, you can do a search on Google for what each item means and determine if it's something that you need to start up or not. You will most likely be able to turn everything in there off and your PC will still run just fine but make note that some thing’s in there will run your printer, or your digital camera and things like that - so you will have to play around and finds what works for you. The speed your computer runs at is pretty much determined by many different things such as hardware and software, the most important thing is to make sure your system is running at it's full resources and you do this by making sure that the computer is using the least amount of resources. This is achieved by making sure that you are only running programs that are required or by a few programs that are needed for your printers, cameras and things of that nature. In other words, don't run your little weather bug icon on the corner of your monitor because all this is doing is slowing down your computer and stealing the resources away from what you really need them doing. Also, make sure you keep your hard drive defragmented as this will keep your computer running at it's best. RAM is always very important and will gain you speed more than anything else (next to a faster processor) - if you are running windows XP then you should be running at the very least 256MB of RAM but I highly recommend running 512MB as this is where Windows XP really smoothes out. There are several different tweaks a person can do to their machine to obtain maximum performance and you can find alot by going to your favorite search engine and typing in your operating system and the keyword - tweaks. I hope this helps you all. Please fell free to ask any specific questions as I am always happy to help.

 :toast:

BD

[Simple Man]

Let me add that the university contracts with spybot and Ad-aware so you can rest safe knowing that if the University trusts this software, you can too.
Also there are better, more in depth ways of manually detecting and removing spyware but this involves editing your registry which can harm your PC if you aren't familiar with registry editing.

BD

[Num_1_Dad]

My suggestion, to add to the advice of CZman, is use a browser other than Internet Explorer, like Mozilla Firefox or Opera's. I.E. uses ActiveX controls which are very susceptible  to virus/spyware attacks.