Anti-Spyware Programs

I've got both too. I'll run them again when my current dialup session finishes.

I've found that ad-aware gets all the stuff spybot misses. But I still run both. Spybot has some usful features, such as bad page blocking, and immunizing against certain files.

First time I ran spybot, it found something like 280 files and registry settings. Since then I suppose the rate has been something like 10 per day.

I just installed AdAware at home, and it found something like 900 files. Turns out I was doing a deep disk scan and it found all the stuff in the spybot quaranteen directory.

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Turner_727 - Spybot "told" me that I have Ad-Aware installed, and that I should ignore the Spybot directory. I have that screen going every time I run the program. I have the choice of removing the screen, but I chose to keep it on.......................................just in case I forget!

Spybot gives a warning at startup about adaware conflicts.

Re: Anti-Spyware Programs


The overwhelming majority of what both programs find are not spyware programs. In my experience it is over 99%.

So - ought one to have both? I have Adaware...free version...

Craven- Then what is it that the programs ARE finding?

Mostly just cookies and false positives.

For example, if you buy a product from certain sites they might be entitled to a referral fee.

Most referral fees are done by cookies. For example:

You visit site A.

You click link to site B.

During this jump a cookie is made to show who referred the potential customer to the merchant.

So now, that referring website will get credit for their referral.

Thse programs flag these as "tracking" cookies.

They do this because they are always trying to show that they do a "better" job. And since most idiots will think that the more they find the better the job that has been done they are ridiculously inclusive in their definitions.

The problem is that this approach is intristically flawed. They target big companies because tehy are easy, so Amazon properties are considered spyware, Google.... Just about anyone who does business on the web.

And the real spyware from little known sites and hackers is the least common entry in their definitions.

It's really stupid. Let's put it this way, in all the times I've used those programs on my computer, it has yet to find a single legitimate piece of spyware.

Of course I know to keep mine clean.

Those tools are useful to use when you are infected, but not really to tell if you are infected because of the fact taht they flag so many false positives.

Unless you understand what they do, it's best not to trust them.

Craven- thanks for the explanation. I am a little confused about a couple of your remarks.

Do you mean that unless you know what the cookies do, it is better not to trust them?




Could you tell us some of your "secrets"?

For instance, I know that I need to stay away from porn sites!

I mean don't trust the AdWare removal tools! An Amazon cookie isn't dangerous. A tool that is removing things and changing settings on your computer can be.

I only use it to remove stuff I know I want them to remove. And like I said, 99% of the time it's something innocuous that I wanted to keep.



The biggest thing is to know what you download.

I'll give a non-spyware example. You know those smiley ads you see everywhere? They are offering a free emoticon program download.

Why?

For one reason, to install myway's search toolbar.

It's not spyware by any definition of the term, but it is a bundled program.

People download free tools left and right, but the people who offer these tools very frequently make money by bundling other components.

Almost every single dangerous piece of spyware out there is something the user downloads themselves and installs themselves.

They are usually misled to some degree in similar fashion to the example above.

Here's a spyware example:

Let's say you are seeing ads for a "desktop buddy" a lil' animated fella who promises to be a fun way to do ______ (fill in the blank).

It's free.

Why is it free? Because it will bundle spyware with the program.

Now note that my definition of spyware is not that all-inclusive paranoid one.

For example, I have two pieces of "spyware" that I install on every computer I use.

1) Google Toolbar (reports every page you visit to Google so that they can return the Page Rank for that page). Is also considered spyware because of silent automatic updates to their software (this is a more legitimate complaint).

2) Alexa Reports every page you visit to Alexa so that they can show related links and traffic rankings.

Both of those need to send data ("phone home") to get information. But it's data that I not only approve that they send but that I welcome. I know that they use it in aggregate and there is no danger to me.

They are up front about it and very clearly say what they do.

So some people think they are dangerous but those poeple are pathologically paranoid (or just dumb as rocks).

The dangerous stuff is easy to spot (for me). Just watch what you download. A free program here and there and you'll eventually download bundled spyware.

Now on to criminal spyware. Some of this stuff is like a virus. For these, just make sure your security settings are appropriate (yours probably already are).

Craven- Thanks for the advice. When I got my first computer over 5 years ago, I downloaded every free thingy that I could get my hot little hands on. As a result, in short order, I had to reformat my hard drive.

Now I don't download ANYTHING unless I really need it, and the download comes from a reputable place. I do have the Google toolbar,( to stop the pop-ups,) but what the hell, if you can't trust Google, whom can you trust on the net?.

I have always been leery about tracking software. I am involved in the Harris polls. About a month ago, through Harris, I was invited to become part of the Neilson polls for the internet. It sounded interesting, but they told me that they would have to download tracking software. At that point, I said, "Fuggedaboudit!

This is an interesting -- and occasionally infuriating -- subject. I've only just gotten into it. The IE browser on our home PC got hijacked and performance was slowing to a crawl. Then we got hammered with the pop-ups from hell. The latest version of Norton and Ad-aware got things more or less under control. There's still a hijack, so I've got more digging to do.

I generally don't use IE myself at home. I'm a Netscape guy, and that one hasn't been hijacked yet. Can't ween the rest of the clan off IE tho. Sigh.

Craven - I've noticed that my cookies for the sites I want to keep have never been deleted. Here, CFC, Amazon. . .a couple others I go to. NationStates. I've never told SpyBot/Adaware to not delete these.

So some cookies are good, and very convenient.




This only popped up on a deepscan. Turns out that SB-S&D hadn't been updated in a while. So I did the deepscan. We were also having problems with AOHell, and I thought there might be some kind of conflict. So I ran the deepscan.

Turner_727,

Yep, most Amazon cookies aren't deleted (anything from Alexa will be though). But comparable ones are.

Here are various ways of checking and/or getting rid of adware.

Reuters