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Thu 5 Aug, 2004 12:06 pm
Hello. I have a broadband cable connection and my computer is always on line 24/7. I just got a new computer back in Feb and it was my first experience with XP. I did'nt have it patched and I was infected with some of the worst adware/spyware attacks I have ever experienced.
It was soooo bad I had to do something so I trolled the internet and found advice on how to rid myself of it. I took a few hours a day for a couple of days but I did get rid of it.
In the process I also bought a couple of adware-removal packages. UNECESSARY as I later found out SpyBot and Hi-jack this and forum advice is all free and will get the job done. But here I am stuck with these spyware removal packages. Anyway...
One of them has what is called a "cookie patrol". and it erases cookies as they enter your cookie folder. When it deletes a cookie it makes like a dripping sound to let you know.
As I said, my computer is connected 24/7 and I can hear the cookie cruncher delete cookies periodically throught out the day when I'm around. According to it's log, it is deleting 20 - 25 of these a day.
What I find curious is that these things find their way to my computer whether I have my browser open or not. I can understand when you're surfing the web that you will run into spyware/adware cookie trackers. But, (finally my question), how do these things find my system when my browser is closed???? How can I learn more about how this is done.
P.S. I went to Steve Gibson's site where they test your open ports. My ports are closed and are operating in stealth mode.
Thankyou.
The "spyware" cookies are usually not spyware at all. The spyware programs flag them just to help beef themselves up in the "we get more" battle.
Most of the time, it's just a cookie that marks that you saw a large ad network's ad, so that the next time they don't show you the same one again.
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