AOL Users

I suggest you forget about the AOL-provided stuff - in fact, I suggest you .... well, never mind. If you like AOL, or are bound to them by contract, there's not much point advising you to run very, very far away from AOL very, very fast.

The following free applications likely will serve you better, and give you fewer headaches, than anything supplied by AOL:

Ad-Aware SE Personal

Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta (WIN 2K/XP ONLY)

Spybot S&D, augmented with SpywareBlaster

WinPatrol Free

Use at least 2 of them. Ad-Aware SE Personal is a scan-and-remove tool only, it provides no blocking or real-time protection, but it is very, very good at what it does, which is scan-and-clean. I strongly recommend it be among your tool kit. To one extent or another, the others offer at least some blocking and/or real-time protection. As with any application, whichever ones you choose, be sure to read and understand the application's documentation, so you can properly install, update, configure, and deploy it.

And of course, keep your Operating System, Browser, and all Security/Privacy software fully updated; the badguys count on folks failing to take the effort to do as they should.

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Oh, and Trend Micro Housecall offers both a very good free online virus scan-and-clean service and a very good free online spyware scan-and-clean service.

Microsoft recently has begun offering the public beta of their Safety Live, a free, comprehensive, on-line scan, clean, and tune-up service for WEinXP users. Perhaps - as of this writing, anyway - not as bug-free as Microsoft Antispyware Beta, which I recommend unreservedly, but reports have been encouraging, and I've used it myself without problems. It needs work yet, IMO, before its really a front-line app, but it seems to be pretty decent for what amounts to an ambitious first effort.

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I have AOL and no problems with it or with running spyware or anything else. It may be something deeper within the computer itself, some other glitch.

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If AOL works for you and you like it, then fine, you like AOL and it works for you. Many folks have a different opinion, objecting to the way AOL wraps and entwines its tentacles throughout a system's core elements, essentially making autonomous choices for, but without the knowledge, action, or consent of, the user, while rendering itself, its processes, and the changes it effects on operating systems and browsers resistant to removal or reversal - a behavior which in and of itself meets the classic definition of yuckware. But, for this discussion, that's immaterial.

Back in May of '04, AOL introduced Spyware Zapper, its first version of rebranded antispyware, based on AluriaSoftware's Spyware Eliminator, a reputable product, even if not exactly a stellar performer. With AOL competitor Earthlink's acquisition earlier this year of AluriaSoftware, AOL entered an agreement with Computer Associates, acquiring the right to rebrand and distribute that firm's Pest Patrol, another reputable product, arguably a step up in performance compared to AluriaSoftware's Spyware Eliminator, though itself outperformed by a number of other antispyware apps, including both of the "Big 2" free ones, Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D (See chart at PCWorld: Spyware Stoppers Review, April 2005).

The switchover began in late September of this year, via an automatic download for users of AOL v8 and greater, with AOL users running previous versions able to manually download the newer product via a link available on AOL's User Support pages.

It should be noted that neither AOL's version nor its parent actually remove anything, they merely detect items listed in their respective databases and block action by those items. Neither scanning engine incorporate heuristics, which would enable them to recognize and to take action regarding new threats not yet listed in their current database. Not unexpectedly, the AOL version excludes certain "Select AOL Partners" from detection and blocking.

All that aside, over the weeks since the switchover, Security/Privacy forums, newsgroups, blogs and mailing lists have been buzzing with reports of difficulties relating to the new application encountered by AOL users. Signal areas of concern include Other-than-Current-Netscape Browsers, upgrading Win XP to SP2 after installation of the new AOL antispyware product, false positives, missed detections, failure of the application to initialize (Victor Murphy's problem, evidently), failure of the application to update, extravagant resource consumption, and conflicts with numerous firewalls, along with some apparent incompatibility with a few other antispyware applications and assorted stability issues under various operating systems.

To be fair, none of that is exclusive to the new AOL antispyware product, however, the incidence of negative criticism directed toward the new AOL product has been notable, and appears, at least through the time of this writing, to be mounting. Again, in all fairness, it may be expected that AOL has been, is, and will continue taking an active remedial approach to these issues; Customer Support, even at the quality level typical of AOL, is a non-revenue-generating expense.

Now, in general terms, any Security/Privacy protection is better than none (provided of course the protection actually is effective at doing at least something of benefit). That said, while both are reputable and reasonably, though not exceptionally, effective applications, there are better options out there than AOL's rebranded product and its' Computer Associates parent.

Given that, and given that Victor Murphy, this topic's author, reports experiencing less-than-satisfactory results from the AOL antispyware product, I would say there are better choices available to Victor Murphy. Naturally, in the end, for anyone, its your machine, your choice; do whatever you find satisfactory. I offer only opinion and advice, weigh both as you will.

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AOL has been far less problematic to me than Prodigy was.

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Re: AOL Users

Victor Murphy wrote:

I have been trying to perform a spyware check on my computer. When I try I get the following message: The AOL software can not start up correctly. Please try again, restart your computer or reinstall the software.
Error starting: ee://AOL/AntiSpyWareApp Error Code 4
Can anyone help me correct this problem? I've done the three things above with no results. Thanks!

Revisiting your original question here, something catches my attention - shooting in the dark here, so this may not be of much use to you.

Anyhow, the emphasized part of your error message, " ee://AOL/AntiSpyWareApp" raises my curiosity. It appears to me the app is trying to launch from a folder which is not on your root (usually C:/) drive, the drive on which Windows is installed and from which it runs. Mebbe the path shown in the error message is as it should be, but I would think it more logical for the app to be resident on your root drive, whether in your Programs folder, or in a folder of its own on the root drive. Are you aware of a reason AOL Antispyware would be installed other than in typical fashion? Is it possible it was downloaded to some default download folder and in fact is not actually installed on your system?

You mention you have uninstalled/reinstalled it - how did you go about doing that? Did you use Add/Remove Software, or an uninstaller built into the app itself, or some other method? Does it appear as an installed component in Add/Remove Software?

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People make the mistake of thinking they need an Internet service. You don't need an Internet service like AOL or Prodigy to be on the Internet. Your phone company is likely SBC - and they will offer dialup or maybe even DSL in your area. If your browser works and you can get your e-mail, what else do you need?

In fact, I'd suggest you buy a new cheap laptop with 802.11/a/b/g wireless and just drive around until you find a hot spot. If you find a good one you'll automagically be given an IP and gateway address and your browser will just work.

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thanks for a very informative post. now i know why the aol spyware zapper is suddenly zapping my computer again; i had solved the problem previously by disabling the program the zapper was using to get to the net. is there any way of disabling whatever new program it's using to get onto the net now?

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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:46 am Post: 1654500 -

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If AOL works for you and you like it, then fine, you like AOL and it works for you. Many folks have a different opinion, objecting to the way AOL wraps and entwines its tentacles throughout a system's core elements, essentially making autonomous choices for, but without the knowledge, action, or consent of, the user, while rendering itself, its processes, and the changes it effects on operating systems and browsers resistant to removal or reversal - a behavior which in and of itself meets the classic definition of yuckware. But, for this discussion, that's immaterial.

Back in May of '04, AOL introduced Spyware Zapper, its first version of rebranded antispyware, based on AluriaSoftware's Spyware Eliminator, a reputable product, even if not exactly a stellar performer. With AOL competitor Earthlink's acquisition earlier this year of AluriaSoftware, AOL entered an agreement with Computer Associates, acquiring the right to rebrand and distribute that firm's Pest Patrol, another reputable product, arguably a step up in performance compared to AluriaSoftware's Spyware Eliminator, though itself outperformed by a number of other antispyware apps, including both of the "Big 2" free ones, Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D (See chart at PCWorld: Spyware Stoppers Review, April 2005).

The switchover began in late September of this year, via an automatic download for users of AOL v8 and greater, with AOL users running previous versions able to manually download the newer product via a link available on AOL's User Support pages.

It should be noted that neither AOL's version nor its parent actually remove anything, they merely detect items listed in their respective databases and block action by those items. Neither scanning engine incorporate heuristics, which would enable them to recognize and to take action regarding new threats not yet listed in their current database. Not unexpectedly, the AOL version excludes certain "Select AOL Partners" from detection and blocking.

All that aside, over the weeks since the switchover, Security/Privacy forums, newsgroups, blogs and mailing lists have been buzzing with reports of difficulties relating to the new application encountered by AOL users. Signal areas of concern include Other-than-Current-Netscape Browsers, upgrading Win XP to SP2 after installation of the new AOL antispyware product, false positives, missed detections, failure of the application to initialize (Victor Murphy's problem, evidently), failure of the application to update, extravagant resource consumption, and conflicts with numerous firewalls, along with some apparent incompatibility with a few other antispyware applications and assorted stability issues under various operating systems.

To be fair, none of that is exclusive to the new AOL antispyware product, however, the incidence of negative criticism directed toward the new AOL product has been notable, and appears, at least through the time of this writing, to be mounting. Again, in all fairness, it may be expected that AOL has been, is, and will continue taking an active remedial approach to these issues; Customer Support, even at the quality level typical of AOL, is a non-revenue-generating expense.

Now, in general terms, any Security/Privacy protection is better than none (provided of course the protection actually is effective at doing at least something of benefit). That said, while both are reputable and reasonably, though not exceptionally, effective applications, there are better options out there than AOL's rebranded product and its' Computer Associates parent.

Given that, and given that Victor Murphy, this topic's author, reports experiencing less-than-satisfactory results from the AOL antispyware product, I would say there are better choices available to Victor Murphy. Naturally, in the end, for anyone, its your machine, your choice; do whatever you find satisfactory. I offer only opinion and advice, weigh both as you will.

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Earlier today, I had the following exchange with some one not participating on this thread, relating to confusion over AOL and what it is and isn't, and I thought the conversation might be of interest and possible use to some on this thread. With the permission of the other party, who's identity has been :cool: cleverly disguised :cool: , here ya go.

{[i]A wondering A2Ker[/i]} wrote:

Timber, this is a tangent to the aol thread but not completely unrelated.
I am moving and won't have my (probably new) computer installed in my new home for two to three months.

As my old computer won't still be hooked up to my old dsl, I will be up the creek without a canoe.
I was whining about this being a hard part of the move to my exhusband, and he said, oh, don't worry, you can use one of my aol email addresses as a base.

First of all, is that a no no for a2k?
Assuming it isn't, then I'm not worried about checking in from Kinko or cyber cafes.

But, when I get to {My Freind's place}, where I'll be staying for about a month...
Well, back tracking, I checked in from their house when I house sat for them before and they don't mind my using the computer.
However, I don't want to infect them with godforsaken aol in any way.
Is that a concern, if I figure out how to get in through their yahoo. (I could get in before, but then up til now I had my own yahoo account.)
My sense is I shouldn't futz around with that.

So, next point, is that I might, with {My Freind's} ok, post once in a while as myself under her name and saying it's me - is that a problem, or should I always post from a cyber cafe on my new aol temporary account, probably under the name {Me #2}.

Do you follow all this?

Any better ideas?
Or am I lost, lost, lost, in the netherworld called house escrow..

In reply to which timber wrote:

If I follow correctly (not a given), I think just getting yourself a free HotMail or Yahoo! account would be all you need to do. Get the email address, submit a request through the A2K helpdesk for an email address change to the new email address, and from then on, your A2K account would be tied to that email address, entirely separate and apart from AOL, or any other ISP (Internet Service Provider) you might use to access A2K. You can connect to A2K (the entire 'net for that matter) via AOL, or via any other ISP to which you might subscribe or otherwise be able to access (for instance, from the home or other location of anyone using an ISP other than AOL), from your own computer or any other computer. In short, AOL needs you, you don't need AOL.

As you know, I'm no fan of AOL at all, and I recommend against it, period. Still, to each his/her own. Consider that no matter where you are, in order to connect to/through AOL, you have to use some provider's phone or cable line, pretty much (not gonna get into satellite for this discussion), and whatever entity owns that phone or cable line in all likelyhood offers ISP service of its own. Were I you, I'd go that route, and write off AOL. The only real hassle would relate to any stored email you might have on AOL, but that is easily, if a bit tediously, remedied; just forward that email to your new HotMail or Yahoo! or whatever email account. As for your contacts, just notify them of the change of email address - and services such as Hotmail and Yahoo! make that just about wholly automated. You can export your entire AOL, or just about any other, address book, and transfer the entries to another email account without much effort, too.

And, of course, you can keep AOL if you wish, while not being tied to it. Apart from bundling them with AOL internet access, AOL makes its features available on a "Bring your own ISP" basis, at a somewhat lower rate than the entire access-and-feature bundle. Mrs Timber likes MSN's features; she uses it exclusively, though our internet access is via a different provider. I think the cost for that is like $10/mo - AOL has a similar option. She has her own log-in accounts on a couple of my machines, and what she does in her account on either machine pretty much has nothing to do with - is entirely isolated from - my log-in. 'Puters is pretty flexible critters; you can get 'em to do just about anything you want 'em to, if you know how, and that ain't such a big deal in itself, for lotsa things. It can get complex, but for simple stuff, like individual accounts and internet access, its real simple.

Beginning to feel much better now, and pretty much down with the concept, Wondering A2Ker wrote:

Huh.

This came up, my whining to my ex re being offline so long, because I called my service provider, {wxyz.com} - my phone company, where I have my current dsl - and asked if I could get on line through yahoo once my dsl is disconnected, and they said no. Perhaps I confused them..

So, if I go to yahoo.com and sign up for a free email address - and then box up the 'puter and move - I can get into that address from Kinko's or a friend's computer? I know you said that, seems too good to be true. Very cool. Seems obvious once you explained..

I'll certainly avoid aol.
Thank you!

Confirming, timber wrote:

Yeah, pretty much. You won't have access to the cancelled account, which, on cancellation, will cease to exist. However, all you need for A2K, or most else, is an email address and internet access, whatever, where ever that access might be; your own, some one else's, a business or internet cafe's, whatever. Just get on the 'net, and log into any service or website ... services and websites don't much care how you get to them and use them, so long as you get to them and use them. The destination is the point of the trip, not the bus or car or plane or boat or train or sidewalk you take to reach the destination.

Now good with it all, Wondering A2Ker wrote:

Wonderful.

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laplane, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Zapper shouldn't be be "using another program to get to the net"

A little more info would be helpful - what operating system/service pack are you using, and what browser/version? Do you have any security/privacy software other than an antivirus and Zapper installed and configured to run at startup?

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