spyware problems

[cloudgazer2k]

so, i try to find some bob rivers lyrics, and i get bogged all to hell with spyware!! this "trend" is getting to me. now, i can barely surf and my anti-spyware devices won't clean out my system completely. after all is said and done, 1 .dll file remains and starts the problems up again. i use Ad-Aware 6.0 and Search and Destroy spyware killers, but to no avail. i know there are some tekkies out there. please help!

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Ad-Aware and Spybot are two great programs, but you need other things to prevent continuous infection. First and formost: A firewall. I'm not sure if you have one or not, but if you don't, get one! Norton and Zone Alarm are two, Zone Alarm being the free one. There are other, possibly better free firewalls, but those I don't have much knowledge of. A second priority is to secure your browser. Now, while I can give you a long, drawn-out guide to securing Internet Explorer (Which I am going to assume you use), I suggest downloading and installing Firefox, which is, right off the installation, vastly more secure than IE. Find it at: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Secondary steps to ensure protection: Grab Javacool's Spywareblaster, a nifty little program that stops spyware before it can infest your hard drive. Find at http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Now, in order to clean out your computer, be sure Ad-Aware and Spybot are up to date, latest version and latest spyware definitions. Do a scan with them. Delete all you find. If the DLLs that won't delete are shown as being VX2 variants, then you a) have not upgraded to Ad-Aware SE 1.05 OR, you have a serious problem. Ad-Aware SE 1.05 does remove versions of VX2 that older versions did not get, but if it cannot, I will have to walk you through a complicated process to manually delete them outside of WIndows. Let me know if that is the case.

Anywho, there are two other things to check: HijackThis and CWShredder. Both are found here: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
CWShredder removes variants of the coolwebsearch bug, a nasdty and hard to kill spyware monster. It only need to be run once. HijackThis is more complicated: it targets BHOs, or Browser Helper Objects. Some are benign, but many are bad. HijackThis gives you a list of BHOs installed and the option to remove some of them. Before you try to use this, do everything else above. If that does not clean your computer out completely, let me know and I will walk you through the process.

Phew. A lot to read, eh? Email me with any questions you have:

 

[ticklkitten]

Wow HDS! I might need to borrow your brain for a little bit because I am always getting some virus or another and spyware is a big problem. Is it ok if I send you an email?

kitten

 

[some1somewhere]

yeah the best way is to prevent it from happening.
I have adware come up everyttime it turn on my computer and do a quick scan. It normally only catches tracking cookies, but lately it has been getting a registery key about everytime. I have spybot and it seem to protect some stuff form loading and I run norton firewall and antivirus often. I learned the hard way when my computer was DOA from the love letter virus a few years back, that antivirus and firewalls are necessary in this day and age.

I wish you luck with getting rid of all that stuff, I know it isn't fun.

 

[BlackmoonDoll]

Spy Sweeper. It was rated the Best spyware program in PC Magazine for March,2004. Me and my dad just installed onto our computer just a few days ago. It seems to be doing the trick really well so far so that is something that you may want to see about trying.

to look at spy sweepers website go to

http://www.webroot.com

 

[Neutron]

Spysweeper Gets Out Of Date REAL Quick..

So watch it.

Spybot is about the best.

Tron

 

[TKpervert]

Javacool's Spywareblaster is a must-have on your machine.
Zonealarm is great, stopping out-bound bad stuff as well as in-bound bad stuff.
Also, put IE on the shelf and run Firefox.
(HDS said all this, I'm just reinforcing it).
Good luck.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Wow HDS! I might need to borrow your brain for a little bit because I am always getting some virus or another and spyware is a big problem. Is it ok if I send you an email?

kitten

I don't mind. Email me all you like.


I must voice my agreement with Tron on Spysweeper. It is a great program the first time you grab it, but it swiftly becomes out-of-date, especially if you download the trial version (Since you only get one spyware definitions update).

 

[JPie1]

I use a router with a firewall,anti virus program, spybot (excellent freeware) and mozilla as my current browser. I am hereby shelving IE as well, gets attacked much more often.

 

[BlackmoonDoll]

I don't mind. Email me all you like.


I must voice my agreement with Tron on Spysweeper. It is a great program the first time you grab it, but it swiftly becomes out-of-date, especially if you download the trial version (Since you only get one spyware definitions update).

My Dad bought the full store bought version of spy sweeper at like i think Best Buy. Is the full version out of date alot as well? or no?

We have only had spy sweeper on our computer for a few days. So it's still new

 

[TKpervert]

My Dad bought the full store bought version of spy sweeper at like i think Best Buy. Is the full version out of date alot as well? or no?

You have a licensed version, so you have access to the vendor's update service.
It'll only get out of date if you don't update it regularly.

 

[AffectionateDan]

Good share, HDS

Very informative.

 

[BlackmoonDoll]

You have a licensed version, so you have access to the vendor's update service.
It'll only get out of date if you don't update it regularly.

ok thank you

 

[kis123]

This is a really good thread. I've been having problems with my desktop because my son is the biggest surfer of all time and gets into a lot of crazy sites. Plus, he's a young man and occasionally sneaks on free porn sites. I had my computer guy show him how I'm able to track his whereabouts even if he erases the history. My son was pretty embarassed to see all the sites he visited so I don't think I'll have any more problems with that. Unfortunately, I have some stupid file called chicos2004 that I can't get rid of. Anyone know what that is? My computer guy told me if would be easier to reformat my hard drive or live with it because no matter what they tried, they couldn't get rid of it. Any thoughts?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

If it is a single file that needs deleting, I can tell you how to do that. Do you have the EXACT location of the file (C:\whatever), and what version of Windows are you running?

 

[kis123]

If it is a single file that needs deleting, I can tell you how to do that. Do you have the EXACT location of the file (C:\whatever), and what version of Windows are you running?

I don't know the exact location but I'll try to find out.

I have windows 98 SE on my desktop.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Interesting....*Investigates* Excellent! If you find the exact location, I will be able to tell you how to delete it.

 

[cloudgazer2k]

appreciate the help, HDS!!! THANX!!!