Spyware cures may cause more harm than good

C/Net News.com ^ | 2/4/2004 | John Borland

[BJungNan]

You say AdAware is spyware. Can you point me to documentation on this. Certainly not doubting you, just hungry for specifics. Thanks.

[BJungNan]

Steve Gibson Gibson Research Co.. Check out Shields Up! on his site, to test your security for free. Also has free security-related goodies.

A very good "related goodie" is Gibson's section on Network Bondage - undoing the network bindings that Windows comes preconfigured with (everything in the "on" position). For Windows 98 users, this will enhance your systems security by shutting off many vulnerabilities. And it costs nothing but a bit of time to change your Windows set up.

Print out the pages, read them through once, then have them at your side as you go through the process. Even a novice can see it through.

This is as your Windows 98 system is configured out of the box.

This is how it will look (approximately) after you have made the changes Gibson guides you through.

The offending componants are the upper tier (Client for microsoft networks, file and printer sharing, Microsoft family logon). What you do is bind them to netBEUI which is not a network transport protocol. The only reason you bind them is because if you don't they go into hiding in a quirk of the Windows operating system. You keep them bound to something so that you can find them later should you need or want them.

Anyhow, he explains it much better and in much easier to understand terms than I am attempting here.

Here is the direct link to the section of his site covering this.

[Vision]

btt

[N3WBI3]

but if everyone was targeting them it does not mean they would be as vulnerable...

[AlBondigas]

do a Google for "adaware spyware" & note the sites w/o the hyphen 'tween ad & aware.

A clever entrapment if you forget the hyphen.
Ad-Aware = good
Adaware = not good

[Golden Eagle]

Simple way for Windows users to block 99% of spyware (technically known as "third party cookies"):

In Internet Explorer, goto Tools, Options, Privacy tab, Advanced, select Override then Block all third party cookies.

You'll need adaware or spybot to remove whatever spyware may have already been installed to this point, but after the change above your scans should continue to come up clean.

[sazerac]

My advice would be to not listen to anything on this thread. Thanks, guys, I spent $39.95 at Spybot (spykiller) and got totally ripped off.

[Lando Lincoln]

Somewhat dated post but you stated:

.....Ki-Washer. It has an additional feature that EmpTemp does not have in that it also deletes the *.dat files.....

I have Ki-Washer up and running but I don't see this feature - or at least it is not removing the *.dat file. Windows says that another program is writing to it which I suspect is Explorer. Any ideas?

[El Gran Salseron]

"I have Ki-Washer up and running but I don't see this feature - or at least it is not removing the *.dat file. Windows says that another program is writing to it which I suspect is Explorer. Any ideas?"

The default value of the index.dat file when it has zero info in it is 32K so that it gets bigger than that as you visit more and more sites.

Just after you boot up, and before you do any surfing, check the index.dat file in temporary internet files for your user name if you are using XP. If it is only 32K then Ki-Washer is working. ( In a couple of temp int files sub-folders I have noticed that some index.dat files are only 16K. I have yet to find out why that is. )

After you visit a bunch of sites the index.dat file for temporary internet files will grow beyond 32K. Be aware that there are other index.dat files on your computer and you should concern yourself only with those that occupy temporary internet files and the sub-folders thereof. If you think that the index.dat files are not being wiped out then you can do a search for Index Dat Viewer. It's a small program that will let you see what's in the file but my knowledge of Ki-Washer tells me that yours is working as advertised.

If questions, pleae advise.

No, I don't work for Ki-Washer or any of the other companies I mentioned in that hugh message. :-)

[Hannity4prez]

bump and save

[El Gran Salseron]

Oops!

I forgot to say that you may want to check out the following site. It is much the same as the long message I posted but is laid out better:

http://home.houston.rr.com/computerdoc/

[Lando Lincoln]

Thanks so much for your help.