Getting rid of Spybots

self ^ | 17 feb 04 | self

[OldCorps]

I've got this evil spybot, undertonenet.com on my computer. Neither spybot search and destroy or lavasoft adaware removes it. I run them regularly. I suspect it comes from the drudgereport, fwiw.

[JmyBryan]

bump

[Still Thinking]

Try Opera. I like it better than all the usual suspects and use it as my default browser.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

I have Spybot SnD, but it doesn't get everything. What's worse, some people at CNET claim its spyware itself, and/or gets rid of innocent files that cause Windows to be corrupted, and you can't uninstall it easily.

In any case, I have had bad problems with spyware that are only marginally under control. I can't access Google, most popular webseach sites also don't work, as well as certain commercial sites. Spybot either can't get rid of, or did get rid of, whatever caused this but the damage is done. I have scanned for viruses and can't find any.

If anyone has advice on how to fix my web browsing, I'd appreciate it.

[greenthumb]

*

[Catphish]

I had one and couldn't remove the sucker no matter what (I mistakenly clicked "yes" on one of those "do you want to install . . ." pop ups). I opted for the nuclear option eventually - Format C:.

[dc27]

I had the samething happen. Everytime I restart the computer, the home page would change.

[Political Junkie Too]

Try removing it from Safe Mode, when Windows disables most of the drivers and other operating tasks that usually load in normal mode.

To get to Safe Mode, reboot your computer. After the bios loads and you hear the built-in speaker beep, press the F8 key until a boot menu appears. One of the options should be to boot to Safe Mode. You might have better luck removing spyware from there.

-PJ

[Capt. Tom]

I suspect it comes from the drudgereport, fwiw.

I made the drudge report my homepage for this test.

I then got off the Internet.

I ran my ad aware and cleaned out all the spy -ware

objects. I then went back on the internet and drudge came up on the screen.

I then re-ran the ad aware and it picked up 2 spy-ware objects from just looking at drudge's website first page.

I don't know what these objects are just listed as Data Miners. - tom

[reagan_fanatic]

For an added measure of protection, do a Google for a program called CW Shredder. Works great at deleting browser hijackers.

[US_MilitaryRules]

I ran SPybot when I had a hardline to my DSL. Then when I got a wireless router, I ran spybot and couldn't get my wireless hooked up at all. Had to format the hardrive and install XP. I had w2k.

[Ronin]

Thanks.

I just downloaded Opera and it looks pretty good. I am going to have to go through and reload all my bookmarks to use it effectively, though.

No time to play with it now, however. Have to get to work.

[the_One_Neo]

Agreed, great browser. I use it 100% of the time, other than when I need to test something in IE for employees. I've used it since it was Phoenix and I think I started at 0.3 version.

[boris]

Bump

[the_One_Neo]

Funny you mention that. The main site you download that program from was down every day I was over at their house. I was so angry. Finally I googled for CWShredder download and found it on a denmark site. Luckily it was the english version. I do have it, however, I was able to get his computer pretty clean without it. Thanks.

[ikka]

I second the suggestion of Mozilla or FireFox - they are excellent browsers AND let you block popups from ever being popped up.

[JoJo Gunn]

Take what you read at Cnet and ZDnet with a grain of salt. There's a lot of kids around there, Gates shills ("Tim Taylor") and spammers and spyware writers who infiltrate the place to make certain programs and their programmers look worse than they are.

I favor these two places for computer advice:

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/index.php?s=

[EdReform]

I use PestPatrol

[JoJo Gunn]

They've been under attack for several days now:

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=157133

[EdReform]

Any suggestions?

[El Gran Salseron]

Do a search/find, whatever version of windows you happen to be running, make sure you are online and double-click the file named ie6setup.exe which will force a re-install of IE6. Initially it'll say that IE6 is already installed. You can click in a little circle that says something like "Re-install all" or something similar.

Do a search/find for LMHOSTS without an extension. Use Notepad to Open it. Delete the entries for the websites you want to visit if they are present.

If neither of those suggestions above work then look for another post by me in a few minutes.