[justlurking]

There's a lot of interesting stuff in the article, but I wanted to highlight the paragraph in bold type.

[kevkrom]

Don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, and be very careful about approving any downloads over the web. Most malware comes from exploiting security holes in the mailer or as side-effects from website downloads.

[E Rocc]

Spybot and Ad-Aware do a good job of removing this crap. I was able to download a DivX player that was bundled with GAIN (aka Gator) and remove the feces right away with Spybot. The player worked just fine.

-Eric

[squirt]

I use Secretmaker, It's free and works great.

[4everontheRight]

There is no way in heck I would ever buy from a company that resorts to advertising this way!!!

[WKB]

ping

[I still care]

My computer was running so slowly I was prepared to nuke the whole thing - turned out my adaware wasn't updating properly. I had over 39 running processes that I removed when I realized what was going on - no wonder it was such a mess.

[Rebelbase]

I keep picking up a spyware called SahAgent that places itself in the registry.

I can't tell where its coming from but It shows up every couple of times I log onto the internet. Adaware cleans it off but I wonder if its being re-installed from a virus I might have caught.

I'll scan for virus tonight.

[Notforprophet]

Ad-Aware 6 available free for personal use at this link.

[sarasota]

I have been told that it's Internet Explorer that let's all this stuff in. Use something else.

[js1138]

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spyware Blaster blocks the stuff from running an prevents you from seeing the popup ads that lure you into installing spyware.

Essential if you have kids. Removes the temptation.

It's a lot easier to prevent this stuff than to remove it after it's installed. Sometimes you can't get to the internet after removing spyware.

[MizSterious]

I don't know if they still have it there or not, but Dell's official website used to tell customers NOT to put any anti-spyware on their computers. Now they're whining about the cost of not having anti-spyware?

[kenth]

In the last month, the majority of problems I've worked on were adware related, either directly from adware or the results from users trying to remove said adware. Surfing porn when one should be working is the biggest cause I've come across. You should see the employees cringe when I tell the owner or office manager that a porn site hijacked the workstation(s).

I use a combination of Ad Aware, Hijack This, and an online scan from spywareinfo.com, which seems to work really well.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/xscan.php

[happydogdesign]

Ad-aware, Spybot, Search and Destroy, and SpywareBlaster are all excellent free programs that will get the junk off your pc, but certain types of spyware will download harmless sounding programs that will continue to update and download nasty stuff even after you eliminate the bugs.

ZoneAlarm®, in addition to being a good firewall, also can be set to require permission for any program trying to access the internet. Many of these bugs are given file names similar to legitimate Windows processes, and this feature can help track them down.

The following sites are good resources for finding and separating the bad stuff from the real Task List processes

Kephyr has a great Spyware and Adware Encyclopedia and a lot of other info.

Andrew Clover also has a great spyware, adware, and parasite info page

The Windows Process Library helps sort it out what is going on in your processor's background, and Answers That Work also has loads of info including Task List Programs

I found that the Keenvalue_112 updator snuck into my program files, and I tracked it down with ZoneAlarm and manually removed it-It would download more nasties everytime I logged on to the web, even though I removed them. My boss's kids had their PC so clogged with junk that they were unable to open IE. I was able to clean it with the above programs, and the latest free version of SpywareBlaster now protects Mozilla as well.

[tiamat]

Per our conversation this morning!

[Arkie2]

ping for later

[glorgau]

This is all just such a non-issue on the Mac.

[Guillermo]

Bump

[Cicero]

Between them SpyBot, Ad-Aware, and SpywareBlaster take care of the problem very nicely, not only removing spyware but blocking new stuff from being installed if you take the trouble to regularly update and innoculate, and preventing your kids from visiting dangerous sites that will screw up your computer.

I also had a serious problem with my kids installing this stuff accidentally whenever my back was turned. I used to have to spend an hour every week removing it. That hasn't happened for months now I have these programs in place. And they are all free, although I believe that users really should make small donations to the proprietors.

[PianoMan]

One more reason to be happy about my MAC!

[El Gran Salseron]

This is nothing new. Adware, spyware and malware have been around for years. Ask WKB. :-)

Check out the following site to find out not only how to get rid of it but by preventing it in the first place.

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