HELP with Bad Cookies

Self | 11/10/2 | Varmint Al

[Varmint Al]

HELP with Bad Cookies.

I have the Lavasoft Ad-aware software. I tells me that I have these two cookies (named below) that allow people to find out things about my computer and me.

I have set my E:\temps folder as where I put my internet explorer temporary files. I tried editing these files and removing everthing and writing in the word JUNK and then making them read-only files. Well, the cookies came back with a [2] instead of the [1].

I get doubleclick from the SF Rain Radar and fastclick from the DRUDGE Report. At least I have found out where they are coming from.

I can remove them with Ad-aware, but does anyone know how I can prevent them from being written to my computer without having to reject all of the benign cookies, if benign cookies exist?

E:\temps\Cookies\al harral@doubleclick[1].txt ..........Comes from the SF Rain RADAR site
E:\temps\Cookies\al harral@fastclick[1].txt .........Comes from the DRUDGE Report

[Dark Seraph]

Mozilla.

;)

[Vidalia]

Just don't answer the door if they are Girl Scouts...

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

you better call mrs fields stat

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I use that Ad-aware software. It's pretty good. Those double-click and fast-click cookies come up all the time. I usually just run the Ad-aware every few days to weed out the junk.
There are so-called good cookies, at least to some people's mind. Many folks are more concerned over privacy and security than convenience. I actually like going back to a website like Amazon and using the one-click feature, which stores all of my vital info in a cookie. I'm just not that paranoid. I'll probably change when a nineteen year-old hacker in VietNam or someplace assumes my identity.

[Varmint Al]

I heard that it is the Bad Cookies that get your email so you get all the spam. I sure get loads of spam and about half of it is nasty pictures. I don't want the grandkids to see this stuff. That is why I got the Ad-aware.

[PresidentFelon]

Do you delete the Registry Key also??
I'm scared to do it. Never have. Can I
without deleting something important??

Thanks for any help

PresidentFelon

[katze]

Just bought an enhanced version of Ad-Aware this morning; and $15 well spent. I had a lot of garbage, and this software appears to miss nothing.

[katze]

I changed ISPs a few months ago, and my new one has a spam filter, and it works.

[proxy_user]

I always reinstall the operating system when something like this happens on one of my Windows machines.

Three pieces of advice:

1. Look before you install, accept, or open.
2. Use a good firewall; ZoneAlarm is free and good for the average guy.
3. If you on cable or DSL, use hardware firewalling with NAT.

If you're really worried, use a browser like Opera or Mozilla that allows you to fineturn your settings, or use a proxy that strips out active scripting, such as Anonymizer.

[Varmint Al]

No on the Registry Key. I didn't know there was a Registry Key associated with cookies. Is there? I have fooled around with the Registry, but back it up with Norton before I do anything like that.

When I really want to clean out all the temporary files, I mere rename e:\temps to e:\oldtemps and generate a new empty folder e:\temps. Then I really start clean. If it all works, then I delete e:\oldtemps.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I generally don't mess with the Registry just to remove cookies. However, I have made changes in there for other reasons. It isn't all that scary if you follow the most important rule, which is to backup the current registry. In Win 98, that is very easy to do. Go to the registry (Run the program called Regedit from START-RUN) and then click on REGISTRY at the top left and EXPORT Registry File. It will then open up a window and allow you to save the current registry using any name and in any directory you choose. I usually use the current date and some other phrase, like "Nov 10 before removing bad cookies" or something similar. The registry file is just a big text file. Note where you saved it and what you called it. Now, make your changes. Reboot the computer. If all is well, you're done and you've saved a working Registry. If there are problems, go back in via START-RUN Regedit and at the top left, under Registry, Import the file that you previously had saved.

[Paul Atreides]

LOL! Vidalia, you should work for The Onion.

[NTNgod]

If you don't mind a little extra hassle, you can set up Internet Explorer to ask you if it should allow cookies on a per-cookie basis.

Open Internet Explorer.
Open TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS
Hit the DELETE COOKIES button to get rid of what is already there.
Click the PRIVACY tab.
Click the ADVANCED BUTTON.
Click the OVERRIDE AUTOMATIC COOKIE SETTINGS checkbox.
Select PROMPT for both first-party and third party; I allow session cookies myself.

Now each time you visit a site, it'll ask if you want to allow a cookie, and can also remember your settings for each site.

It's a bit of a hassle at first, as you visit each site, but it allows you to customize your settings.


I use Phoenix, which is a lighter-weight version of Mozilla myself :)

Hope this helps!

[savedbygrace]

What does the $15 version give you that the free one doesn't?

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I heard that it is the Bad Cookies that get your email so you get all the spam.

There are programs that will dump unwanted email into the trash. They will allow you to filter out unwanted words in the subject line. I was getting tired of ads that promised me that my penis would grow by two inches (i.e., double in size :)) if I clicked on their ad. I just told the program to take any email that had the word "penis" in it and remove it. The ad, that is, not the penis. That type of service might be available from LorenaBobbitt.com, but I digress. I've also removed references to the female anatomy, and key words like "mortgage" "loan" "debt" and all the others. I did get an interesting proposal from an African potentate who needs twenty grand from me in order to release millions from his country. I'm thinking that one over.

[Cicero]

You may want to visit the Camtech web site and download a freeware program called CT Cookie Spy. You can use this small program to go through all your cookies and delete the ones you don't want. You should be careful not to delete cookies on which you have stored passwords and the like for sites you want to visit. But if you work carefully, it's a good little program. If you choose, it lets you visit the web sites you aren't sure about just to make sure they aren't something you want to keep. Most of these will probably prove to be advertising sellers and the like.

[NTNgod]

What version of IE are you running?

What I listed above is the setup for IE 6; I'll have to take a look at the procedure if you're running IE5 or IE 5.5...