Spyware

[mdavies]

I was plagued by some of this recently and had to resort to reformatting the hard drive. How many other people have had problems with this stuff?

[Ian J]

I use a variety of programmes to get rid of Spyware.

Spy Sweeper used to be my favourite but it suddenly decided that many forums (inclusing this one) used tracking cookies so every time I logged in Spy Sweeper would kill the cookie.

I now use Spy Bouncer which seems good plus Ad Aware as a backup.

[bitsnstuff]

I use Spybot - search and destroy and Ad-aware, as I also have a lot of problems with this. This software seems to control the problem for me though.

Kate

[Webstuff]

You may also want to try "HiJackThis", because it detects windows processes that spyware tools may miss. If you're using windows, update regularly; some of their security features are very worth-while. If you're unsure about a website, have a backup browser (I use firefox) that has JavaScript turned off, and visit it in that. Kill popups quickly, or use a popup-blocker, and don't continue browsing on a website if you find it has lots of pop-unders (these are one of the most common carriers of malware).

[Rob Holmes]

Microsofts anti-spyware (Beta) is not a bad tool to have in your toolkit either.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Rob

[epiphany]

spybot
ad aware se
Microsoft's firewall

that is all you need :)

[coxadmin]

I use:

Ad-Aware
Spybot Search and Destroy
Spysweeper
Microsoft Antispyware

[Ozzy]

I use Mandrake Linux as my desktop operating system with Thunderbird and Firefox.... what is all these spyware and virus things you guys keep talking about ;) ?

[Rob Holmes]

Now you mention it - I don't use any either - I have an XP OS on my local systems - Firefox Browser and Calypso email client.

Rob

[bitsnstuff]

As far as I understand it, they pick out the data miners placed in your system and give you the option of removing them.

Kate.

[Ozzy]

Sorry Kate, Rob and I had a geek moment there. We'll stop now.

[Webstuff]

bah, firefox is as vulnerable as IE :P gotta love it though.