Parasites

[Nick]

I have been using Spybot Search and Destroy for several months now. I am very happy with this nice piece of software. It's amazing how many tracking devices are placed on the computer by those ad people. A nice thing about Spybot also, is that it's free. If you can afford to, use the opportunity at the Spybot website to send the developer a donation, he certainly deserves it. []

Very best,

[James S]

There is also another good free spyware removal tool available  - Adaware. it uses a live updater to stay current and will remove all known trojans, spyware and ilicit cookies.

Using either Adaware or Spybot is almost a must for anyone regularly using or downlowding from the internet. Some pieces of spyware are only marketing tools or email harvesters, others are keyloggers - something you really DON'T want running in the background, expecially if you do any online banking ir credit card transactions.

James.

[sahlyn]

This issue really makes you wonder about microsoft. You may have noticed -as I have- that if you install your operating system from scratch, and then run spybot/adaware, straight away you'll see some nasties that need deleting[}:)]

[shadowatcher]

Microsoft has two really big problems...

1. It put too many backdoors into its software. For example, there are backdoors for the government, so if your computer has something they dont like, they can find your IP. This is a problem, because Hackers find and abuse these backdoors.

2. Microsoft has a vision that sometime in the future, all of our computers will be joined together[]. Now, this WOULD work, think about it. Wouldnt it be nice to instantly be on your friends computer? you could send him files (instantly) and talk to him (instantly). However, there are MANY people who would abuse this. Microsoft however, is living in a dreamworld where everyone happily connects!

[sahlyn]

Oo, I forgot to mention:

Another cool program is SpywareBlaster, which you can get free at //www.javacoolsoftware.com. (Spybot recommend using this in addition to their program)

Spywareblaster doesn't remove spyware etc like spybot or adaware, instead it prevents it from being installed  (spybot/adaware have a feature similar to this, but spywareblaster offers much greater protection).

[shadowatcher]

Doesnt it slow down your PC then?

[sahlyn]

Nope, because it doesn't even run in the background.
I'm not sure how it works, but I'm pretty sure it works[]

[Nayru]

Shadowatcher, thank you soooo much, in one post you have solved all the problems I was having with my pc.

I'm having 3 parasites, just removed 2 succesfully now, and going for the third now. IPinsight is a nasty one and I just found out that the third parasite is quite similar.. God helps me, it took me a full hour to remove the IPinsight thingy..

[Nayru]

quote:Originally posted by sahlyn

Oo, I forgot to mention:

Another cool program is SpywareBlaster, which you can get free at //www.javacoolsoftware.com. (Spybot recommend using this in addition to their program)

Spywareblaster doesn't remove spyware etc like spybot or adaware, instead it prevents it from being installed  (spybot/adaware have a feature similar to this, but spywareblaster offers much greater protection).

I downloaded the Spywareblaster but it says I'm missing MSCOMCTL.OCX, if anybody has it or knows a place where I can download it, please tell me. ^.^

[Nick]

Hi Nayru,

On the SpywareBlaster download page you'll see where you can also download a fix for that issue. Just go to the following link and look at the very bottom of the page:

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

Very best,

[shadowatcher]

If computer viruses are the bullies of the internet playground, then a parasite is that little kid who always begs you to play with you. Basically, a parasite is a tiny program that piggybacks on other downloads. It installs itself on your computer, and can cause any of these effects:

1. Constant popup ads
2. Constant monitering of computer
3. Recording email
4. Recording Instant Messenging conversations
And more...

There are a couple reasons they arent illegal. First, because you installed it on your computer yourself, willingly. You know how whenever your installing something, theres a LOOOONG user agreement? Somewhere inside that is a tiny little phrase:THIS PRODUCT IS AD-SUPPORTED. Which means it has a parasite aboard. Also, they arent really doing anything illegal (well, most of them arent).

Fortunately, you can get rid of annoying adware programs, go to www.download.com, and search for "spybot". It will come up with the download "Spybot Search and Destroy" it gets rid of all unwanted adware. Also, to check your computer for parasites, check out www.doxdesk.com.