Spyware and Adware

[Aboxorox]

I know a lot of people in the entire Neverwinter Nights community are spammed with pop ups including people here. The DM that had a problem the other Night thought Norton would block the pop ups or worked the same way as other non adware removal program.

Thing is it isn't. Every time you go on the internet you are at the risk of adware going on your computer. You get it from various websites growing in number each day. You cannot choose not to download them...it just comes right with the website.

These secret downloads make endless pop ups and most times are not effected by pop up blocker.

A computer repair person posted something on the vault on how to get rid of them but all you really need to do is get Spybot Search and Destroy. Install this and do a system check and you will be surprised about how many problems you computer has depending on what websites you go to.

This program is completely free and it will not only get rid of pop ups ut also will improve your speed dramatically! Whether or not you think you have adware on your computer does not matter because nomatter what you think I can garentee you do.

Free internet content are big sources for getting adware on your computer. Along with, excuse me, but adult content sites.

I really suggest, no demand you get this, it will improve not only your pop up problem but also your gaming experience on internet games.

I hope this helps the people of this forum.

-Aboxorox

P.S. I know this has very little to do with Neverwinter Nights but this is the Non Island of Fredian forum.

[Minstrel67]

I prefer ad-aware 6.0
It is also free for personal use
One caution on these spyware removers, some are adware in disguise, I tried others before Ad-aware and two of the three I tried showed up as spyware/adware to all the other programs

[clark625]

I tend to prefer Ad-Aware also, Minstrel. The UI is rather clean and pretty, and it's easy for anyone to figure out. The huge "update" button on it's first screen is probably my favorite feature. I haven't ever used spybot, but I've heard it's also reputable.


In any case, it's important to not only run these little programs not just once, but anytime things aren't working properly. I also run Ad-Aware after every new program gets installed.

[Aboxorox]

I have both, I don't know why buit I just go to Spybot first...? Well heres the link to Adaware for those who would like that instead.

You are right clark625, thats the first thing you should go to when your internet is going slow, not only if there are pop-ups all the time. Or when you install programs because alot of times it could be workable programs but to get extra money they have spyware on the coding.

And remember Norton is not a spyware/adware remover, and Spybot and Adaware are not an antivirus.

-Aboxorox

[Phoenix]

Ad-ware/Spyware

I do PC work as my day job, and this is a much larger problem than virii at being a 'problem' for most people. Why?

The detection and removal tools are not mature, just like a virus scanner years ago. The difference? The internet... When virii scanners were immature the internet wasn't as 'big' or 'fast'.

Ad-aware *was* my goto tool... Was...

The last machine I fixed with spyware on it had 200 files and registry entries that ad-aware AND spybot search and destroy didn't find. What did find them?

www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php

So is this the 'best?' I doubt it, I'm pretty sure the first two tools I ran cleaned somethings spy-sweeper would have missed. However it does provide something most cleaning tools don't, protection. It will ask you to verify certian changes ad-ware and spyware make, so they never get installed. There are 'shields' you can enable, and even a host file that will block common spyware sites, so you never even load the pages to get the spyware.

If anyone needs help removing this crap PM me and I'll see what I can do. Or, start a thread and others can watch/help.

At this time, I would recommend a layered approach (use several scanners).

[Radog]

Phoenix is right, Spysweeper is a excellent choice. I would also recommend forking over a few bucks for a software firewall like McAfee personal firewall. You would not believe how many times computers on the net try to get access to your TCP ports and ping your computer, it is unreal. I average about a couple hundred attempts a day coming into my PC, but the firefall blocks them all. Do some research, it is worth it.

[Silentus]

Or if youre up for it, youre generally are better off getting a router that can translate you IP address for you. Personal firewall software isnt bad, hardware based ones are generally better and are built into most (but not all) internet routers. If you have more than 1 PC thats really the what you should be doing anyway - MUCH better than the MS internet connection sharing junk built into Windows

[JoScMa]

I use SpyBot and removes a fair share every now and then. Not perfect, but it's better than nothing. I might try the other programs out there.

As for pop-ups, I don't get any thanks to Opera allowing me to disable pop-ups muwahah.