I received tips from right here starting about two years ago for how to prevent spyware and which anti-spyware to use. I had downloaded Spybot, Spysweep, Ad Aware and used them all to varying levels of effectiveness.

I think Spysweep free version was the most effective, but after a period of time .. it stop updating the definitions & also the real time zapping of spyware cookie removal seemed to stop working. The only thing it was still good for is to manage some favorite site markers for you. And it would also occasionally cause a "Dr. Watson's Debugger" message to appear on your system, making you think you have a worm. Also, SpySweep would be a memory hog and slow your system start-up down by a bunch!

Spybot was only good for removing Double Click cookies.

Ad Aware (the one from Sweden) seemed to consider everything a Spyware so it would rountinely report many more spyware found on your system than the others.

But here's the thing about the free versions .. they would tell you what you had, and so-call "remove them", but the very next time you go & visit the sites where spyware cookies are nailing your system, they'd be back.

So, I was manually removing them every chance I got, because whenever I didn't do this, the next morning when I turned on my computer & got my mail -- there would be about 8-10 times more junk messages than legitimate eMail, making your in-box a garbage can.

Here's what I observed about most recent SPAM, and this isn't to say that all SPAM comes from spyware, but virtually any & every site that are free & gives good info. or function, such as news sites, Wikipedia, etc. seem to have made per hits advertising contracts with the F-ing bastards that are behind the Viagra ads, the fake Rolex ads, the get bigger & stiffer, and longer lasting weenie ads, the Hoodia ads (WTF is Hoodia anyways ?), the singles ads, the buy useless crap software (probably anti-spyare companies are behind this conspiracy too). I'm talking about the spam that mis-spell the subject intentionally, and has a bunch of garbage babble in the message itself to throw off eMail SPAM filters. This conspiracy is what really pisses me off first of all .. these SPAM generating outfits are actually some big business with lots of money to pay sites like SFGATE.com (SF Chronicles news site and Wikipedia) and they sell perverted products, with a scum bag concept that they just want to be in your face everyday with their relentless little spam messages figuring that you would some how breakdown and actually buy their shitty dirty little products that don't work ...

ANYHOW ... if you're using free versions of anti-spyware, here's my advice -- budget $25 and buy Computer Associates' PestPatrol. I did. After I installed it, it found 3 spyware in under 10 seconds, which compares favorably with the free versions that take up to 5 minutes or more to go through your system, zapped them, quaranteen them. Then I put the application in active mode for active protection when I'm surfing. To see if it actually works -- I intentionally surfed roughly 10 sites where I know spyware cookies are waiting to infect your system. Then I conducted a manual scan. Nothing! Hardly believable. Not a single spyware cookie was found.

But I wasn't totally conviced that it would be this simple, so the proof of the pudding was waiting for this morning. And although it has been only 12 hours since I installed -- NO F-ing DIRTY LITTLE SPAMS this morning. None! Zero. Not a peep. So far. So, it's been a $25 worth investing in, after 2 years of free spyware removal that has been a pain to use and hardly effective.

So, the point is -- you're better off paying for real time protection than that freeware which only tells you have problems but don't really help much with their one time removal, as the next time you visit a spyware laden page -- those dirty little bastards with their dirty little ads will be back. Actaully, I can't believe that I didn't spend the $25 two years ago, but instead use that freeware which was laborious to use, as you had to do manual scans. If I was paid a nickle for each manual scan I did in the past two years -- I woulda earned at least 50 dollars for my own time spent. To me -- I'd pay up to $250 to have those dirty little spammers' houses burnt to the ground (and have their dogs wacked too! ).

UPDATE -- two dirty spams arrived this PM (down from ateaslt 10 daily). But only two, and all scans turned up clean. Hopefully, the spammers will forget about my email account after a while.


[img]http://www.scifimilitary.com/MAA/SFMsig.jpg[/img]Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=menatarms>MENATARMS[/url] at: 7/13/06 4:18 am

Have you tried Windows Defender? Its the latest update to their Microsoft Spyware Scanner (great name)

I find that it identifies the spyware as it tries to get onto your system. Its kept me pretty clean.
But I have had a lot more spam in my inbox's recently. Fake Rolex, drugs and a load of the ebay 'you've bought this, click here to dispute' and the same from Paypal.

I may splash out and try your recommendation. Thanks for posting.
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That's funny, I've received lots of spam related to viagra and fake Rolxes too. We must be surfing the same sites?
"How lucky are the few who know where they belong."

I'm lucky. All I get are 5-10 messages a day about "hot insider stock tips"

They come as some sort of inline photo and the return addresses are all bogus so blocking them doesn't help.

Can you ban an IP address in your outlook express?

Russ



"There's nothing worse than people desperate to have fun."
-Patton Oswalt

I only forgot about those. I get those too.

I have a feeling there may be only relative few entities in cyberspace that are actually responsible for spam.

I only wish I was technically savy enough to devise a way to attack the originating servers that launch the spam. I know there are ways to try & ruin their drives and other equipment.

There should really be a grass roots movement to organize people against spam & spammers, such as hunting them down and publishing their personal information, e.g. identity card numbers, home address & telephone, and personal photos.

If there was a way to attack their infrastructure hardware then expose their personal identities -- this most irritating human rat phoenom in the internet age would disappear.

Hopefully, one day -- we will get to that point.
[img]http://www.scifimilitary.com/MAA/SFMsig.jpg[/img]