spyware question *Ad-Aware*

[Dan]

I am constanly cleaning my kids pc's,I use Sygate FW and NAV and Spybot and Ad-Aware and a router,and that all works pretty good,but like I said,especially my daughter's pc has alot of crap on it from the music sites and other places she goes,

my question is this,

is the $26.95 for Ad-Aware plus worth it?

or is it too much maintanence all the time,am I going to be in her room all the time helping her with settings on it,or is it pretty smooth?

[Scott]

You might try SpywareBlaster first. It's free, and helps prevent getting spyware installed, it doesnt remove existing spyware.

[Dan]

ok,thanks Scott,I'll check that out :)

[YeOldeStonecat]

Slap on Microsofts new antispyware tool,
auto updates
real time protection
Pre-programmed by default to run scans at 2am each day

And from the several tests I've seen so far, it's tops in detection and removal rates. It's actually a very...very good product. Advanced tools are great too.

[Dan]

Slap on Microsofts new antispyware tool,
auto updates
real time protection
Pre-programmed by default to run scans at 2am each day

And from the several tests I've seen so far, it's tops in detection and removal rates. It's actually a very...very good product. Advanced tools are great too.

thanks :)


that sounds interesting,,,,

have you used it?

[YeOldeStonecat]

thanks :)


that sounds interesting,,,,

have you used it?

Have many many installs of it running out there, including all my workstations at the office, home, many many clients, etc etc.

It's a great utility. This past month, PCWorld or PCMag (forget which one) rated a whole bunch of utilities. Spysweeper came in first place....but they ran a sidebar article of Microsofts antispyware because it was released after they wrote the original article. It beat Spysweeper and all the others in the same tests they used for the comparison.

[Scott]

Have many many installs of it running out there, including all my workstations at the office, home, many many clients, etc etc.

It's a great utility. This past month, PCWorld or PCMag (forget which one) rated a whole bunch of utilities. Spysweeper came in first place....but they ran a sidebar article of Microsofts antispyware because it was released after they wrote the original article. It beat Spysweeper and all the others in the same tests they used for the comparison.

Agreed, pretty good little program. Forgot about that one.

[CableDude]

Is it still in beta?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Is it still in beta?

Yeah, it's gone through a few program updates already too, automatically updates the program as well as the definitions. I'll say that I see very frequent definition updates on my rigs. :thumb:

Originally I had read that come June or July, when the program was to become an official release, they were to charge for it. But lately I've read that Microsoft stated it will remain free.

[CableDude]

Installed it on a Win2k junker I mean work machine today. Neat program.

No spyware found either. ;)

[reader]

I have installed the beta1 of Microsoft's Spyware scan. I updated it with the latest definitions and had it scan my drives.

On first run, it found nothing.

Then, I went back and ran my free version of AdAware, updating the definitions file as well.

It found 10 "data miners" happily working away in the IE cache directory. Just the usual suspects like "hitbox" -- nothing truly awful.

But I wonder whether I can trust the MS solution.

Cheers...

[YeOldeStonecat]

I have installed the beta1 of Microsoft's Spyware scan. I updated it with the latest definitions and had it scan my drives.

On first run, it found nothing.

Then, I went back and ran my free version of AdAware, updating the definitions file as well.

It found 10 "data miners" happily working away in the IE cache directory. Just the usual suspects like "hitbox" -- nothing truly awful.

But I wonder whether I can trust the MS solution.

Cheers...

It's a matter of interpreting what truely is ad/spy/malware. Adaware can be a little misleading, often you'll see it spit up some results such as "Recent history of opened Winzip file logs"...or "Recent opened Acrobat logs"...I mean, seriously, who the heck cares?

Know what data miners usually are? Simply cookies...that's all. Take a look at the location of these files that it removed...bet they're in your cookies directory. If cookies bother you for some reason, you can manage them yourself by deleting them inside your web browser tools, you don't need a 3rd party program to kill cookies. But Microsofts antispyware doesn't waste time with cookies, it's more for real ad/spy/malware programs.

I've had excellent luck with it...it has some seriously useful advanced tools also if you spend some time to poke around with it.

[reader]

Well, I'll give MS credit, it's a swift lil' routine.

I didn't save any of them, but they appeared to be the doubleclick kind of monitors I've always assumed sent back information about what websites you were visiting. It's been quite a while since I ran AdAware.

Speaking of Swift! I'm trying out NOD32 and it's really a delight. Thanks for that tip!

Cheers,