Spyware Info

Over the past
few weeks, 4 people have come to me with problems about spyware,
viruses etc. And in 3 of the cases, they had no protection whatsoever.


So this article
is about how to better protect your PC. Any suggestions can be sent to
tommac2005 AT hotmail DOT com or you can comment on the entry.





First off, Im
assuming everyone is running Windows, as this is the most popular. Most
people are on XP, but the features of Win98 are the same. So the
article is written at 98 users and can be applied to XP too as they are
very similar (on the surface). Also, I'm assuming everyone connects the
Net using BroadBand, most commonly using a cable modem.


There are several types of spyware / adware / malware that can
affect your computer.  The most annoying is probably adware, as it
causes pop ups to be displayed, sometimes when you arent even connected
to the internet.  This doesnt actually cause any damage to your
computer, except slow it down.  Adware is normally caught from
downloading programs (eg Kazaa, BearShare) and you consent to its
installation somewhere in the EULA (its buried deep in there so its
hard to find).



To get rid of this shit, I recommend a free program called SpyBot: Search & Destroy.  Its great.



http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/



It runs in the background and prevents popups from displaying, searches
your computer for adware, malware, spyware and fixes them.  Its
updated about 3 times a week with little files that detect new versions
of spyware.



Also includes some handy little programs for power users.



Tbc....

15.8.05 20:39