Battling Spyware

Holy smokes.. I have some nasty spyware going on.. I get these poker promo popups and, ironically, one for a registry cleaner. I've used spybot and ad-aware and I still haven't gotten rid of this annoyance. I'm just trying to do my taxes and get the new site up! ;D THIS SUCKS. Anyone good at this stuff?

matt

 

As far as anti-spyware goes, I actually kinda like the Microsoft Ant-Spyware Beta...its pretty good at avoiding spyware and warning about it before it gets onto your system...try using that!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

Also, as far as avoiding popups...try using Mozilla's Firefox browser...its very good at avoiding popups and is altogether a better browser than IE!

-Mike

 

I use Spybot

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

I gets rid of the Microsoft registry changes made by MS whenever you log on, plus you can 'innoculate' your system. It is freeware and rated very highly by PC Mag.

 

I use Spy Sweeper wich i tested against spybot and he got about 50 more spyware than spybot on my PC.

Spy Sweeper

 

Thanks everybody. As soon as I finish my taxes I'll try the ones you suggested.

The funny thing was, I really just ran Spybot because I hadn't in a long time, then suddenly shortly after I got spyware!

 

Matt,
Just to point out even though you might have a popup blocker enabled doesn't mean you don't have spy-ware installed on your system, nor does it prevent spy-ware to be installed on your system. Blocking popups only stops the annoyances, but does nothing for the overall problem.

Sean

 

Yeah. That's true.
My case is definitely spyware.
I'll leave say the 3reef homepage open for a while and I'll come back and there is a popup ad for poker on the screen too.

 

Aside from my full time job I also have a side business where I handle general IT stuff and handle problems like this alot. Usually what I tell people is you can spend alot of money trying to isolate the problem and fix it only to have it come back months later because a part of the spy-ware or virus was lurking somewhere else in your system. Depending on how much stuff you have installed on your system, and how much of that can be reloaded, the best solution is to do a good backup and reload your OS clean and then purchase a good spy-ware prevention program.

It may sound drastic, but from expirience its the one true way of getting rid of the that S**T.