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Shotgun

Webroot Spy Sweeper

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Just wanted to mention to anyone that might be having trouble with spyware... Webroot Spy Sweeper is a great program.

I had MAJOR problems with spyware last week... Ad-Aware (either version) was pretty much useless in fixing the problem... finally got the free version of Spy Sweeper and that cleaned up most of it... though a few things still had to be deleted manually... then I got the corporate edition of Spy Sweeper and that found a few more things, but I think my machine is finally clean now.

Anyhow, that was a major PITA, and I would really like to torture the people who wrote that crap... I was at least able to find out who they are through one of the log files: 180 Solutions, Inc. in Bellevue, WA. Their toll-free number is 1-800-270-4927 if anyone feels like calling and bitching out a spyware company. (I already did - didn't do much good, but it made me feel a little better ;-)

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Lets
Kill Spyware!!!!



Yes, let's...

Or more specifically, the people who are writing it...

I'm usually a fairly mellow person, but these people have royally pissed me off.

And it depresses me to think that anyone can enjoy their life when their whole livelihood depends on making other people's lives more stressful. [:/] (BTW, ebay and AOL are two big clients of these people - and are therefore supporting the use of unsolicited spyware/adware - something to think about before using their services again.)

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I went on a crusade through my computer a few weeks ago trying to get rid of this crap.

I downloded and installed Spyware Blaster which is supposed to prevent any new spyware from infecting your machine, and then I downloaded Spybot which has a Search-and-Destroy function that cleans up any existing infections. I'm also current on all my Microsoft security patches. I use Netscape 7.0 for browsing.

Despite all this work, after every online session, I can run the Spybot, and the same old spyware crap keeps re-appearing: Avenue A, DoubleClick, FastClick, Advertising.com, MediaPlex, yada yada yada.

So what the heck else do I need to do to keep this crap from re-infesting my computer?

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Get "Hijack This" and see what things have been changed in your reg files. Even though you have cleaned the spyware with S&D, it's reinstalling every time you restart your machine because the reg files have been tampered with.



Thanks for the tip.

I did some research on a few of the spyware types, and found instructions for monkeying with the registers, where I changed a hex "01" value to a hex "03", to keep it from re-installing. That worked, however, I was unable to find similar instructions for most of the other spyware brands.

Your tip sounds like what the doctor ordered.

I'll try it next week - I'm heading off tomorrow for three days of camping and hiking in some desert canyons in southwest Texas.

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I'm heading off tomorrow for three days of camping and hiking in some desert canyons in southwest Texas.



Oh.... I think you just made me drool... I'd like to be doing that right about now... Camping and hiking in Big Bend... rafting down the Rio Grande... and maybe a little partying in Terlingua...

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