Dealing with Spyware/Adware

[Foxhound]

What is a good firewall. Since I need a good one or one that I will enjoy using.

[Deach]

Originally posted by Foxhound
What is a good firewall. Since I need a good one or one that I will enjoy using.

ZoneAlarm is great, its free too

www.zonelabs.com

[Del_Boy]

I've stickied it.

[brit]

linux. is it safe from most spyware/ adware like they say it is? i'm kinda hoping that it is. that way, i don't have to woory about much of that garbage.

[Xaenn]

I believe it is more secure than windoze...but it is really really safe because so few people use it that almost nobody would target it.

[Norgus]

Linux also doesnt give a normal user rights to do things that would damage the system or mess up settings (except maybe the individual users settings).

And, yes you are safe from all the windows addware/spyware/viri junk as far as I know. Malicious code is an executable file after all in many cases, right?

It is also true that linux is targetted less, but actively developed programs catch security errors much quicker than most windows programs get fixed.

Nice thread btw.

[Soeru]

Lavasoft just recently released their "SE" version of Ad-Aware which has loads of more features and is highly customizable. You can even tweak the scan engines, set schedueled scans, protect 24/7 from adware(Ad-Watch SE), and loads of other shit I haven't checked out. More info at lavasoft.com... gotta love those Swedish programmers.

[MattyC]

Do avoid spyware, use Mozilla/Firefox, or Oprah. Neither of them allow sites to arbitrarily execute code (well in 99.9% of cases) and keep you safe from spyware: www.mozilla.org

Also dont just run stuff you download. Check it out, look around the site and ACTUALLY READ what you are installing. And never just click yes (or no nowadays) to random things.

Oh, it also helps if you lay off the pr0n. Or at least find some less spyware ridden pr0n sites.

My Windows desktop has stayed clear of spyware basically forever.


As for Linux, its a lot more secure than windows. The reason being 1) it doesn't support automatic install of anything. 2) people usually distribute source code because their are so many different installs binary releases often arent practical. and their is no point in including spyware is something if you are giving the user the source code... espically on linux. they will just take the spyware out and compile 3) Linux (generally) doesn't have you browse as root (or admin). this means that even if you do get malicious code on your machine its not going any further than your user account (think your documents and your desktop). so all you have to do is get your files, delete the account, and start over.

In general Linux is much more secure than Windows. It is also much better at memory management. For example my laptop runs Slackware 10. Its an Inspiron 8100 P3 1.3 with 256mb of RAM and a GeForce 2 32mb MOBLE. It came with XP Home. On XP home I couldn't play Half-Life mods (well after Steam anyway) and UT2k4 was almost unplayable. However, under linux with UT2k4 native and Steam via WINE I can run both just fine. Go figure.

Thats kinda generalized, but yeah...

[Valholy]

i need help i downloaded every program listed here i got rid of many spyware and adware but i have a lot of trojans ,i ran the antiviruses listed but they didnt delete em,any other suggestion?

[MattyC]

i need help i downloaded every program listed here i got rid of many spyware and adware but i have a lot of trojans ,i ran the antiviruses listed but they didnt delete em,any other suggestion?

I recommend AVG. Its good and its free (if you don't mind giving out your email addy... i haven't got any spam off it so its not THAT bad )

Its what I use. I definatly recommend it over any Nortonish product. Has a nice upside of using very little system resources and adds a right-click Scan for Viruses shell extension.

You can snag it here: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

[Valholy]

i downloaded that one but it doesnt delete those trojans it says that it cant heal those files nor delete em

[bigmit37]

thanx alot man! EXtremely insightful and clearly written...I am def following those instructions....

[marigold]

spyware blaster in conjunction with spybot s and d and using firefox is great. It's what i use and i hardly EVER get any spyware. I think spyware blaster should be up there, its the best way of getting rid of spyware, not letting it happen in the first place.

[HybridHedgehog]

Add Avast antivirus to the antivirus list www.avast.com

[Valholy]

these is an awesome antivirus it got rid of all my trojans,just what i was looking for thanks.