Spyware is becoming unbearable.

[Chicken_Hunter]

First it was the unpredictable popups now it is my search results. Whenever i do a search on google or yahoo, every second link takes me to some stupid spyware thing that advertises absolute crap. I have to cut and paste the real link into my address bar to get to the actual sites.

Is spyware ever going to end?, it is becoming f**king stupid and annoying something has to be done. I delete it all by using all the different programs, but they return as soon as i connect back to the internet. WHAT CAN I DO.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I was just thinking, is this actually spyware, or some ploy by search engines for extra advertising?

 

[Kaz]

Some can be spyware.

I think it is a ploy by most.

Have you noticed that you are not getting as much cr@p emails in your hotmail account.

They are stopping the spam emails.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

hmm i still get around 80 a day in my e-mail. But yes it has decreased.

 

[Kaz]

hmm i still get around 80 a day in my e-mail. But yes it has decreased.

:shock:

I am getting about 5 a week now.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

yeah i am a spam magnet.

 

[MEE]

your telling me. I've had to reformat the computer 3 times in the past 2 weeks because it's infected my comp.

 

[dead_possum]

Get something called "spybot - search and destroy" and something else called "Zonealarm", both free. Install. Should make most of the problems go away.

In the meantime, get into the advance settings of your browsers and turn off javascripting, or set it to prompt, and same for activex controls and automatic downloads or automatic plug in installs. When you're in a dodgy site, every time a javascript want to run, tell it NO, same for active X, and any "Can I install something on your computer".

You may also need a virus scanner if you haven't already got one.

 

[Anonymous]

Try AdAware.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Already have adaware.

 

[Twizzle]

yeah i am a spam magnet.

That can happen when you surf free site such as porn.

Not that I would know, nor am I suggesting that you do this, but thats the most common way of getting peoples addreess books and putting them on what they call their "subscriber list".

If you "opt out" or "unsubscribe", they know you have an active email addrees and you will get even more.

 

[dead_possum]

the other thing that I do that slows down the ad sites and cuts down on your downloads is a hosts file in windows with stuff in it like this

127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.com # doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ads.doubleclick.com # doubleclick.com
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net # doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad10.doubleclick.net # doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad11.doubleclick.net # doubleclick.net

# the hash marks the start of a comment. the 127.0.0.1 diverts the website lookup to your pc, which doesn't have anything so you just get a red x or page not found message and no stupid pictures and adverts. I have over 500 lines in my hosts file which lives in my windows dir. You can probably find a hosts.sam file which you edit and rename to hosts with no dot anything. And you can look up the lists of ad sites on the net. You still get the popups unless you change browsers, stop using IE and start using mozilla or opera etc.